Pinterest Reports Steady Growth in Users and Revenue in Q3

Pinterest has published its latest quarterly performance update, showing a solid increase in active users, and steady revenue growth, underlining its rising relevance, and value, for millions of users.

First off, on audience. Pinterest added 17 million more monthly actives in the period, taking it to 482 million MAU.

That’s Pinterest’s highest-ever MAU count, beating its pandemic spike in 2021, when it reached 478 million users. Many analysts had viewed that to be an acceleration of existing online shopping trends, which would likely hold even after the lockdown period. But the re-opening of physical stores quickly saw consumers revert to their normal in-store shopping habits, which saw Pinterest eventually lose 47 million monthly actives before getting its growth trajectory back on track.

But as you can see in the above chart, it’s now seemingly on the right path, with the platform continuing to see its most significant growth in the “Rest of World” market, with Brazil and Mexico standing out as key growth areas for the app.

Though its growth in the European and U.S. markets remains inconsistent, which is a concern when you look at this chart.

As you can see, Pinterest still makes the vast majority of its revenue from North American users, with E.U. audiences next, though a long way back. That highlights future opportunity, but Pinterest needs to start capitalizing on such in order to maximize its earnings potential within these broader markets.

Also, another good indicator of future growth:

“We’re seeing strength with our Gen Z users, who are our fastest-growing, and most engaged users. We are seeing strong product market fit with our recent cohorts, who save 2x more content in their first year on Pinterest, relative to older cohorts.”

So Pinterest is growing in developing markets, and with younger audiences. Those are good indicators, but whether the market views that as an immediate positive is another thing.

In terms of revenue, Pinterest brought in $763 million for the period, up 11% year-over-year, beating estimates.

Total costs and expenses, however, were $768 million for the period. Which is a decline on Q2, but it still remains a key focus.

Pinterest has projected that its costs will decrease by around 13% moving forward, due to cost-cutting and rationalization measures. But overall, Pinterest remains in the red, despite its steady results.

In terms of what’s driving performance at the app, Pinterest says that its addition of mobile deeplinking within the app, which enables businesses to drive users back to specific pages in their own mobile app, has led to a significant expansion of referral traffic.

“We saw 88% higher outbound click-through rates and a 39% decrease in cost per outbound click for CPC objectives from early Direct Links adopters.”

Pinterest also says that the expanded integration of its Conversions API, via various partners, has helped to drive more interest in Pin ads, while its new partnership with Amazon, which enables Amazon advertisers to expand their campaigns to Pinterest, is also performing well for partners within the early test pool.

It’s still in its early stages, but integrations like this could help to pave a new way forward for the app, in facilitating direct linkage into its Pin ecosystem with expanded promotions, in order to help brands reach its shopping-focused audience.

Overall, there are good indicators in Pinterest’s report, which show that it is likely on the right track, especially considering future potential and expansion opportunities in new markets.

The trick now is for Pinterest to get the most out of that attention, and generate more conversions from its audience.

That won’t happen straight away, but Pinterest is seemingly in a good position to grow, through various avenues.