---
title: "Pinterest now sells creators' Pins as ads without a deal; the creator gets an email"
description: "Brands can buy any eligible creator Pin as an ad and notify the maker by email afterwards, with no published payment terms. An Amazon ads finance veteran takes the CFO seat on October 26 with a $19.98 million equity package, into 18% revenue growth and back-to-back GAAP losses."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Platforms"
published: 2026-10-11T19:18:50.547Z
modified: 2026-10-11T19:18:50.547Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pinterest-now-sells-creators-pins-as-ads-without-a-deal-the-creator-gets-an-email
language: en
keywords: "Pinterest, Advertising, Creator Economy, Earnings, Executive Moves"
---

# Pinterest now sells creators' Pins as ads without a deal; the creator gets an email

> Brands can buy any eligible creator Pin as an ad and notify the maker by email afterwards, with no published payment terms. An Amazon ads finance veteran takes the CFO seat on October 26 with a $19.98 million equity package, into 18% revenue growth and back-to-back GAAP losses.

## The email arrives after the sale

[Pinterest](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/pinterest) has turned its creators' Pins into ad inventory. A brand can now put spend behind any eligible Pin a creator has already posted, with no partnership tag and no contract, and the creator learns of it afterwards: "You'll get an email if a brand decides to promote your Pin," [the company's help page](https://help.pinterest.com/en/article/creator-commerce-hub) reads [1][2]. Trade coverage sells the change as a casual new route into user-generated content and a bigger pool of future partnerships [3][4].

## Ad inventory nobody had to pitch

For advertisers, that is ready-made creative from people they have never dealt with. The underlying boost tool, Promote a Pin, went live on March 24, 2026, on [a base Pinterest puts at 619 million users and more than 80 billion searches a month](https://www.thekeyword.co/news/pinterest-brands-promote-creator-pins), half of them commercial [1].

Access is still narrow. The tool is "gradually rolling out" to "a small, curated group of US creators and high-engagement users," and [its advertiser page](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/promote-a-pin) still says an account can only boost Pins it "created or uploaded"; the buying steps for someone else's Pin are unpublished [5].

## Every rival asks first

What the page leaves out is the money. The Creator Commerce Hub sets no payment terms for creators and documents no way to refuse a single promotion; the only control is the account-wide "Let advertisers promote your content" toggle, and switching it off "will not affect any campaigns that you're already running" [2]. [One trade report](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/pinterest-expands-creator-content-promotions/832447/) says creators "can choose to allow the promotion or not"; Pinterest's own page describes no per-Pin choice [4].

The rivals kept a step in. [Meta](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/meta)'s partnership ads, added December 11, 2025, need an ad code the creator shares, and LinkedIn's June Creator Marketplace has creators negotiate terms and fees brand by brand [1]. Meta asks permission, LinkedIn negotiates a fee, Pinterest sends an email.

## Record revenue, a GAAP hole

The push lands on a specific P&L. Q2 revenue was $1.18 billion, up 18.2% year over year, on a record 640 million monthly users, but GAAP net income swung to a $46.6 million loss from a $38.75 million profit a year earlier, the second straight quarterly loss [6][7][8]. The market charged for it on the day: [shares fell 8.7% on the report](https://www.247wallst.com/companies/pins/earnings/) and sat 12.7% lower a month on, against a flat S&P 500 [6].

*Chart: **Revenue at record highs while GAAP profit turns to two straight losses** Line chart: Pinterest quarterly revenue climbs from $0.86 billion to $1.18 billion across six quarters while GAAP net income swings from small profits to losses of $74 million and $47 million.*

*Quarterly figures from Pinterest's SEC filings, USD billions, retrieved October 11, 2026; Q4 is the seasonal peak. Q2 figures cross-checked against reported results [6]. [6][8]*

## The money file behind it

James Dibbo takes the finance seat on October 26: a $650,000 salary, $19.98 million in initial restricted stock and about $9 million more expected in April 2027, with corporate development in his remit, per Monday's securities filing [7]. He spent a decade at [Amazon](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/amazon), latterly as finance chief for its advertising, entertainment and corporate development arm [9]. Julia Brau Donnelly departs October 30 after three years for the AI startup [Sierra](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/sierra); the shares slipped roughly 1% after hours on the news [7][9].

