Dive Brief:
- Pinterest is emphasizing its role in product discovery in attempt to attract a share of advertisers’ search marketing budgets.
- The bulletin board platform had amassed more than 50 billion user pins, according to company executives, making it more of a catalog than other networks.
- Competition for search dollars is stiff, with Google holding a dominant 72.4% share of search advertising revenues in 2014.
Dive Insight:
Pinterest is trying to position itself as a search and discovery tool—and not a social platform—in an effort to tap into advertiser dollars. The company says has amassed a database of some 50 billion user pins, and users look to Pinterest when searching for particular items and ideas.
Search is still the dominant force in the digital ad ecosystem, according to eMarketer, attracting more than 45% of digital ad spending in the U.S. in 2014. This year, search will account for $26.5 billion in advertising revenues, eMarketer estimates, and spending on the social media is projected to reach $10.4 billion.
As a hybrid of the sharing/social media and a searchable discovery platform, Pinterest’s ultimate challenge is to demonstrate conversion to advertisers. While the company has been slow to ramp up monetization strategies, this year Pinterest has launched a number of new ad products including “buyable pins,” had a 24% increase in unique visitors during July.
