Pinterest turns intent data into performance-focused CTV ads

Pinterest continues to redefine the connected TV (CTV) advertising landscape by uniquely combining its exclusive first-party intent data with tvScientific’s deterministic attribution and cutting-edge AI-driven automation. This triad forms a performance-focused, scalable CTV ecosystem that delivers transparent and outcome-driven results, empowering advertisers to confidently navigate the increasingly complex and privacy-conscious media environment of 2026.

---

Pinterest’s Intent Data: The Cornerstone of Precision CTV Targeting

At the heart of Pinterest’s CTV success lies its vast reservoir of high-intent consumer signals. Billions of user interactions—searches, saves, pins—reflect active purchase consideration, enabling ultra-precise audience targeting within premium CTV environments. This privacy-safe, first-party data uniquely bridges consumer intent with verifiable business outcomes, setting Pinterest apart in an industry grappling with diminishing third-party identifiers.

The ongoing partnership with tvScientific enhances this foundation by delivering near-real-time deterministic attribution that links Pinterest-driven CTV ad exposure directly to sales, leads, and app installs. This level of attribution transparency is unmatched by traditional probabilistic methods, allowing marketers to optimize campaigns dynamically and maximize return on ad spend (ROAS) with confidence.

---

Key 2026 Developments Reinforce Deterministic Attribution and Autonomous Optimization

Several pivotal industry advancements and integrations in 2026 have further cemented Pinterest-tvScientific’s leadership in performance-driven CTV advertising:

• Infillion’s Acquisition of Catalina Unlocks Granular Retail Purchase Data
  The February 2026 acquisition granted access to expansive, deterministic retail transaction datasets. When combined with Pinterest’s intent signals and tvScientific’s attribution models, this integration vastly improves accuracy beyond probabilistic approaches, enabling advertisers to precisely measure and optimize campaigns across retail verticals and beyond.

• Comcast Advertising and Adara Pioneer Closed-Loop Travel Attribution
  Their innovative model directly ties premium CTV ad exposure to verified travel bookings and revenue, providing irrefutable ROI evidence. Plans to extend this closed-loop approach into retail and other sectors promise wider validation of deterministic CTV measurement’s power.

• iSpot’s SAGE Platform Integrates Agentic AI for Autonomous Video Ad Optimization
  The upgraded SAGE platform now leverages trusted video ad data fused with agentic AI, autonomously generating actionable insights and optimization recommendations. Industry experts describe this advancement as “a next-level AI evolution,” aligning seamlessly with Pinterest-tvScientific’s vision for near-instantaneous, ROI-focused campaign refinement.

• Becausal Introduces Always-On AI Sales Lift Measurement
  Becausal’s continuous, AI-powered solution quantifies incremental sales attributable to CTV campaigns in real time. This enhances Pinterest-tvScientific’s closed-loop validation ecosystem by providing ongoing, precise confirmation of campaign effectiveness.

• EDO’s ChatEDO™ Conversational AI Accelerates Data-Driven Decisions
  ChatEDO™ enables marketers to query complex campaign datasets using natural language, dramatically reducing analysis time. Integrated with Pinterest-tvScientific’s KPI feedback loops, it empowers rapid, data-driven campaign optimizations in fast-moving CTV environments.

• Programmatic AI Retargeting Expands Across Premium Platforms
  Pinterest’s intent-based audiences are now activated on programmatic platforms like Index Exchange and The Trade Desk, enabling scalable AI-driven retargeting across CTV and digital video. Complementary sell-side automation tools—including Prebid’s AdCP agent code, KNOREX’s Ads API, and Smoot’s Sift platform—facilitate fully autonomous programmatic deal automation, supporting seamless self-service workflows aligned with agentic AI trends.

• Ogury Expands Persona-Based Advertising to CTV
  Adding to the ecosystem’s momentum, Ogury’s recent expansion of its persona-based advertising into CTV signals growing industry confidence in combining persona and intent data activation within premium streaming environments. This development complements Pinterest’s approach by reinforcing the value of nuanced audience segmentation in CTV.

---

Navigating New Competitive Dynamics: Netflix’s In-House Ad Platform

A major development shaking up the CTV landscape in 2026 is Netflix’s launch of its proprietary advertising platform. This has introduced new complexities for advertisers, including reported inadvertent double spends where campaigns run simultaneously on Netflix’s platform and traditional programmatic CTV channels.

This development presents a dual-edged scenario for Pinterest:

• Risks: Fragmented supply and overlapping buys increase campaign complexity and costs, demanding tighter attribution and inventory management to prevent inefficiencies.

• Opportunities: Netflix’s entry validates the growing significance of CTV and premium streaming inventory, underscoring the strategic importance of Pinterest’s commitment to deterministic measurement and premium direct partnerships to maintain transparency and maximize ROI.

Pinterest’s performance-focused ecosystem—anchored in deterministic attribution and AI-enabled optimization—uniquely equips advertisers to navigate these shifting supply dynamics with precision and confidence.

---

Foundational Pillars: Premium Inventory, Privacy-First Targeting, and AI-Powered Automation

Pinterest’s CTV ecosystem is strengthened by several critical components that ensure quality, scale, and privacy compliance:

• Premium Direct Inventory Partnerships
  Collaborations with Xumo (Comcast-Charter) and Cadent provide access to 100% premium, fraud-free, direct-sourced inventory. These brand-safe placements are vital in a fragmented streaming market, enabling scalable, outcome-driven campaigns.

