People are on Pinterest more than ever in 2026, making Pinterest ads a way to create awareness and inspire consideration.
Unlike traditional social media platforms focused on updates and social connections, Pinterest works as an engine for visual discovery. Users curate and organize inspiring content for future reference (or purchases).
It’s like a digital mood board dedicated to creative projects, living spaces, wardrobes, or a variety of aspirations and plans. It’s also a great tool for driving traffic to websites.
Activity on Pinterest continues to grow, ending 2025 with a record 619 million monthly active users, up 12% year over year. In the final quarter alone, 19 million users joined the popular inspo platform.
The platform now fields more than 80 billion searches a month, and Pinterest Ads let you reach shoppers in the planning phase. This window is before they Google, before they hit Amazon, before your competitors even realize they’re in-market. They help you claim the shelf before the shelf.
This guide covers how to create Pinterest ads step by step, with best practices to make sure your first campaign performs as intended.
What are the benefits of Pinterest advertising?
Pinterest ads are promoted Pins that appear in home feeds, search results, and related Pins with a “Sponsored” label. You can pick a marketing campaign objective, set audience and budget, and pay per impression, click, or action. Pinterest functions as an online visual search engine; ads surface while shoppers are still choosing which products to buy, and from whom.
For store owners needing to find more customers, Pinterest ads could be part of the solution. According to a Q4 2025 Shopify survey* of store owners, finding customers was the third most common (36%) challenge they faced.
Because 96% of top searches on the platform are unbranded, advertising there is a strong option for businesses building a brand identity and personality. Ads on Pinterest work for you in three ways:
1. Your ads can earn you more sales
Shoppers who see Pinterest campaigns buy more, more often. Research commissioned by Pinterest in partnership with LiveRamp reveals that people on the platform spend 26% more each year than “non‑Pinners.” These users visit stores 25% more often, and walk away with baskets 6% larger, on average.
In a meta-analysis of 10 UK offline sales lift studies, Pinterest ads delivered a 21% higher sales lift and achieved statistically significant results in 70% of cases.
But your own results will vary depending on your products, your target market, and how you approach Pinterest advertising. Ads on Pinterest generally work best for merchants who run stores in those industries that typically dominate Pinterest feeds:
Outside these verticals, businesses can still see strong results; it might take sharper targeting or a more creative angle.
2. Your ads can be shown to users who are browsing on Pinterest
Pinterest ads can appear as people browse their home feeds, view related Pins, or search for specific ideas.
You can use interest targeting to reach people based on topics, tastes, and life events related to your products. Further, keyword targeting lets you place ads in front of people searching for keywords, or relevant terms.
Pinterest also lets advertisers strategically grow audiences using customer lists, previous website visitors, or people who have engaged with their Pins. Actalike audiences can then help reach people whose behavior resembles that of an existing, or “lookalike audience.”
3. Your Pinterest ads can also appear in search results on Pinterest
If someone searches “handmade vase” and you sell ceramic handmade vases, your ad can appear in their results, putting your product in front of users who are intentionally seeking ones like it.
In fact, 45% of clicks happen within the top 10 search results and where shopping journeys often begin. Pinterest’s newer Top of Search ads place your products directly in those top ten results and in Related Pins.
Per Pinterest’s own testing, the format drives a 29% higher click-through rate (CTR) than standard campaigns.
Pinterest ad types and formats
Pinterest has several ad formats, including single-image and video ads, carousels, shoppable product ads, and interactive experiences. The right format depends on what you want people to do.
Below, explore the main types of Pinterest ads, how the different Pinterest ad formats work, and when to use each one.
Standard image ads
Pinterest ads are also commonly known as promoted pins. The simplest format is the standard image ad, which uses a single static image and resembles an organic pin in the home or search feed. Ads are clearly labeled as “Sponsored” or “Promoted by” to distinguish them from organic content.
Standard image ads can include a title, destination link, description, logo, and text within the creative. Pinterest recommends using a vertical 2:3 aspect ratio, such as 1000 by 1500 pixels, because taller images may be cropped in the feed.
The titles can contain up to 100 characters, although only the first 40 may appear on some devices. Descriptions can contain up to 800 characters. They aren’t displayed in the feed or when someone opens an ad, but Pinterest uses them to assess relevance and decide where to deliver it.
You can create a new standard image ad in Ads Manager or promote an existing pin from one of your boards.
Video Pins
Video ads, also called video pins, use motion to demonstrate a product, show it from different angles, or explain how it works. They begin playing automatically when they enter a user’s home feed.
Pinterest recommends keeping video ads between six and 15 seconds, although the format technically supports videos from four seconds to 15 minutes. Videos play without sound in the feed, so communicate the main message through the creative’s visuals, on-screen text, or captions.
