Pinterest Ties Up with Amazon Advertising: Future Acquisition Target?
What challenges did Amazon and Pinterest face with their advertising approach?
Both Amazon and Pinterest had challenges to solve with their advertising approach in the last few years.
Amazon does not have a general-purpose search engine like Google, or a virtually infinite source of new content like Meta or Tiktok -- this limits the keyword surface area that can be used for its ad inventory.
Separately, Pinterest has consistently been one of the highest-converting traffic sources for other websites, but one of the lower-monetized sites that sells ads in the industry.
How does Pinterest's content give Amazon's ad inventory wider reach?
Bill Ready, the ex-Google and Paypal executive, wasted no time in tying up Pinterest with one of the rising stars in advertising -- Amazon.
Multi-year ad partnership between Pinterest and Amazon.
Could Pinterest be a future acquisition target for the firm?
Pinterest does have social elements, though not as sticky as the big social media sites, so Pinterest's content could be an interesting addition to Amazon's content properties.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
As it stands, Pinterest's content gives Amazon's ad inventory wider reach both in terms of visitors, demographics, and purchase funnel intent (Pinterest is often higher in the funnel then Amazon).
On the other hand, Pinterest has no path to unseating any of the giants. The Power Law applies to the Internet, so at some point unless it is consistently taking share from another major player (it is not), it's better off partnering with one of the majors.
Which ad networks are gaining share in the market?
The only ad networks gaining share at this stage are Amazon, Tiktok and to a much lesser scale Walmart. Partnering with Tiktok was a non-starter at the moment, Google and Meta would likely spell the end of independent Pinterest over time.
What Direction Could A Partnership Between Pinterest & Amazon Lead To?
Amazon was the only one who likely gave them flexibility and could even give them a path to exit in the future. Perhaps even Pinterest could become an Amazon Buy With Prime partner for its brand advertisers. Shoppable pins combined with Amazon inventory could be another interesting direction for the two companies.
At the very least, Pinterest is trying new things under Bill Ready.
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