Pinterest adding 15 ad-tech companies to beef up its data and measurement game

Pinterest is looking to step up its ad business by debuting 15 new marketing and ad attribution partners, known as Marketing Developer Partners, for brands to measure engagement and increase conversions.

Pinterest has long claimed it moves the needle for brands in terms of sales and conversions, and now the company is inviting more ad-tech partners to its platform to prove it.

Today, the visual-sharing site is revamping its 16-month-old advertising program that gives tech companies access to its API to include 15 new players. Formerly known as Marketing Developer Partners, the name of Pinterest's new program has been shortened to Marketing Partners.

While Pinterest has been pitching its data-driven approach to advertisers for a couple of years, the site's ad business has been slower to take off than Google's, Facebook's or Snapchat's. To catch up, it's rolled out new targeting and video offerings in the past year and poached Snapchat's measurement exec, Gunnard Johnson, in July to build out the data and research arm of its business.

Most notably, measurement and audience-minded tech companies are now getting their hands on Pinterest data. On the measurement side, New York-based Moat will begin tracking viewability for advertisers. Mobile-geared AppsFlyer, Kochava, Tune, Adjust and Apsalar are also joining the program. The site's existing partnerships with Oracle Data Cloud and Millward Brown Digital, which will be included in the measurement side of the program.

On the audience side of Pinterest's ad business, Neustar, Krux, mParticle and Experian are being added to work closely with the company to help brands match their own data with Pinterest's insights to run programs that use targeting tactics like act-alike audiences and customer-list targeting.

In addition to measurement and audience, Pinterest has a new crop of ad-minded companies that will begin pitching their clients on the site's paid promos, including Sprinklr, Adglow, Bidalgo and AdParlor, while Socialbakers will start supplying brands with content.