Pinterest is making a decisive move from a walled garden to an open marketplace. With the launch of Programmatic Deals, facilitated primarily through Magnite, Pinterest is opening its premium display and video inventory to major demand-side platforms (DSPs) including Amazon Ads DVA+, Google Display & Video 360, and Yahoo DSP.

For retail marketers, this is a realignment of how Pinterest intends to capture retail media budgets and prove its value to performance-driven, omnichannel retailers.

“Pinterest captures the moment when people are figuring out what they want to try, buy, or do next. Programmatic Deals put that intent to work for enterprise advertisers across the media systems they already use at scale,” said Jason Fairchild, general manager of programmatic & affiliate at Pinterest and CEO of tvScientific by Pinterest.

For years, Pinterest operated as a highly curated, siloed ecosystem. Retail advertisers had to build campaigns natively within the platform, often requiring dedicated resources and separate measurement frameworks. While this fostered a unique, high-intent environment, legacy systems created friction for retail brands accustomed to planning and buying media through their preferred DSPs.

By adopting a programmatic-first approach, Pinterest is attempting to reduce that friction. Retailers can now buy select Pinterest inventory alongside the rest of their digital campaigns in the workflows they already know, keeping Pinterest placements integrated into their broader retail media strategies.

Why the shift matters for retail

The operational mechanics of this strategy are straightforward but impactful for retail. By connecting its supply to Amazon, Google, and Yahoo, Pinterest aims to inject its high-intent inventory into the broader programmatic ecosystem. This means a retail marketer could potentially include Pinterest placements in a unified campaign, targeting shoppers whose intent signals on Pinterest, indicating active shopping or planning phases that are incredibly valuable. The platform’s decision to test programmatic guaranteed deals earlier this year served as a test run for this broader rollout across North America, South America, and Asia Pacific.

Pinterest hopes that this bolsters its revenue trajectory, and offers retail marketers a new lever to pull. The company needed a new catalyst for ad demand, according to Social Day, especially given its recent guidance of decelerating revenue growth. By attempting to lower the barrier to entry, Pinterest potentially unlocks a wave of programmatic buyers who previously might not have allocated budget to a Pinterest-specific campaign.

Capturing demand-driven discovery

Pinterest’s programmatic expansion is a timely pivot that could help secure multi-year gains.

• We forecast Pinterest ad revenues in the US to climb steadily from $2.70 billion in 2024 to $4.22 billion by 2028. While the YoY percentage change dipped to 10.0% in 2025, the trajectory recovers and stabilizes, hitting 13.5% growth in 2027 before settling at 11.8% in 2028.

By making inventory accessible through major DSPs, Pinterest could fuel the ad volume needed to drive these absolute revenue increases, even as the overall digital ad market matures.

There’s also an upside to measurement: By integrating with DSPs, Pinterest allows retail marketers to potentially leverage their own existing measurement and attribution models. Brands could now see how Pinterest contributes to their broader campaign performance, demystifying the platform's ROI and proving its worth as a full-funnel marketing engine, from inspiration to checkout.