Pinterest's bet on shoppable advertising seems to be paying off.
The platform has seen clicks and saves of shoppable Pins increase 130% year over year in Australia, according to country manager for Australia & New Zealand Melinda Petrunoff.
Petrunoff told AdNews that Pinterest, which recently reported a March quarter revenue increase of 23% to $US740 million and a global monthly active users growth of 12% year over year to 518 million, is moving beyond merely being known as a place for inspiration and discovery of brands.
"96% of searches that are done on Pinterest are unbranded so we were always known for that upper funnel strength and discovery, but because of all this innovation that we've rolled out both for users and advertisers over the last six to nine months, what it's doing is helping it to be so much more actionable," she said.
"We were previously a top of funnel solution and we're now a full funnel solution for advertisers."
One recent local example involving Castlery demonstrated a 36% increase in return on ad spend and a 48% reduction in cost per session after the furniture brand ran Pinterest Shopping Campaigns focusing on conversion and catalogue sales, using static, carousel and standard video ad formats alongside activating direct links.
While Petrunoff wouldn't be drawn on what other products for advertisers will be unveiled in 2024, she did say that Pinterest has a "strong pipeline" of products that are going to be launching in the back half of the year.
"These will benefit both the user side and advertisers; we have a product roadmap that is very much aligned to improving on the performance products that we've launched," she said.
With just shy of 8 million users in Australia (as per Ipsos Iris), Petrunoff said that Gen Z are the fastest-growing, most engaged and largest cohort on Pinterest - across the world, Gen Z are 40% of the Pinterest user base, but in Australia, it's closer to half at 47%, according to Ipsos Iris data.
“In Q1, some of the advertisers that were specifically targeting Gen Z on platform in Australia were the likes of 40 Winks, Tostitos and Contiki. We're getting more and more briefs on how we can help advertisers lean in and engage with that Gen Z growing cohort,” she said.
"People ask us why Gen Z are coming to Pinterest and it's because we are fundamentally different. People come to our platform with high intent, they have a plan on what they're looking for and they're looking to take action. That's fundamentally different to our competitors, where across other social media apps, users are leaning back and they're just there to be entertained."
Another strong focus for the platform is an investment into AI, especially within the personalisation space to help advertisers enhance their creative.
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