• by Jess Nelson , March 11, 2016

Pinterest unveiled a suite of new ad-targeting options this week, including the ability to target consumers by their email addresses. 

Pinterest launched its self-service advertising platform Pinterest Ads Manager to small- and medium-sized businesses in the United States on Tuesday while expanding promotional keywords available on its advertising platform by 14x (increasing target interests from 30 to 420).

Following similar moves by Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest also announced the availability of email targeting on the social media network.

With CRM matching, companies with at least 100 email addresses can upload their lists to Pinterest for more targeted email-powered advertising options. Emails paired with matching Pinterest user accounts, while encryption keeps personally identifiable data confidential. 

Although it is currently limited to members of Pinterest’s Developer Partners program, the social company’s new email-powered tool could be particularly beneficial to email marketers and retailers.

Email is one of the most powerful drivers of ecommerce, and Pinterest already introduced mobile and online “buy” buttons in 2015.

Not surprisingly, integrating direct buy buttons into email marketing campaigns was ranked as a top initiative among 500 marketers polled by Campaigner.

Leveraging the visual-heavy social media platform as a driver for retail has added depth to Pinterest’s pockets, as advertising revenue jumped up 8x last year.