Pinterest recently updated its private policy to reshape its advertising plan. In this new plan advertisers will soon be able to directly target Pinterest users who are already customers. Pinterest advertising can target customers in their database, such as customers on an email list. Advertisers will then be able to show target to customers who are also Pinterest users. However, users will have the ability to turn off the ad-targeting feature. Advertisers will also be able to track purchases directly tied to an ad with its new conversion tracking tool.
While the update to its privacy policy will take effect next month, the advertising update will be available in the future. A spokesman for Pinterest stated “While we don’t have the new features available to advertisers yet, we are developing conversion tracking and audience targeting and the privacy policy update allows us to launch them.” This is an effort for Pinterest to compete with Facebook and Twitter’s advertising abilities. Facebook launched its Custom Audience tool in 2012, in which advertisers can upload a list of customer phone numbers and email addresses to match with Facebook user profiles. Twitter launched a similar targeting option earlier this year. Overall, this update will allow retail advertisers to understand their actual ROI on Pinterest.
