With rising privacy concerns paving the way for the digital future, marketers are looking for ways to stay relevant and present online with alternative tracking methods. The digital landscape is ever-evolving and with a cookie-less world being set in stone for 2024, marketers will need to face a new challenge in determining how to target their target audience.
Enter, Pinterest. The visually-driven social media platform has always been viewed as a unique online marketing opportunity with its inspiring format, and will present a whole new dimension of possibilities for marketers, as we navigate towards the dismissal of third-party cookies becoming a reality.
Cookies have been an influential and essential tool in recent years in the digital marketing realm, for tracking user behaviour with the intent of providing personalised experiences, enticing trust and building a committed community. However, as rising privacy concerns and browser updates have caused a bit of a commotion in the online ring, third-party cookies are expected to be a thing of the past as of 2024, with marketers already seeking for new ways to deliver relevant content to their target audience.
In many ways, Pinterest may be the most obvious solution with its unique advantage that it already does not rely on third-party cookies or signals. Pinterest’s main principles differ greatly from other social media platforms, as it has always stood out for its user-focused intent, discovery and inspiration. Pinners search for what they are after, save (or pin) it to their boards and use them to inspire their decision-making and purchase-process.
While 97% of top searches on the app are unbranded, Pinterest drives 10 times the amount of branded searches off-platform, meaning marketers can meet Pinterest users at the point of decision, when they are actively deciding what to do, try or buy.
While third-party cookies may soon be out, first-party cookies remain greatly critical and Pinterest is at the top of its game when it comes to using those signals to generate personalised experiences. By leveraging first-party data from users’ searches, saves and board creations, Pinterest garners a transparent insight into their interests and intents from on-site actions, which can be utilised for advertising and purchasing decisions.
Pinterest has already proven that it can, by default and without third-party cookies, lead to purchasing, merely based on its own unique design and format. According to a study by Accenture, advertisers who used the most interest-based targeting along with their act-like targeting on Pinterest, achieved a 45% higher ROAS than advertisers who only used retargeting as their strategy.
Data shows that 85% of weekly Pinterest users have larger baskets at checkout than any other social media platform⁷ and 61% say they spent more than they expected to as a result of shopping on Pinterest.⁸
While scrolling through Instagram and TikTok may be a compulsive passing of time that is almost done mechanically as soon as we pick up our phones, opening up the Pinterest app always has some sort of decision or planning intention behind it.
Pinterest has always stood out and it may be its time to shine once again in a cookie-less world, as it can still provide valuable opportunities for marketers to stay in-line with their target audience. Its native analytics can help you gather an evocative insight that will successfully guide your marketing strategies. Pinners are logging onto Pinterest with a clear purpose of what they are after, and that may be all the magic marketers and brands need to thrive.