Pinterest to integrate ads in home feed

Looking to monetize more, Pinterest will now be showing ads on the home feed. Promoted Pins (a.k.a. ads) were previously only seen in search results and category feeds. Now, it will show up in the home feed for U.S. pinners. They can choose to hide the Promoted Pins if they don’t want to see them. But that is one additional step to take. There isn’t anything in the announcement yet if it’ll make its way here, but we won’t be surprised if it will.

Source: Pinterest

Say goodbye to ads and help raise money for your favorite sites with Google Contributor

Ads help keep sites up and running but we’re not exactly fond of being bombarded by them at every turn. Google wants to help Internet users and content creators alike with its new project. Called Contributor, the beta program will let you pay a site between US$1 to $3 a month so you can surf these sites without seeing any Google ads on them. Instead you’ll be greeted by a greyscale pixel pattern or “thank you” messages for supporting the site.

Google has already enlisted the likes of The Onion, Mashable, Science Daily, and Urban Dictionary to try this new project out. We don’t have the specifics yet on how revenue is split between Google and the site. But it really is a good way to help out and support those websites you frequent.

Source: Google | Via: Engadget

Instagram partners with six Canadian brands, rolls out first batch of ads

We couldn’t avoid it any longer. Ads are heading your way on Instagram any day soon. The social media platform has partnered with six Canadian brands for the launch, including HBC, Air Canada, Target Canada, Travel Alberta, Sport Chek, and Mercedes Benz.

Instagram says they plan to roll out ads in a slow and “carefully controlled” way while taking feedback from its community. They said they plan on delivering a small number of high-quality photos and videos from brands that are already part of the Instagram community.

Source: Instagram

Full-screen ads might make their way to your smartphone soon

Whether you like it or not, more ads are making their way to your mobile devices. Google is creating new ad units to lure in big names to advertise on their mobile platform. Out of the four new looks, three are full screen ads and some are interstitial ads that would take over your screen in between “logical break points” while you use the app. There would even be video and interactive elements. Basically, commercials are coming to your phones.

Source: Inside AdWords | Via: Engadget