Pinterest now lets brands put ad spend behind Pins that creators have already published, without a sponsorship deal in place first. The company describes the change on a new Creator Commerce Hub page in its Help Centre, which tells creators: "Brands can promote eligible Pins that you create on Pinterest. You'll get an email if a brand decides to promote your Pin."
Until now, paid creator content on Pinterest started with the creator. Under its paid partnerships format, a creator tags a brand on a Pin, the brand approves or declines the tag, and only an approved partner can then run that Pin as an Idea ad with paid partnership.
The new option reverses that order. The brand picks the Pin, and the creator hears about it by email afterwards.
How Creators Stay in Control
The control Pinterest documents sits at the account level, not on each Pin. A creator who does not want brands promoting their content turns off a toggle called "Let advertisers promote your content" under Settings and Content permissions.
Switching it off does not stop anything already running. Pinterest says opting out "will not affect any campaigns that you're already running."
The page also tells creators how to get picked: mention brands in Pin titles and descriptions, keep making shoppable content, and keep content brand safe. That list reads as a description of how advertisers will find Pins worth buying, through brand names in the text and products a shopper can act on.
The page does not say whether a creator can decline a single promotion after the email arrives, or whether creators are paid when a brand promotes their Pin.
Built on Promote a Pin
The feature extends Promote a Pin, the self-serve boosting tool Pinterest launched on 24 March 2026 for creators, small businesses and everyday users, with no advertising experience required. Pinterest said at launch that it reaches 619 million active users and more than 80 billion searches a month, half of them commercial in nature.
Availability is still narrow. The Promote a Pin help page says the tool "is gradually rolling out and is not available to all accounts", and that in early stages only a small, curated group of US creators and high-engagement users will see it.
That same business-side page still says an account can only boost Pins it "created or uploaded". Pinterest has not yet published the advertiser-side steps for finding and promoting another creator's Pin.
Platforms Are Taking Over the Creator Deal
Pinterest is the latest ad platform to pull the brand and creator relationship inside its own ad tools. On 11 December 2025, Meta added tools that let advertisers find organic creator posts that mention or tag their brand and run them as partnership ads, with creators able to share an ad code to grant permission.
In June, LinkedIn opened a Creator Marketplace in Campaign Manager, where creators opt in to be found and then agree terms and fees with each brand. X has built its own matching tool in X's Creator Connect, and YouTube announced its Creator Partnerships platform in March to replace BrandConnect.
Pinterest
Meta
LinkedInEach of those tools still puts a step between the brand and the post: a permission code, an opt-in marketplace or a negotiation. Pinterest's version, as its creator-facing page describes it, replaces that step with an account setting and an email.
For advertisers, that makes creator Pins a source of ready-made creative from people they have no contract with. Whether any given brand can buy them yet depends on a rollout Pinterest still describes as a curated US group.
Recap
What has Pinterest changed for creator content?
Brands can now promote eligible Pins that creators have already published on Pinterest, including Pins with no paid partnership tag. The creator receives an email when a brand decides to promote one.
How do creators stop brands promoting their Pins?
Creators turn off the “Let advertisers promote your content” toggle under Settings and Content permissions. The setting covers the whole account, and Pinterest says it does not affect campaigns already running.
What does this change for advertisers?
Advertisers gain a source of ready-made creative from creators they have no contract with. Access depends on Promote a Pin, which Pinterest says is rolling out gradually to a curated group of US accounts.