Early this month, Pinterest announced that they will begin allowing brands to upload their customer email lists (previously only used for email marketing purposes) into their database in order to better target the 100 million users who visit the site each month. Although a bit late to the game compared to other social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, this move will drastically improve revenue for both Pinterest and the brands who advertise with them.
In order for target ads to work, Pinterest will match the uploaded email addresses from brands with the email addresses of their users’ accounts. This way information about a user can be passed between the social media site and their brands without exposing private information. Advertisers must have at least 100 email addresses in order to upload their list to Pinterest — this is so the advertisements can be targeted as specifically as possible.
At the moment, the target advertising is in it’s fledgling stages, but small and medium-sized businesses in the US will soon be able to use ad targeting to the fullest extent later this year. The company has already made tremendous strides to diversify their advertisement options, which means big social media benefits for businesses. The number of interest targets increased 1,300% due to adding more sub-categories to their advertisement options.
How might a company benefit from Pinterest advertisements in the future? For small to medium-sized businesses who are looking for a less expensive advertising option, this could be a great way to increase brand awareness. Companies in the retail, culinary or travel industries will be the most likely to benefit. Read the full article here for more information.