Pinterest offers two widths for video Pins:
- Standard-width videos occupy the same space as regular pins and can use square or vertical formats.
- Max-width video ads span two columns on mobile, giving you a larger placement in the feed.
Premiere Spotlight
Introduced in 2023, Premiere Spotlight is Pinterest’s premium mobile video placement for product launches, seasonal campaigns, and other major brand moments.
Premiere Spotlight ads use max-width video and receive an exclusive placement at the top of either the Pinterest home feed or search page for an entire day. The ad can occupy approximately half of a user’s mobile screen.
These examples show Premiere Spotlight ads in search results and the home feed:
Shopping pins
Shopping ads promote products directly from your Pinterest catalog. They can display details such as the product’s current price and availability, then direct shoppers to the relevant product page on your ecommerce site to complete their purchase.
To sell on Pinterest, upload your product catalog to create product pins at scale. If you’re on Shopify, use the Pinterest for Shopify app to connect your product feed, generate product pins, and install the Pinterest tag and Conversions API.
Catalog ads pull product information from that feed to create and update shopping ads automatically. Pinterest currently supports standard, video, carousel, and personalized collections shopping ads.
Per Pinterest, brands that add shopping ads to their campaign mix saw 15% higher return on ad spend and 2.6 times higher conversion rates.
Carousel ads
Carousel ads resemble standard image shoppable ads, but contain multiple cards that people can swipe through. A standard carousel can include two to five static images in either a square or vertical format.
For example, a Pinterest search for sofas shows promoted Pins from Ashley Canada, Eternity Modern, and Cozey alongside organic and product pins.
Cozey’s ad includes three dots beneath the image, suggesting viewers swipe through the additional cards.
Collection ads
Collections ads combine one large hero image or video with three smaller product images beneath it. When someone taps the ad, it opens into a full-screen experience featuring the hero creative and up to 24 secondary products or images.
You can use the hero creative to introduce the collection or show the products in context. The secondary creatives can then highlight individual products, each with its own destination link.
With the catalog option, Pinterest chooses which products to display based on their relevance to the person viewing the ad.
Idea ads
Idea ads combine multiple images, videos, lists, and custom text within a single pin. You can use a full-bleed 9:16 layout to present tutorials, routines, demonstrations, or other sequential content.
People who engage with an Idea ad can save the pin, follow the advertiser’s account, or visit the destination URL.
Showcase ads
Showcase ads are multilayered ads that let people swipe through multiple cards and tap interactive features leading to different products, content, or landing pages.
Each ad begins with a title pin featuring an image or video. You can then add up to four swipeable cards, each containing a static image and up to three tappable features with separate outbound links.
This format can be used to introduce a product collection, compare different styles or features, or guide shoppers through a routine. In the example below, L’Oréal Paris uses several cards to help shoppers explore different skin care routines:
Quiz ads
Quiz ads ask people two or three multiple-choice questions directly within a pin, with two or three possible answers for each question. Based on their responses, the ad displays a corresponding results Pin containing an image, title, description, and outbound link.
You can use this format to help shoppers narrow down a choice. For example, Hill’s Pet Nutrition asks users about their daily routine before providing a personalized pet recommendation.
Lead ads
Lead ads collect customer information through a native form that opens within Pinterest, so people can respond without leaving the app or website. You can customize the form’s description, questions, privacy disclosures, completion message, call to action (CTA), and post-submission destination URL.
For example, a beauty brand launching a new product could offer early access in exchange for an email address and ask which skin concern the shopper wants to address.
If you’re on Shopify, you can complement Pinterest Lead ads with Shopify Forms, which creates customizable pop-up and inline forms for collecting information on their storefront.
Forms can also add discounts, tag customers, trigger automations, and build customer segments. So once consenting contacts are available in Shopify, use Shopify Messaging to send email and SMS campaigns or automated follow-ups from the Shopify admin.
Pinterest Ads Manager interface
The Pinterest Ads dashboard provides an account-level overview, while Campaign Manager has more detailed reporting for individual campaigns, ad groups, and ads.
Navigating the dashboard
When you open Ads Manager, you’ll land on the Ad account overview page. Once campaigns begin running, this page provides a snapshot of account activity and quick access to your active campaigns.
From the Pinterest ads dashboard, you can:
- Choose a reporting period. Use the date selector to review performance over a predefined or custom period. Pinterest’s full reporting dashboard supports custom ranges within the past 25 months.
- Adjust conversion settings. Choose how long after an ad view or click a conversion can be attributed to the campaign. You can also select the reporting date and conversion data source.