• Privacy-First Contextual Targeting Innovations
  With the decline of third-party identifiers, Pinterest doubles down on privacy-first contextual targeting by integrating real-time content metadata and environment signals alongside intent data. Notable integrations include:

  • Wurl’s content metadata enhancing ad relevance
  • VideoElephant’s expanded premium video inventory
  • VideoAmp and TVision’s granular household-level co-viewing data
  • Index Exchange and Gracenote’s show-level purchase verification linking ad exposures to actual purchases

• AI-Powered Creative Automation and Agentic AI Workflows
  Platforms such as Playad’s GIGR, MNTN’s QuickFrame AI, and Cineverse’s Matchpoint Creative Labs (enhanced by IndiCue) accelerate creative production. Agentic AI tools like Chalice AI and PubMatic sell-side agents automate campaign decisions, enabling fully autonomous, performance-optimized CTV campaigns at scale.

• Near-Real-Time KPI Feedback Loops
  Pinterest rapidly correlates intent signals with ad engagement and verified conversions, allowing marketers to swiftly identify winning creatives and audience segments, driving agile campaign optimizations and superior efficiency.

---

Ecosystem Momentum and Industry Validation

Pinterest’s pioneering approach is supported by broad ecosystem trends and strategic partnerships emphasizing transparency, automation, and premium supply:

• The Trade Desk’s Ventura Ecosystem
  Ventura fosters a transparent, accountable streaming marketplace with streamlined programmatic CTV buying, complementing Pinterest’s emphasis on premium inventory and deterministic measurement.

• Samsung Ads’ Immersive Carousel Home Screen Ad Unit
  Samsung’s innovative carousel format transforms CTV home screens into dynamic brand showcases, delivering significant engagement uplifts and new creative opportunities for Pinterest-powered campaigns.

• Cineverse’s $22 Million Acquisition of IndiCue
  This acquisition significantly boosts Cineverse’s creative automation capabilities, accelerating Pinterest-tvScientific’s AI-driven workflows and campaign responsiveness.

• DISH Media’s Privacy-Safe Direct Customer Signals
  DISH Media’s privacy-conscious direct signals align closely with Pinterest’s first-party data philosophy, reinforcing a privacy-centric ecosystem foundation.

• Agentic AI Gains Industry Traction
  Spotlighted at CES 2026 by Disney’s Alex Combs, agentic AI is transforming media planning through near-real-time campaign adjustments and reduced manual overhead, mirroring Pinterest-tvScientific’s autonomous optimization trajectory and fueling CTV budget growth.

• Google DV360 Q1 2026 Enhancements
  Updates to insertion order targeting and inventory source settings in Google’s DV360 platform present new programmatic CTV buying opportunities, aligning with Pinterest’s intent audience integrations.

• RAD Intel’s AI Ad Tech Holding Company Launch
  The formation of this AI-focused entity signals a broader industry push toward agentic AI innovation, complementing Pinterest-tvScientific’s autonomous campaign optimization roadmap.

---

Outlook: Toward a Fully Deterministic, Autonomous, and Transparent CTV Future

Pinterest’s fusion of exclusive first-party intent data, tvScientific’s deterministic outcome measurement, expansive premium inventory partnerships, and advanced AI-powered creative and agentic workflows is accelerating a new era of CTV advertising characterized by:

• Transparent, Full-Funnel Attribution
  End-to-end clarity into consumer journeys from Pinterest discovery through CTV exposure to verified revenue enables precise budget allocation and optimization.

• Dynamic, AI-Driven Campaign Optimization
  Near-real-time KPI feedback and autonomous agentic AI workflows empower rapid budget shifts toward highest-value audiences and creatives, maximizing agility and effectiveness.

• Accelerated Creative and Media Workflows
  Autonomous creative generation and programmatic buying facilitate rapid responses to evolving consumer behaviors and market dynamics.

• Scalable, Premium Programmatic Inventory with Brand Safety
  Direct partnerships and layered video environments create fraud-resistant, high-quality inventory pools ideal for scaling performance campaigns.

• Industry Measurement Standards and Growing Advertiser Confidence
  Initiatives like IAB’s Project Eidos boost transparency and cross-platform comparability, fostering advertiser trust and accelerating CTV adoption.

• Expanding Advertiser Budgets Fueled by AI Efficiencies
  Nearly 80% of CTV advertisers plan budget increases exceeding 11% in 2026, driven by agentic AI efficiencies that position CTV as a marketing channel rivaling digital in sophistication and ROI.

---

Conclusion

Pinterest’s relentless innovation—anchored in its exclusive first-party intent data and strengthened through expanding partnerships with tvScientific and ecosystem leaders—is fundamentally reshaping CTV advertising into a performance-first, outcome-driven ecosystem. The integration of new deterministic revenue attribution capabilities (Infillion-Catalina acquisition, Comcast-Adara closed-loop travel models), advanced agentic AI for video optimization (iSpot SAGE), conversational analytics (EDO ChatEDO™), programmatic expansions (Index Exchange, The Trade Desk, Prebid, KNOREX, Smoot’s Sift), continuous sales lift measurement (Becausal), and a growing network of premium inventory partners positions Pinterest at the forefront of a pivotal shift in how marketers plan, execute, and optimize CTV campaigns.

As Netflix’s in-house ad platform reshapes supply dynamics, Pinterest’s commitment to transparent, deterministic measurement and autonomous, AI-driven campaign optimization equips advertisers to confidently navigate complexity, avoid inefficiencies, and unlock the full potential of CTV—delivering measurable business impact at scale with unmatched transparency, efficiency, and agility.