• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, June 7, 2016

For years, mobile thought leaders have held out the promise of higher in-store sales thanks to various integrations and buying efficiencies. And, for certain platforms, that promise is finally being realized.

Promoted Pins do seem to get people to buy more in-store, according to a new study conducted by Oracle Data Cloud.

Using its $3 trillion in offline sales data linked to online audiences, the DaaS (data as a service) found that Promoted Pins drove about 500% more incremental in-store sales per impression.

What’s more, the study found that CPG brands are about 300% more likely to reach existing customers on Pinterest, and -- compared to the national average -- Pinners spend 16% more of their hard earned cash.

On Pinterest, people don’t just scroll past ads. Instead, they click and save them to their personal collections. This high level of engagement is a huge signal of intent, Oracle found.

Pinners save Pins so they can easily refer to them later, like when they’re at the grocery store and want to buy the brand of pasta they saw in a recipe Pin.

Meanwhile, when someone saves a Pin, they’re also distributing content. Each time a users saves a Pin, it spreads to his or her followers.

According to Oracle Data Cloud, when accounting for both earned and paid impressions, earned media impressions doubled the incremental sales of paid impressions alone.

In other words, campaigns are effective for people even if they didn’t get a specific paid impression.

The study also found people who engage with Promoted Pins are 12% more likely to be buyers of that brand, compared to people who haven’t engaged with the Pins.