Shut up and take even more of our money: Pinterest increases targeted ad capabilities

Pinterest Targeted Ads

By Sedora Tantraphol

Promoted Pins Just Got More Sophisticated

Back in January, we gave you the exciting news that small and medium sized businesses can now pay for promoted pins — similar to buying ads on Facebook or other social media platforms. Promoted pins send users to your website to purchase your goods, whereas buyable pins allow users to buy the product directly in the app.  Paying to promote a pin will ensure that it is seen by more people and targeted to users’ interests, location, and other data.

Pinterest has just announced that it is gearing up its already sophisticated ad targeting capabilities, and will allow:

  • 420 keywords and interests to promote products and services (up from from 30).
  • Email targeting: brands with at least 100 emails can now upload email lists that will be matched with user accounts. (Personally identifiable information will be kept private through an encryption process.)

    A pin just in time for spring!
    A pin just in time for spring!

Following this trend, the more Pinterest users curate personal interest boards, the better marketers will be able to target ads to more likely buyers.  This added sophistication to Pinterest ads follows similar ad functionality on Facebook and Twitter, and will help Pinterest achieve its projected $3 billion in revenue this year.

Pinterest is hardly alone in strengthening its ad-related features to attract more brands. Snapchat recently announced that it is teaming up with Nielsen for ad-tracking. The more platforms can promise robust tracking and results, the more they can make their case to brands, both B2C and B2B, that they are worth increasing ad buys. In  eMarketer’s October 2015 Social Advertising Effectiveness Scorecard: Industry Execs Grade the Leading Platforms” report about effective return on investment, Facebook and Pinterest received the highest grades, with Facebook earning a B+ and Pinterest earning a B. This new feature is an excellent step in the right direction to help Pinterest, an already powerful platform, become even more effective for brands and, by doing so, even more relevant to users who to pin.

Meanwhile, buyable pins continue to be a hit with users. New to buyable pins? Catch up with our buyable pins blog post — with spring just around the corner, it’s a perfect time to update your wardrobe and your house without ever having to leave Pinterest.