US-based image sharing and social media services platform Pinterest has announced key features to boost shopping experiences and boost ad monetization opportunities ahead of the holiday season. Pinterest is rolling out new shopping tools for Pinners and advertisers to deliver highly contextual ad experience on their platform. These ad technology features take every Pinners’ and advertisers closer to making ‘every Pin shoppable‘.

Quick Summary of New Pinterest Ad Technology Announcement and Features

Not every retailer can be a Walmart that decides to upgrade their physical store experience to meet COVID-19 guidelines.

Ahead of the Holiday Shopping season 2020, Pinterest users will start seeing ads alongside their visual search results, offering more relevant places to shop and learn about their favorite holiday gifts and shopping items, Pinners and advertisers will gain Pinterest conversion insights related to the impact of both their paid and organic Pinterest content. The company has also announced expanding its shopping tools for Pinners in the UK to test new marketplaces and audience groups.

Monetizing shopping experiences with Pinterest Lens

Three of our most highly trafficked and visible places to shop- Pinterest Lens, the shop tab in search, and shopping on Pins – now can include ads. Pinterest Lens, which unlocks the power of visual search by allowing people to find similar results to what they capture through the Pinterest camera and in Pins.

Building Shopper Groups for the UK Pinners

UK Pinners will be able to shop within a home or fashion Pin, shop their search results, shop ideas from their boards and shop the inspiration they see in the real world through Lens camera visual search. They’ll also be able to get inspiration from Shopping spotlights, which are expert-selected shoppable content curated with publishers and creators.

Ad Conversion insights

Pinterest Verified Merchants and Shopify retailers in the US can easily see the impact of both their paid and organic Pinterest content on their site visits and checkouts, making their shopping efforts not just impactful, but also measurable.

Why Pinterest Ads Holds a Special Place in Retail Commerce?

As part of its Great Reboot digital campaign, Pinterest is revolutionizing the way e-commerce businesses are connecting with shoppers online. By virtually replacing in-store interactions with new-age shopping conversations and advertising personalization, Pinterest intends to inspire marketers in the US and UK.

During the COVID-19, every retail business owner is forced to rethink about switching from brick-and-mortar and physical store setups toward virtual e-commerce segments. And, this switch is yielding results for the leading retail business groups. For example, Nike, the leading brand in athletics apparel managed to earn $10.6 billion in online sales in Q1 FY21. Part of the reason for this improvement was its efforts to keep up with the changes in consumer trends.

User activity on Nike’s apps shot up 80% during the lockdown. Moreover, its Run Club app had over 1 million downloads globally for four months running.

That’s a huge leap of faith among online shoppers toward their favorite brands. And, Pins ad could be a great addition for marketers to explore advertising budgets beyond the usually available options offered by Google, YouTube, Instagram, Amazon and Facebook.

When browsing the aisles of a favorite store isn’t possible, shoppers increasingly are turning to Pinterest for inspiration. As shared on Q2 earnings, the percentage of users who visited places to shop in Pinterest grew more than 50% in the first half of 2020.

Pinterest Content Makes Sense in Influencer Era

In the battle between Branded content and UGCs, there is a fine group of influencers who are helping retailers and brands make the right connection with the shoppers and audience groups. Pinterest content continues to be very popular with Gen Z and the art-loving audience who might like to try out new advertising experience served on their Pins. In the era of influencer, Instagram, TikTok and Podcasting, Pins are slowly earning the right kind of attention that can turn your content into a powerful monetization inventory.

If you have insights on social media advertising and Amazon advertising trends, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com to feature your voice.