Pinterest Expands Search Ads Offering

Nearly seven years after launching, Pinterest is making its first paid search product available to more advertisers. Pinterest search ads will include keyword campaigns, shopping campaigns, targeting, and reporting.

Keyword campaigns for Search Ads on Pinterest will work like traditional PPC campaigns where you manage the budget, targeting, and creative. Shopping campaigns will be created automatically from your product inventory.

Similar to Facebook and Twitter, Search Ads on Pinterest will offer objective-based pricing. Advertisers can pay for:

  • Impressions.
  • Pin clicks.
  • Engagement.

In its announcement, Pinterest said its 150 million users are conducting 2 billion searches every month.

Most of those searches are for products and services people want to buy – and 97 percent of the platform’s top searches last year were non-branded, according to Pinterest. That’s why Pinterest pitches itself as a great platform to influence shoppers before they’ve decided what to buy.

Although Search Ads on Pinterest will offer keyword-based buying, the company tried to separate itself from Google AdWords by emphasizing that Pinterest is all about visual content. That will include Search Ads on Pinterest, which will be mostly images rather than text-based ads.

In an effort to get more brands and businesses using its search advertising product, Pinterest is partnering with marketing software provider Kenshoo. Pinterest is expected to add additional partners this year.

Pinterest has been testing search advertising since last summer. InitiallySearch Ads on Pinterest was only open to a small group of advertising partners, including Barilla, eBay, Garnier, Target, The Home Depot, and Walgreens.

It’s expected that Search Ads for Pinterest will someday offer self-service advertising, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Image Credit: Depositphotos

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