Pinterest tests targeted advertising

Pinterest photo credits: Dr. Cloud / Shutterstock.com 

Pinterest is finally joining social media giants Twitter and Facebook to begin targeted advertising. Although Pinterest’s advertising is fairly new, the site is slowly progressing the product to catch up with the much more complicated Facebook and Twitter advertising platforms. The new function is not yet available to users, but Pinterest is working on features that allow advertisers to target based on a brand’s consumer list i.e. email database. Another facet that Pinterest is working on is crediting an ad on Pinterest to a sale on an e-commerce site. This will be highly valuable for advertisers as will now be able to see direct ROI. Pinterest will be able to record consumer behavior on a brand’s website through a developed tracker called a pixel. The pixel will be able to monitor and report how a user is behaving on a site, and based off of clicks and behaviors, can credit an ad to directing a user to a sale. Pinterest has been constantly working on trying to improve the brand's experience with providing more in-depth analytics and paid advertising. Now that the social media tool is joining Twitter and Facebook in targeted advertising, brands need to make a strategic decision on which platform to advertise on, or which combination of platforms will yield higher sales. Of course each platform has a different appeal and a different set of demographics, but understanding the purpose and type of content a brand has is key before choosing a platform to invest in. Pinterest, like Instagram, is photo focused. Brands thinking about advertising on the site should keep this in mind.  Stay up-to-date on what type of content receives the most interactions on the website in order to see the most success from advertising dollars.