Why Pinterest Ads

Pinterest differs from other social platforms in user intent. People on Facebook and Instagram are primarily consuming content about other people. People on Pinterest are actively planning — searching for ideas, saving content for future reference, building boards around purchases they intend to make. According to Pinterest's own research, 80% of weekly Pinners have discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest, and the platform drives higher average order values than other social platforms for categories like home, fashion, and beauty.

Pinterest's demographic skews toward: women (approximately 70% of users), high household income, and active purchase planners. In the US, Pinterest reaches more than one in three adult women. For brands in relevant categories — home and interior design, fashion, food and recipes, weddings and events, travel, beauty, DIY and crafts, parenting, fitness — Pinterest is a high-intent, low-competition alternative to Meta and Google.

Competition on Pinterest is lower than Meta or Google for most categories, resulting in lower CPMs and CPCs for comparable audiences. The trade-off is scale: Pinterest's global user base (500M MAU) is smaller than Facebook's (3B+), and ad formats are less flexible than Meta's.

Pinterest ad formats

Standard Pins (Promoted Pins)

Static image ads that appear in the home feed, search results, and related Pins sections. The most basic format. Images should be vertical (2:3 ratio, minimum 1000 × 1500px). The ad appears like a regular Pin but with a "Promoted" label. When clicked, it opens a closeup before routing to the destination URL.

Video Pins

Autoplay video ads in the feed. Two sizes: standard (same width as a normal Pin) and max-width (spans the full feed width on mobile). Video should hook in the first 2-3 seconds as it autoplays without sound. Captions recommended. Best for: demonstrating a product, showing a process (recipe, DIY), or telling a brand story.

Carousel Pins

2-5 image carousel that users swipe through. Each card can have a different destination URL. Effective for: showcasing multiple products, showing a before/after, presenting a step-by-step process, or highlighting different product variants.

Shopping Pins

Product Pins connected to a product catalogue showing real-time price and availability. Can be created from a product catalogue via Pinterest's Commerce feature. Appear in shopping feeds and search results. The highest-intent format — users see the product, price, and can go directly to purchase. See Shopping Ads section below.

Collection Ads

Full-screen mobile experience with a hero image or video above a grid of three product images. Clicking the hero opens a browsable collection. Requires a product catalogue. Effective for fashion, home, and any category with multiple complementary products.

Idea Ads (formerly Story Pins)

Multi-page, full-screen content format — up to 20 pages of images, videos, and text. Unlike other Pinterest ads, Idea Ads cannot have outbound links; they are engagement and brand awareness formats. Effective for educational content, step-by-step guides, and brand storytelling that positions the brand as an inspiration source.

Pinterest targeting options

Pinterest offers several targeting approaches, combining keyword intent (similar to search) with interest and audience targeting (similar to social):

• Keyword targeting — target specific search queries. Pinterest users search with planning intent ("living room ideas", "summer wedding inspiration", "easy pasta dinner"). Keyword targeting reaches users in active planning mode.
• Interest targeting — target users whose Pinterest activity indicates interest in specific topics (home decor, fitness, cooking etc.). Broader reach than keyword targeting.
• Audience targeting — customer lists (email uploads), website visitors (Pinterest Tag required), engagement audiences (users who have engaged with your Pins), lookalike audiences.
• Actalike audiences — Pinterest's lookalike equivalent. Finds users whose Pinterest behaviour resembles your existing customers.
• Demographics — age, gender, location, language, device.

Pinterest recommends combining keyword and interest targeting for prospecting campaigns. For retargeting, audience targeting using the Pinterest Tag provides the tightest audience.

Shopping Ads and catalogues

Pinterest Shopping Ads are the highest-converting format for e-commerce. They connect directly to a product catalogue and show individual products in search results and shopping feeds with real-time price and availability.

Setup requires: (1) Creating a business account on Pinterest, (2) Connecting a product catalogue via Pinterest's Commerce Manager (supports direct feed uploads, Shopify, WooCommerce, and other integrations), (3) Enabling the Pinterest Tag on the website for conversion tracking, (4) Creating a Shopping campaign in Pinterest Ads Manager.

Shopping campaigns can be targeted by keyword (product appears when users search relevant terms) or broad interest categories. Dynamic retargeting — showing users ads for products they have viewed on the website — requires the Pinterest Tag with event tracking.

Pinterest Tag

The Pinterest Tag is a JavaScript pixel that tracks user behaviour on the website after clicking a Pinterest ad. It must be installed on all pages before running conversion-optimised campaigns. Standard events to track: PageVisit, ViewCategory, Search, AddToCart, Checkout (with value and order ID). Installation documentation at help.pinterest.com.

Pinterest also supports server-side conversion tracking via the Conversions API — recommended in addition to the browser tag to capture conversions that the tag misses due to ad blockers and iOS privacy restrictions.

Visual creative best practices

Pinterest is a visual search engine. Creative standards differ from Facebook or Instagram:

• Vertical format. 2:3 ratio (e.g. 1000×1500px) is standard. Vertical images take up more feed real estate on mobile and perform better than square or horizontal images.
• Lifestyle context over product on white. Images showing a product in use — a sofa in a beautifully styled living room rather than a product shot — perform better because they match the aspirational, planning context of Pinterest.
• Text overlay. Unlike Instagram, text on images is common and effective on Pinterest. Use overlaid text to communicate the offer, product name, or key benefit. Keep fonts large and readable at small sizes.
• Seasonal relevance. Pinterest users plan ahead — content for seasonal events (Christmas, Valentine's Day, back-to-school) is searched 45-60 days before the event. Schedule seasonal campaigns earlier than on other platforms.
• High quality imagery. Pinterest is a curated visual platform. Low-quality or generic stock photography performs poorly. Invest in photography that fits the aesthetic of the category.
• No CTAs in the image for non-Shopping formats. Pinterest's ad policy discourages aggressive call-to-action text directly on Pin images for brand campaigns. Destination URLs and descriptions carry the CTA.

Campaign setup in Pinterest Ads Manager

Pinterest campaigns are structured: Campaign → Ad Group → Ad. The Campaign sets the objective (brand awareness, video views, consideration, conversions, shopping). The Ad Group sets targeting, budget, bidding, and schedule. The Ad is the individual creative unit.

For conversion campaigns, the Campaign must have the Pinterest Tag installed and a conversion event selected. Pinterest's algorithm needs at least 50 conversion events per week to exit the learning phase and optimise effectively — for low-conversion products, start with a higher-funnel objective (consideration) and move to conversion once the pixel has data.

Key Pinterest Ads metrics

• Impressions — number of times the Pin was seen. Pinterest CPMs typically range from $2-5 for awareness campaigns.
• Outbound Click Rate (CTR) — clicks to the destination URL divided by impressions. Pinterest average is 0.2-0.4%. Note: Pinterest tracks total engagements (saves, closeups, outbound clicks) as well as outbound clicks specifically.
• Save Rate — the percentage of impressions that result in a save (Repin). High save rates indicate the content is resonating with planning intent — saves extend organic reach at no additional cost.
• Cost Per Outbound Click — typically $0.10-1.50 depending on audience and format, generally lower than Meta or Google.
• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) — for Shopping campaigns, tracked via the Pinterest Tag. Compare to ROAS on other channels given Pinterest's different purchase timeline (users often save and convert weeks later).
• View-through conversions — conversions that happen after seeing a Pinterest ad but not clicking it. Pinterest's long consideration timeline means view-through attribution is more significant here than on other platforms.