Pinterest today said that it would launch what it’s calling its Marketing Developer Program, in which a set of partners will get access to new tools that allow them to better deliver more engaging content on Pinterest.
The tools consist of things like pin scheduling and optimization in the form of APIs for companies that post branded content across a variety of channels, and work with marketing partners to do that, Pinterest’s head of marketing development partners Jyri Kidwell said.
“Lots of these [companies] are already putting content on Pinterest,” he said. “[Our goal] is to give them tools to more efficiently put content on Pinterest and give them performance feedback, so they can do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.”
The company also disclosed that it’s testing its advertising API, which was in limited beta since earlier this year. Companies can promote paid content on Pinterest, but same as its marketing development program, the company is currently restricting the program to a few partners.
The marketing development APIs are available for free to its partners, Kidwell said. In the end, those partners charge companies for their tools that help them promote content across multiple networks, and in Pinterest gets additional content that will end up on its platform — which, with the tools, should be higher quality.
“We’ve been ramping up in the last few months; we’ve published millions of pins through these partners on the content publishing side,” he said. “We’ve seen stronger than average re-pin rates in content through the developer partners. That’s a really encouraging sign.”

Pinterest currently works with 10 partners, and said it would be carefully selecting partners going forward instead of making it an open platform right away. The company holds “Pinstitute” sessions, where it brings in companies and agencies to give them best practices and feedback. In all, the goal is to make sure partners know what they are getting into and how to produce the best content.
“When we enter a partnership we make sure we’re aligned on what they’re trying to do,” Kidwell said. “We manage that by carefully choosing who we partner with, setting expectations and working on innovation. We want to enable them to do more and innovate with us on Pinterest for the benefit of brands and pinners.”
