Pinterest has announced a multiyear strategic advertising partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon. The deal will make Amazon the first partner on third-party ads on the image sharing and social media platform.
The partnership marks a new direction for Pinterest, which has been striving to adjust to changing consumer interests around product discovery. The image pinboard has launched video-first Idea Pins and boosted its investment in creator content, though some of those efforts were wound down ahead of a last-quarter revenue miss. The Amazon ads partnership could offer users a more seamless buying experience, with Amazon shoppers not having to fill out forms since their payment information is already on file with the company.
Pinterest has for years worked to connect product inspiration to purchases, but the Amazon deal will potentially allow brands and products to enable pinners to move from inspiration to action even more easily. When users encounter an Amazon ad on Pinterest, they’ll be directed to Amazon to make the purchase.
“Over 463 million people come to Pinterest each month to create a life they love. Brands and products are a critical piece of this journey, enabling Pinners to move easily from inspiration to action and advertisers to realize value in connecting with users with high commercial intent,” Pinterest noted in its blog post. “Our partnership with Amazon will allow us to scale these efforts in meaningful ways,” it said.
Pinterest will implement the Amazon ads integrations over multiple quarters, starting later this year. The company has yet to reveal where the ads will appear to end users and is not making any near-term forecasts related to revenue impacts, acknowledging it may not see a significant impact until next year.
“Amazon Ads is delighted to partner with Pinterest and make it even easier for customers to discover and buy relevant products through shoppable content, while also providing differentiated value for brands,” added Amazon SVP Paul Kotas in a statement.
