Pinterest makes its 600M high-intent users available for CTV targeting via tvScientific. Early tests show 27% better outcomes per dollar and 65% lift in purchases.
The platform where people plan what to buy is now the platform that follows them to the biggest screen in the house.
Pinterest just did something it has never done before: let advertisers reach its users somewhere other than Pinterest.
The company launched audience extension on connected TV, powered by its acquisition of tvScientific (closed earlier this year for around $300 million). For the first time, Pinterest's 600 million monthly active users are available as targetable segments on third-party CTV inventory.
Early test results are strong. When Pinterest's high-intent signals are applied to tvScientific campaigns, advertisers see a 27% increase in outcomes per dollar spent and a 65% lift in purchases. LG reported a 73% increase in unique household reach and 24% lift in new customers.
Increase in outcomes per dollar when Pinterest intent signals are applied to CTV campaigns
This is not a small move. Pinterest has historically been a walled garden. Your Pinterest campaigns lived on Pinterest. Your audience data stayed on Pinterest. The platform's defining characteristic, high commercial intent from users actively planning purchases, was locked inside the platform.
That wall just came down.
The targeting works through both deterministic (user ID matching) and probabilistic (modelled) methods. Advertisers can build audience segments from Pinterest behaviour, specifically from people who have demonstrated purchase intent through saves, searches and board creation, and serve those segments on CTV.
For Australian advertisers, CTV is growing fast. Nine, Seven and Foxtel's BVOD platforms all accept programmatic buying. The question is whether tvScientific's CTV supply includes Australian inventory at launch. The initial rollout appears US-focused, but the infrastructure for Australian CTV programmatic exists and Pinterest operates actively in the Australian market.
The broader signal matters more than the product specifics. Social platforms are becoming audience platforms. Meta already extends its targeting to off-platform inventory through Audience Network. TikTok is building similar capabilities. Pinterest entering CTV means the competition for high-intent audience data is moving from feeds to living rooms.
If you are running Pinterest campaigns in Australia and spending on CTV separately, the convergence is coming. Plan for it.