## Ten sales since July, zero buys

The founder, meanwhile, keeps selling. Director and co-founder Ben Silbermann [sold 46,875 shares on October 6 at $19.66, or $921,562.50](https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/insider-pinterest-nyse-pins-director-benjamin-silbermann-sells-46875-shares-of-company-stock-2026-10-07/), the tenth sale listed since July 21, [a run totaling about $10.9 million](https://theinference.org/article/pinterest-shipped-its-ai-ad-pivot-while-the-founder-s-trust-sold-24-million-at-falling-prices), all under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan [10]. Insiders overall sold $41.9 million of stock in 12 months with zero buys [11].

## The bull case, stated fairly

The numbers underneath are strong. Non-GAAP earnings beat at $0.43 a share against a $0.36 consensus, adjusted EBITDA rose 24% to $311 million as margin expanded to 26% from 25%, and free cash flow grew 37% to $270 million, with more than $2 billion of buybacks so far this year [6].

*Chart: **Free cash flow stayed positive through both GAAP loss quarters** Column chart: Pinterest's quarterly free cash flow holds between about $200 million and $380 million across eight straight quarters, staying positive through the two GAAP loss quarters.*

*Quarterly free cash flow from Pinterest's SEC filings, USD billions, retrieved October 11, 2026 [12]. The Q2 2026 figure of $270 million, up 37% year over year, matches the company's reported result [6]. [12][6]*

The founder's sales are scheduled by a 10b5-1 plan, not reactions to this week, and at $21.40 the stock has already paid for disappointment, far below its $35.42 high [10][11]. What that case cannot paper over is two straight GAAP losses and a year of insider selling without a single buy.

## What November 3 settles

Q3 results land on November 3, guided to $1.19 billion to $1.21 billion in revenue, or 13% to 15% growth, with adjusted EBITDA of $335 million to $355 million [6]. Two disclosures would tell the tale: whether Pinterest publishes how advertisers buy a stranger's Pin, and whether any payment to creators ever appears in writing. Until one does, Pinterest has built an ad business on content it does not have to pay for, one email at a time.

## Takeaway

Pinterest now lets brands promote any eligible creator Pin without a deal, and the creator learns by email afterwards, with no published payment terms and no per-Pin opt out. It lands on record revenue, two straight GAAP losses, a new CFO and a year of insider selling, with Q3 results due November 3.

## Sources

1. [The Keyword, "Pinterest Opens Creators' Organic Pins to Brand Promotion", 9 October 2026](https://www.thekeyword.co/news/pinterest-brands-promote-creator-pins)
2. [Pinterest Help Centre, "Creator Commerce Hub", fetched 11 October 2026](https://help.pinterest.com/en/article/creator-commerce-hub)
3. [MediaPost, "Pinterest Invites Brands To Boost Any Eligible Creator Content", 9 October 2026](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/418612/pinterest-invites-brands-to-boost-any-eligible-cre.html?edition=144099)
4. [Social Media Today, "Pinterest expands creator content promotions", 7 October 2026](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/pinterest-expands-creator-content-promotions/832447/)
5. [Pinterest Business Help Centre, "Promote a Pin", fetched 11 October 2026](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/promote-a-pin)
6. [24/7 Wall St, "Pinterest (PINS) Q2 2026 Earnings: Results, Market Reaction & History", 4 August 2026](https://www.247wallst.com/companies/pins/earnings/)
7. [CFO Dive, "Pinterest swipes Amazon exec for CFO", 6 October 2026](https://www.cfodive.com/news/pinterest-swipes-amazon-exec-cfo/832313/)
8. [Pinterest, quarterly revenue and net income from its SEC filings, retrieved 11 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001506293)
9. [Quartz, "Pinterest is naming an Amazon finance veteran as its new CFO", 6 October 2026](https://www.qz.com/pinterest-cfo-james-dibbo-amazon-100626)
10. [MarketBeat, "Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) Director Benjamin Silbermann Sells 46,875 Shares of Company Stock", 7 October 2026](https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/insider-pinterest-nyse-pins-director-benjamin-silbermann-sells-46875-shares-of-company-stock-2026-10-07/)
11. [GuruFocus, "A Look at Pinterest Inc (PINS) After 4.2% Gain", 9 October 2026](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9118034/a-look-at-pinterest-inc-pins-after-42-gain-gf-value-5007-vs-price-2140)
12. [Pinterest, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 11 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001506293)


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Pinterest now sells creators' Pins as ads without a deal; the creator gets an email — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/pinterest-now-sells-creators-pins-as-ads-without-a-deal-the-creator-gets-an-email