Hey pinning friend,

It's been a busy week around here with Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day back to back!

My husband and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, but he does always get something for our daughter, so I'm excited to see what he brings her after work. 🌹💖

Ready for some Pinterest news?

Last week, Pinterest released their 2023 4th Quarter Earnings and held their investors call.

I listened in so you don't have to!

Let's get into all the details including my biggest takeaway...

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User & Revenue Growth ⬆️

Monthly Active Users hit another all-time record high of 498 million (up 11% from Q3)

Q4 Revenue grew 12%, capping out at $981 million.

According to allllll the charts and graphs in the Q4 Presentation doc, Pinterest is crushing it!

Personally, my Mediavine blog saw the best RPMs from Pinterest in Q4 last year. Like, $90+ RPMs!

Pinterest is really turning things around, and I'm excited to go over the highlights with you.

Now, let's get into the more interesting topics.

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Generative AI-Based Search Guides

If you've been on this email list for awhile, you know that Pinterest has been investing heavily into AI for years.

But the WAY Pinterest is using AI on it's platform is pretty unique.

Instead of serving up simple answers like Google's generative AI, Pinterest is using their AI resources to build new search guides.

CEO, Bill Ready said,

"In Q4, we began testing generative AI-based search guides, which help users refine their understanding from broad queries like kitchen ideas into more structured avenues of exploration like rustic farmhouse kitchen or kitchen organization hacks, helping users get closer to the point of action or purchase."

Here's an example of a search guide:

This type of search guide is only available on mobile at the moment.

📲 These mobile search guides use AI to suggest completely NEW related keywords to the user.

💻 Desktop has a similar guide (but it's different since it focuses more on helping the user define a specific style instead of generating a whole new related keyword).

You may have seen the desktop guide on selected search queries in home decor and fashion:

My thoughts: I absolutely LOVE this application and use of AI. 👏🏻

IMO, this is what all companies should all be using AI for... making the user experience BETTER.

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New Shopping Modules

Similar to the AI-Generated Search Guides, Pinterest has also added new shopping modules to the mobile search experience:

We know Pinterest has been, ehhh, passionate about making the platform more "shoppable" for years.

Let's review previous attempts to force more products pins into the feed:

• hard-coding product pins into search results and the home feed
• defaulting all searches to the Shop filter

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👉 So, I think this "module" set up is a good compromise.

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Now, you (as the user) have options:

If you don't want shopping suggestions, scroll down. ⬇️

If you do want product suggestions, swipe right to browse. ➡️

So, yeah, I'm a fan.

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Ads Innovations

2023 was the most productive year for ads innovations which included:

• new ad formats (Premier Spotlight, travel catalogs, lead ads)
• mobile deep linking
• direct links
• new third-party ad partner launched (Amazon Ads)
• API for Conversions*
• Clean room integrations (for privacy changes)

*NOTE: There was a lot of emphasis put on API for Conversions on this call!

If you run ads for clients, this is going to be very important in the near future since many browsers are dropping 3rd party cookies.

To emphasize how important API for Conversions will be moving forward, Julia Donnelly (CFO) said,

"...those who have adopted our API for conversions are actually seeing retailers who adopt our API for conversions are actually seeing year-over-year growth in the 30% range compared to non-adopters of our API for conversions who are declining mid single digits."

API adopters are making more money.💰

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Setting Up API for Conversions

If your clients are on Shopify and have the Pinterest app installed, there is no further action you need to take to get the advantages of using API for Conversions.

If your clients are on other platforms and running ads, you can implement API for Conversions using Google Tag Manager (I found this tutorial since Pinterest has very limited documentation on how to set this up).

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Low RPU & Google Ads Partnership

Some investors were extra complain-y after the initial Q4 revenue numbers were released...

Why?

Well, Pinterest's Revenue Per User (RPU) is much lower than other platforms, specifically their internationally RPU:

But don't worry, Bill Ready has a plan to fix that!

On the call, Bill announced their new ads partnership with Google. This integration will allow ads to be shown on Pinterest through Google's Ad Manager.

Bill Ready used to work for Google, so maybe we should have seen this coming. 🙃

We don't have specific details YET, but from the follow-up interviews I saw, this partnership is mainly focused on monetizing international markets that are not yet monetized.

We'll see how this plays out in the US, too, but again, this is really about making money internationally where Pinterest has made $0 up until now.

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A Positive Place Online & My Takeaway

Bill Ready expressed how maintaining Pinterest as a positive place online is of the upmost importance to the company and to him personally. He said,

"Users, especially Gen Z, often crave respite from social media and see Pinterest as a positive alternative."

Bill ultimately wants Pinterest to be a safe place (especially for young people) where users can focus on their own lives, get inspired, and make plans based on the inspiration they find on the platform.

He adds,

"We've taken a radically different stance than our competitors, and we're seeing it pay off in the emotional well-being of our users and in our business outcomes. These principles are at the heart of our technology, our AI, and our policies."

As a parent to a gen alpha kiddo, this is exactly the kind of outlook and intention I'd want the CEO of a social scrolling platform to have!

This brings me to my biggest takeaway...

Bill Ready has officially saved Pinterest.

The End.

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Lol, just kidding. I should probably explain what I mean by that (especially if you're new to this email list)...

For several years (i.e. 2021-2022), listening to these investor calls and recapping them for you was extremely depressing.

Numbers were always down. 📉

User experience went to 💩.

It was bad.

Real bad.

But since June 2022 when Bill took the position of CEO at Pinterest, his leadership has turned Pinterest completely around.

✅ Numbers are up.

✅ User experience is improving every day.

For us Pinterest managers and bloggers, this is huge!

Especially with Google being a total jerk lately.

I believe we are witnessing a true renaissance of the platform.

Which means, if you haven't started your Pinterest marketing journey, now is the best time to start building up your traffic from this platform.

To celebrate Bill and all he's accomplished, I'm running a flash sale on the whole shop! Use the code BILLREADY to get 30% OFF everything in the shop this week.

​>> Apply 30% automatically here!​

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Hope you enjoyed this 2023 Q4 recap. I did!! As always, feel free to hit reply to share your thoughts. I love hearing from you guys!

Have a great day,

Amy

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P.S. Are you on IG? One of my 2024 goals is to be more active on Instagram... If you want to be IG friends, follow me and leave a comment on one of my posts so I know you're an email subscriber, and I'll follow you back! We have so much fun over there!

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Ready to outsource your Pinterest? Get free quotes from skilled, LRS-approved Pinterest Managers here!

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