More than just inspiration: What makes Pinterest a successful performance marketing channel?

With over 580 million active users worldwide, Pinterest offers a huge reach and continues to grow. Gen-Z, in particular, highlights Pinterest as a safe and inspiring platform, without the pressure often felt on other social media. And as the user base grows, so does shopping behavior on the platform. Matt Crystal, VP Performance at Pinterest, explained this at the K5 FUTURE RETAIL CONFERENCE 2024. In his presentation “A new era of shopping”, he explained how to inspire your customers to make their next purchase on Pinterest and why the platform is so successful as a marketing tool.

When users visit Pinterest, they do not do so passively. They are specifically looking for inspiration and actively planning their next steps - be it in fashion, interior design or travel. This targeted search for ideas and products makes Pinterest a powerful channel for brands and retailers to turn inspiration into concrete purchasing decisions.

The user funnel on Pinterest: from discovery to purchase

The user funnel on Pinterest can be divided into three phases: 

• Discovery
• Planning
• Purchase

Source: Lena Schmidt

Matt Crystal explained it using the following example: Let's assume a user is looking for summer fashion for men. He starts with a search query such as “men's summer style” and browses through images and videos to find inspiration. Once they have discovered suitable looks, they save them on a board and can shop directly from the retailers from there.

Pinterest offers a unique visual shopping experience that allows users to turn their ideas and dreams directly into reality. The platform has evolved from a discovery tool to a comprehensive funnel tool that provides brands and retailers with the tools they need to create brand awareness, generate traffic and ultimately conversions. By extending their lower funnel solutions, Pinterest enables an increase in traffic of up to 96% and an increase in attributed conversions of up to 28%.

Innovations and tools for your success

Pinterest has continued to improve its platform through three key areas: personalized discovery, creative curation and easier shopping.

1. personalized discovery: Pinterest has made the discovery experience more personalized and targeted. Targeted advertising allows users to see relevant content and take direct action. New shopping ad formats allow products to be featured more prominently and encourage purchase intent.
2. creative curation: Pinterest allows users to create creative collages to visually compile their ideas. These new formats have a retention rate three times higher than regular pins. Brands can use these new creative formats to present their products in a more appealing way.
3. easier shopping: Pinterest has introduced new advertising solutions to make the buying process more seamless. With direct links and mobile deep links, users can go directly to retailers' websites or complete a purchase action in the app. This has led to an average increase in click volume of 79%.

Successful retailers on Pinterest

Various brands have already benefited from these innovations. Breuninger, for example, achieved an 11-fold increase in clicks within just four weeks by implementing a full-funnel strategy on Pinterest. C&A recorded a 130% increase in website traffic after the introduction of direct links. (Source: Pinterest)

A new era of performance

Pinterest is proving to be a powerful channel that can deliver valuable results across all stages of the user funnel. Through continuous innovation and a clear focus on user needs, Pinterest offers brands and retailers the opportunity to inspire their customers and guide them successfully through the buying process. It's a new era of performance on Pinterest that can help brands achieve their goals and provide customers with a memorable shopping experience.