Pinterest is Growing and You Should Be There

There is no doubt that Pinterest is enjoying some boom times, as evidenced in the second earnings report it has released after having gone public earlier this year. During the second quarter of 2019, Pinterest revenues soared to $261 million overall, with $238 million of that being sourced from the United States.This figure represents a 62% increase over last year, and is almost $60 million more than earnings of the first quarter produced. The number of monthly active users engaged on the site has also increased by 30% over last year, which is not surprising, given the increase in revenues. Not all the news was good however, since Pinterest also reported a net loss of $1.16 billion during the second quarter of this year.According to platform spokesmen, the culprit was restricted stock unit expense which was recorded in association with the initial public offering. For the entire present year, Pinterest expects to earn more than $1 billion, projecting revenues as high as $1.15 billion. Assuming that the second quarter net loss was indeed primarily due to expenses related to the initial public offering, it could be expected that the third and fourth quarters of this year will be much more profitable for Pinterest.

International reach

During the second quarter of 2019, the number of monthly active users on Pinterest globally exceeded 300 million users, which was 9 million more than were recorded for the first quarter of this year. Most of Pinterest's active users belong to the international category, with 215 million in the international grouping, versus 85 million from the US. Interestingly, this is in direct opposition to the ratio of incoming revenue sources, where U.S. revenues are far greater than are international contributions.Still in all, the Chief Financial Officer of Pinterest continues to be encouraged by growth coming from international markets. For that reason, the platform is increasing its focus on user experiences, so that greater growth and engagement can be achieved. According to CFO Todd Morganfeld, the platform was made more personal during the second quarter by improving on its search recommendations. The platform also was made more useful to searchers by supplying more shoppable products, and by including a great deal more video content.

Increased advertising opportunities

Pinterest is attempting to grow and diversify the number and types of advertisers it has in its advertising base, and to enhance the capabilities for ad measurement by brands using the platform. The primary goal behind these initiatives is to create additional value and additional opportunities for businesses associated with Pinterest. In this same vein, Pinterest introduced some new mobile ad tools (see the next section) which will allow advertisers to create campaigns, and then manage them right from their smart phones.

New video capabilities were also launched for brands, some of which included additional scheduling capabilities, a dedicated video tab on business profiles, and an enhanced video uploader. Another area of growth and enhancement for Pinterest is with e-commerce initiatives. The engineering team for the platform has been upgraded, and one of its primary objectives recently was to develop a visual search tool known as Complete the Look. This feature will recommend a number of products to users based on the specific context of a given scene.

New mobile tools developed by Pinterest

These new mobile ad tools will help advertisers to create marketing campaigns directly from whatever mobile device they choose to use. An advertiser can now choose a Pin from among those on their business profile, and then develop a campaign for it simply by going through the usual process. This would involve selecting either customized targeting options or choosing an automated option, then supplying daily budget rules, and specifying a duration for the campaign.You would also have the option of completing all billing information so that the ad can be run, without the requirement of accessing your business account from a desktop. Having this ability to create ad campaigns from mobile devices will be a boon for small businesses and small advertisers when they need to create ads. This is especially true of companies which lack the resources to support a complete social media marketing team.

It would also provide greater flexibility for advertisers who often have the need to create campaigns on the go. This will make it much easier to quickly develop and ad opportunity when circumstances arise which call for an immediate response. The new mobile tools developed by Pinterest will also allow advertisers to change their target audience and their budgets, as well as to temporarily pause a campaign in progress. For the sake of convenience, you would also be able to edit the URL destination included in the campaign name, and within the ad itself.

What this means for businesses

Pinterest is clearly out to encourage more business activity on its platform, and to invite more advertising dollars its way. In order to attract this kind of business activity, the platform is attempting to establish a wide range of opportunities for businesses which desire to showcase their products. By fine-tuning its e-commerce functionality, Pinterest is specifically targeting retail brands, in an attempt to pull in more advertising dollars.This should all bode very well for those businesses which are looking for other channels to market their products, and to reach the ever-growing numbers of active Pinterest users. It's one more avenue that businesses should definitely explore, because Pinterest has a core group of dedicated followers, who are also committed to browsing and shopping.With the business landscape being as competitive as it is, no stone can be left unturned in an effort to reach a particular target audience. Pinterest has a very solid target audience, which is growing both domestically and internationally, and these consumers provide a ready market for a great number of business products. With Pinterest making it much easier to reach out to all these potential customers, it's an area that simply cannot be ignored, and should be exploited to whatever extent is practical.