Pinterest’s quiet battle for ad dollars is getting louder

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by Anna Munhin Mar 16, 2023 News
Pinterest’s quiet battle for ad dollars is getting louder

For a long time, pinsy has tried to be a safe place for people to escape social media.

Advertisers were hoping to see it as a safe place for their dollars with posts that let users pin everything from quick dinner ideas to home decor. Many others didn't. There are some signs that persistence is paying off.

Four media buyers said that advertisers are spending more on the platform. The levels of spending are nowhere near what is being spent on the largest social networks and online video platforms.

For us and our social roster, it's probably between 40% to 60% of clients are on pins. "Maybe half on average, but again, I'm estimating here and it's not exact," said Avi Ben-Zvi, vp of paid social at Tinuiti.

Bringing agencies on board

There is meat on the bone of the recent deal thatPinterest struck with Dentsu.

Under the agreement, Dentsu clients will be provided tailored growth plans, with access to Dentsu's Performance Academy as well asPinterest's Training Academy, which are essentially training programs for marketers.

Dentsu has a proprietary Effective Attention tool that can be used by clients that are part of this partnership. Chris Howard, managing director, performance at Dentsu, said that the technology aims to identify not only what an individual has been exposed to, but also how aware they are of that.

Howard said that the social network should roll out the program to a larger group of partners.

We regularly hear that when people take a social media detox, they keep Pinterest on.

He said that part of the education stream was about educating clients on changes in the social landscape. Everyone in this industry benefits from our clients being up to speed on what is happening in the digital media landscape and being able to make the most out of that.

The courting of advertisers is well and truly underway, even though it isn't at the "going steady" stage. The way marketers talk about the social network is proof of that.

There is no room on the platform for anyone to take people down or take people out. People who take a social media cleanse keep their pins on.

There has been a shift in the social media landscape, one that has seen platforms that prioritized communication and messaging and highlights images. In this new paradigm, pinsy wants to breathe new life into the narrative that it is one of the few sunny corners of the internet. The platform tries to fight the spread of political information. Those problems are unimportant to what is happening at many of its peers. It isn't caught up in the politics of the world. It doesn't have the same issues that other companies do. Things like this are what marketers like.

What do advertisers want?

Pinterest is focused on being a force for positivity in an increasingly negative social media landscape. It's latest research focused on how to create a more positive space online with some help fromPinterest. The platform has recently hit the 450 million active user mark.

It will be great to hear comments like this from the pins board executives. It shows that marketers are beginning to understand how the social network might fit into their media plans. It is a discovery platform that is close to searching. Marketers don't always know where to put it in a media plan It is neither something nor the other.

This isn't to say that pinsy is in a purple patch. There are still obstacles between the social network and advertisers. Measure. That is more of a platform problem than a problem with pins. It would go some way to making marketers more open to spending their money there if it were possible to help advertisers more accurately tie performance to media activations. It is the reason why pins has moved so aggressively. The data clean room was built to drive sales from the platform.

It hasn't quite gotten to the landing yet. It's difficult to find a path to purchase on a platform likePinterest. When people are planning for a wedding, they go to the platform very early in the process. The longer the consideration cycle, the more difficult it is for marketers to measure the purchase.

Ben-Zvi said that users have complained about seeing a picture of a product that they really liked but didn't know what it was or where to buy it.

The challenges are not impossible, according to the pins on the website. Bill Ready was hired by the company in the summer of last year. He embarked on a plan to pay publishers and creators to create content for the social network.