Dive Brief:

• Pinterest has just added new ad tech talent to its roster -- at the expense of Twitter.
• The new hire, Nipoon Malhorta, was most recently part of Twitter’s brand advertising product team and head of Bing’s Whole Page Ranking product team before that.
• The move is part of a year where Pinterest is trying out monetization efforts including promoted pins, “buy it” buttons and new advertising options.

Dive Insight:

In a statement, Jonathan Shottan, Pinterest head of product for monetization, said, “Nipoon [Malhorta] is a proven leader with the ability to execute and scale teams and revenue generating products. We are thrilled to have him as part of the team as we continue to grow and innovate on ads and commerce.”

The new hire comes in a year that finds Pinterest looking for different ways to monetize its user base including adding promoted pins at the beginning of the year, buyable pins last month and integrating third-party services via an opened API.

Pinterest’s active user base grew 97% from Q1 2014 to the same time period this year according to GlobalWebIndex research, but it is trailing Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in sales conversions. This lag has caused some brands, such as Elizabeth Arden, to leave the social media platform for Instagram where marketing efforts are getting better engagement metrics.