Pinterest for Business

2022. Pinterest launches new shopping features for merchants



Pinterest has announced the introduction of new merchant features, including product tagging on Pins and a Pinterest API for Shopping. The "Product Tagging on Pins" shopping feature allows merchants to transform their lifestyle Pins into shoppable items. Through the Pinterest API for Shopping, merchants will gain access to enhanced catalog management and product metadata features, enabling more efficient data quality control for their products. According to the company, merchants utilizing this tool have already achieved a remarkable 97% accuracy rate for price and availability data. Additionally, Pinterest is introducing video assets within product catalogs, providing users with multiple angles to view items and make more informed purchase decisions. This feature launch aligns with Pinterest's positive results observed from video-like ad formats.


2018. Pinterest is rolling out its automated shopping ads to more marketers



After successfully launching a pilot program last year, Pinterest is now expanding its Shopping Ads to accommodate hundreds of additional advertisers. This expansion reflects Pinterest's ongoing efforts to bolster the effectiveness of this tool. To establish itself as a prominent advertising platform alongside Facebook and Google, Pinterest must demonstrate its ability to consistently deliver value and returns on advertising investments. Shopping ads streamline the process for retailers by automatically generating promoted pins from their existing product feed. This alleviates concerns for retailers as they continually add new content to the platform. With the majority of Pinterest's online content revolving around business-related products, the platform gains valuable data to optimize ad performance. By offering a more automated and data-driven approach, Pinterest hopes to encourage businesses to entrust the advertising process to their platform.

2016. Pinterest buys news-reading app Instapaper



Pinterest has recently made an acquisition by acquiring the original read later service, Instapaper. While both Instapaper and Pinterest function as bookmarking services, Instapaper primarily focuses on text-based content, whereas Pinterest is renowned for its emphasis on images. As of now, the official stance is that there will be no immediate changes following the acquisition. Pinterest's interest in acquiring Instapaper lies in its technology, particularly its impressive text parser, and the talented individuals responsible for developing that technology. However, it seems highly unlikely that Pinterest is primarily interested in retaining the Instapaper service itself. While Pinterest has committed to keeping Instapaper operational, there is a notable distinction between sustaining the service and actively enhancing it.


2016. Pinterest opens up its ads manager tools to smaller and medium-sized businesses



Smaller businesses now have access to a set of previously unavailable advertising management tools from Pinterest, as the platform expands its advertising product portfolio and revenue potential. Pinterest's ads manager equips potential advertisers with tools that were previously exclusive to partners. These tools facilitate bulk-editing campaigns, closely monitoring campaign performance, and purchasing ads using a credit card, simplifying the process for advertisers compared to more complex mechanisms. The introduction of these tools offers new opportunities for smaller and medium-sized businesses to effectively manage their advertisements on Pinterest. With approximately three-fourths of the content on Pinterest originating from businesses, these tools assist businesses in delivering targeted ads to the right audience and driving conversions. Moreover, an increase in ad purchases by smaller and medium-sized businesses contributes to Pinterest's overall revenue growth.


2015. Pinterest bought AI recommendation engine Kosei



Social image discovery site Pinterest has made an acquisition by bringing onboard Kosei, a startup specializing in machine learning for product recommendations. This strategic move is well-aligned with Pinterest's objective of connecting users, products, and sellers to drive profitability. Kosei has developed an impressive technology stack over the past year, enabling personalized and robust product recommendations. Their system boasts a database with over 400 million product relationships. As Pinterest continues to enhance its discovery engine for various objects, the integration of Kosei's capabilities proves to be a perfect match.


2014. Pinterest opens promoted pins to all advertisers



Pinterest has recently announced its decision to expand its advertising service, known as promoted pins, to all advertisers starting from January 1. Initially introduced in June, this program allows advertisers to display targeted pins to users based on factors such as age, gender, location, and interests. According to Pinterest, the average promoted pin is shared approximately 11 times, resulting in a notable 30% increase in earned media for advertisers' campaigns. Consequently, Pinterest will now face competition from other social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, as they vie for the same advertising investments. Unlike Pinterest, these competitors have established relationships with advertisers over the past few years and have tested their advertising programs in front of substantial audiences.


2014. Pinterest expands Promoted Pins to more businesses



Pinterest is expanding the availability of its Promoted Pins platform to a wider range of businesses. As previously announced earlier this summer, Pinterest introduced a self-serve, performance-based advertising platform designed for small to medium-sized businesses seeking increased visibility for their Pins among Pinterest users. With the self-serve platform, partnering businesses only incur charges when users click through to view the promoted content. The company states that the businesses currently receiving invitations to try Promoted Pins may have already indicated their interest in the product. While it is expected for prominent brands to establish a presence on the social network, the self-serve platform extends Pinterest's advertising opportunities to a broader customer base, much like how Google AdWords enables anyone to bid for ad placements alongside Google Search results.