New Visual Search Ads will help marketers capitalise on picture placement and intent.
Pinterest has launched Visual Search Ads, a performance feature aimed as enhancing visual search and intent for marketers.
With the new format, ads will be placed inside Pinterest search results and Pin close-ups. The feature will pair keyword relevance with a “distinctive new ad format to reach people as they search, compare and move closer to a decision,” Pinterest confirmed at its annual advertiser summit.
Over 80 billion searches are made by users on Pinterest each month and the vast majority are visual, with over half labelled as commercial.
Advertisers on Pinterest can bid for the top response and connect audiences directly to their site. This gives marketers the ability to position themselves at the centre of an audience’s journey in the discovery phase with high intent and engaged users.
The feature will be available in beta for a select number of eligible advertisers.
Further to this, Pinterest is also launching Priority Products, which will allow advertisers to select which product in particular they showcase in key moments like a promotion or seasonal launch.
Bill Ready, chief executive of Pinterest said: “Traditional search advertising has long relied on keywords, but in an AI-driven world, people are expressing themselves in much richer ways. Visual Search Ads allow marketers to tap into this new and rapidly growing form of AI-powered search with a prominent placement at the critical decision points where people see, save and decide.
“Powered by Pinterest Intelligence – our AI-enabled visual understanding of images, products, taste and intent – we make those signals actionable for advertisers through visual search.”
Focus on mobile growth
This will come alongside self-serve A/B so that advertisers can test campaign strategies more easily, as well as validate impact and optimise to target creative within Pinterest Performance +.
In addition, the platform also will introduce app promotion to help mobile-focused advertisers build objectives for app installs, giving advertisers a direct path to pursue mobile growth goals. Pinterest said one of its advertiser saw “up to an 85% improvement in cost per install compared to previous workarounds”.
A new feature called Pinterest Intelligence will bring first-party signals together with purpose built AI called Restyle. This will let audiences test and try out products in their own home, using an AI to reimagine photos of their space.
Pinterest’s CTV series, Bring My Pinterest to Life, will also return for a second season, where expert creators and brands will showcase their skill by transforming their Pinterest boards into real spaces. The first season is available on the Roku Channel in the US, UK, Canada and Mexico.
This new suite of features illustrates the direction Pinterest is moving in: deeper collaboration with advertisers for a more personalised and targeted ad experience, focusing on top-of-the-funnel discovery and a seamless ad integration.
