Pinterest just overhauled its self-serve ads platform - and it could be a move to get advertisers of all sizes on board ahead of an IPO

Drew Angerer / Staff

• Pinterest just revamped its Ads Manager tool, the self-serve platform through which brands and agencies can buy ads on its platform.
• The company has unveiled a suite of new tools designed to make it easier for large brands, ad agencies, and small businesses to advertise on the platform and get relevant insights.
• The update comes as Pinterest looks to prove itself as a viable business and boost its ad revenue as it reportedly gears up for an IPO soon.

Pinterest just revamped its Ads Manager tool, in what's the biggest overhaul of the self-serve ads platform since it was rolled out in 2016.

The company has unveiled a suite of new tools designed to make it easier for its partners, including large brands, ad agencies and small businesses, to define and target their audiences, create and ultimately buy ads as well as analyze them.

"This redesign of the self-serve platform is the culmination of over 40 updates that address a lot of the major feedback we've received from our partners," Francis Larkin, Pinterest's head of ads product marketing, told Business Insider. "We always heard that our partners wanted to be more efficient with their time, and these features make it easier and faster for them to manage their ad campaigns."

The update comes as Pinterest looks to prove itself as a viable business and boost its ad revenue as it reportedly gears up for an IPO soon. Pinterest is poised to double its revenue this year nearly reaching $1 billion, according to CNBC, and has a current valuation of $13 billion to $15 billion.

The updated platform helps advertisers streamline the creation of ads

Pinterest has essentially boiled the process of creating a campaign on Ads Manager down to three steps through a step-by-step wizard. Brands can choose their business goal, zero in on the type of users they'd like to reach, and create or select Pins that they want to promote in search or home feeds.

Advertisers can also create new Pins within Ads Manager and select multiple Pins to promote at once, which was not possible earlier.

"As marketers, we are really focused on streamlining workflows and optimizing for time, so that we can dedicate more time to focus on strategy," said Amy Darwish, director of media operations at agency Resolution Media. "This helps us save time and really drive efficiencies."

Advertisers can also test and optimize their ads and duplicate top-performing campaigns to scale them, without having to create them from scratch. This has been super helpful for small and medium-sized businesses like direct-to-consumer lingerie startup ThirdLove, which got early access to the tools.

"Earlier, we had to upload bulk sheets and Excel files and go through a lot of extra steps, and it was just easier to spend money on Facebook instead," said Nisho Cherison, senior director of growth at ThirdLove. "This is a huge win for us."

Ads Manager has allowed ThirdLove to maximize its performance, lowering its cost per checkouts by as much as 61% year-over-year, said Cherison.

It also helps target audiences more efficiently and get better insights

Several new features are geared at helping advertisers reach the right audiences. In the Ads Manager, advertisers can get access to a range of placement options and tap into an expanded Audience Insights tool as well as updated user interests.

When spice-maker McCormick was planning its Easter campaign, for instance, its agency Reprise Media tapped into the insight that a lot of its audience starts to search and save Easter recipes leading up to the holiday. So when it ran ads for its Easter campaign on Pinterest, it tailored the creative and targeting of the ads to audiences that had searched for recipes or trends like "unicorn poke cake" and "egg coloring."

"When an advertiser gets access to the tool, they see a wide range of information about their audience and what they care about on Pinterest," said Larkin.

The updated tool also brings it easier to break down ad campaign results all in one place. Advertisers get access to a revamped reporting dashboard, where they can efficiently monitor their ad performance and easily optimize on what's working. They can, for instance, use the analytics provided to identify and promote your top performing organic Pins and eventrack the monthly viewer numbers on their profiles.

Advertisers are welcoming the updates

In broadening the set of tools on its self-serve platform Ads Manager, Pinterest seems to be taking a page out of the duopoly's playbook.

Google and Facebook have both seen tremendous growth in their ad revenue coming from small brands and businesses. Snapchat too has been scaling up its ad offerings, launching self-serve platforms for various products including sponsored geofilters, Snap Ads and full-screen video ads using the Publisher tool.

"It's a hallelujah moment for us," said ThirdLove's Cherison. "We no longer need a third party helping us run ads on Pinterest, a team of one person is now enough."

Resolution Media's Darwish agreed, saying that the updates would benefit and attract advertisers across the board.

"We already had access to these features elsewhere, and now Pinterest has them," she said. "This brings them at parity with all the other platforms out there."