Pinterest said Monday that it will begin telling many U.S. advertisers how their Promoted Pin campaigns on the image bookmarking platform affect objectives such as brand awareness, favorability and purchase intent, using research by Millward Brown Digital. The company previously only provided metrics such as impressions, clicks and repins of images. Millward Brown's service, dubbed Brand Lift Insights, is available to medium-to-large advertisers for which the Pinterest sales team provides direct service and account management. "Pinterest is making a major investment in brand measurement, indicating a commitment to providing advertisers with critical knowledge of their campaign's impact," Stephen DiMarco, president of Millward Brown Digital, said in a statement. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Pinterest on measurement of the platform to help marketers make informed decisions from their marketing investments." Initial campaign measurements revealed Walgreens saw lifts of more than 15% in measures such as brand favorability and purchase intent for a key category among a targeted audience of women aged 18 to 24, Pinterest said. Another study, conducted for L'Oreal, indicated an 18% increase in new product awareness as well as a 25% increase in purchase intent, the company said. About 83% of active Pinterest users said they purchased something -- not necessarily through Pinterest -- because they were on the site, according to a separate study done by Millward Brown in partnership with Pinterest. All surveys conducted by Millward Brown are delivered through the Pinterest app and only users who would have normally been exposed to campaign advertisements are pre-selected prior to a campaign running. Additionally, each Brand Lift survey will be customized to the goal of a specific campaign, Pinterest said. Pinterest has been aggressively making moves to increase revenue as it gears up for an expected IPO. Last week, the company opted to run its first-ever brand campaign in the U.K. instead of the U.S. It said the majority of its users are now outside the U.S., also a first for the company.
Pinterest has engaged the services of Millward Brown to offer a new set of metrics to medium-to-large advertisers that will give them greater insights into their brand campaigns. The company is also working with Facebook and Twitter on ways they can use data from those platforms in order to better target ads at specific audiences.