In a blog post published late last week Pinterest announced that they will begin to “suggest personalized pins and boards based on websites you go to that have the Pin It button.” For example, if you’re searching the web for cowboy boots, Pinterest will take note and begin filling your Pinterest homepage with images of or relating to cowboy boots.
To address privacy concerns, Pinterest notes that users can opt out by altering tracking within the account settings menu.
What does Pinterest’s browser tracking mean for brands?
While Pinterest is often associated with sales and shopping, the reality is that not all users are going to use the platform for that purpose. Instead, many users head to Pinterset to browse. This new browser tracking function looks to pull that casual browsing behavior and all-powerful purchase intent together.
Using the example above, say I’m in the market for a new pair of cowboy boots. I probably wouldn’t head to Pinterest to search for and buy those boots. Instead, I’d probably go straight to either Zappos, my favorite retailer or conduct a more generic Google search. But as I perform each of these activities elsewhere around the web, Pinterest is carefully taking note so that the next time I sign into the Pinterest, I’ll find cowboy boot pins from brands, bloggers and regular users right in my home feed. Essentially, it’s pulling the shopping function I look to fulfill elsewhere back to Pinterest.
We’ll see how this new function affects Pinterest-generated sales. In the meantime, if Pinterest is suggesting pins based on users’ external search intent, you probably want to be among those suggestions, right? The more high-res, appropriately tagged and categorized pins you have, the better your chances of being among those suggestions.