- Select your summary metrics. Display up to five account-level metrics, such as spend, impressions, paid pin clicks, cost per thousand impressions (CPM), and cost per click (CPC).
- Review account performance. Once ads are active, the top panel displays totals for your selected metrics during the chosen period.
- View campaign recommendations. Pinterest may surface suggestions related to bids, targeting, or campaign setup when it identifies an opportunity to improve performance.
- Compare active campaigns. The campaign table lets you review live campaigns using your selected metrics and sort them by measures such as impressions or spend.
Campaign structure overview
Pinterest organizes ads in three levels: Campaign > Ad group > Ad. Campaigns contain one or more ad groups, and each ad group contains one or more ads:
Campaigns
At the campaign level, you select a marketing objective, such as Brand awareness, Video completion, Consideration, Conversions, or Catalog sales. Your objective determines how Pinterest optimizes bidding and which ad formats are available. Where available, you can also set a campaign-level budget or spend limit.
Ad groups
Ad groups contain sets of ads that share targeting and delivery settings. At this level, you can configure your audience, placements, budget, bid or bidding strategy, and campaign dates. You can use separate ad groups to target different niche audiences, regions, or product lines within the same campaign.
Ads
Ads are the promoted pins people see on Pinterest. Each ad has its own creative and destination URL, and the formats available depend on the campaign objective. You can run multiple ads within one ad group to compare different creative variations.
Research competitors with Pinterest’s Ads Repository
Pinterest publishes every ad it shows to EU users in a public, searchable database, officially called the Ads Repository. It’s meant to comply with digital transparency laws. Currently, there is no official, native ad library cataloging ads shown in the US.
You can explore the EU Ads Repository, set start and end dates, then filter results by:
- Ad category
- Country
- Gender
- Age
- Advertiser name
Each result shows the ad creative, advertiser, headline, and supporting copy. Select Details to examine the ad more closely, including the full ad creative, the advertiser’s name, and the ad category.
Use the repository to compare how other brands position similar products. For each ad, note the format, opening visual, product benefit, offer, call to action, and page visitors reach after clicking. Check how differently brands target the same audience. For example, age and gender splits may reveal a positioning angle you hadn’t considered.
Pinterest ad specs and sizes
Each Pinterest ad format has its own creative requirements or recommended aspect ratios. Following these specifications helps prevent important parts of an image or video from being cropped in the feed.
Pinterest’s current guidance on ad specs is:
- Standard image ads. Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1,000 × 1,500 pixels. Images taller than 2:3 may be cropped in the feed.
- Standard-width video ads. Pinterest recommends 1:1 for square videos or 2:3, 4:5, or 9:16 for vertical videos.
- Max-width video ads. Videos cannot be taller than a 1:1 aspect ratio.
- Premiere Spotlight. Uses max-width video, so the creative cannot be taller than 1:1.
- Carousel ads. 1:1 or 2:3; standard carousels contain two to five static images.
- Shopping ads. Follow the specifications for standard image or standard-width video ads, depending on the creative used.
- Collections ads. Static hero images can use 1:1 or 2:3. Video hero creatives can use 1:1, 2:3, or 9:16. Secondary images must all use the same ratio, either 1:1 or 2:3, with Pinterest recommending 1:1 to control how they appear in the feed.
- Idea ads. Pinterest recommends 9:16, or 1080 × 1920 pixels, for full-screen creative, although other image and video ratios can be uploaded.
- Showcase ads. Use 2:3 for the title pin and swipeable cards, and 1:1 for tappable feature images.
- Quiz ads. Use 2:3 for both the title pin and results pins.
- Lead ads. Lead ads can use an image or video pin, so follow the relevant standard image or standard-width video specifications rather than treating 2:3 as the only accepted ratio.
Keep text, logos, product details, and other important elements within Pinterest’s safe zones so interface elements don’t cover them.
How much do Pinterest ads cost?
In WebFX’s 2026 survey of 270 marketers, 43% reported paying 20¢ or less per click, 52% reported paying $1.50 or less per 1,000 impressions, and 66% reported paying $8 or less per conversion.
Pinterest sells ads through a real-time auction, so costs vary by campaign objective, targeting, competition, bid, and creative relevance.
You’ll commonly evaluate Pinterest advertising costs using three metrics:
- CPC (cost per click). The average amount spent for each click on an ad.
- CPM (cost per mille). The average amount spent for every 1,000 ad impressions.
- CPA (cost per action). The average amount spent for each selected conversion, such as a checkout, sign-up, or add-to-cart.
Pricing factors and bidding strategies
Pinterest uses an auction to determine which ad appears in each available placement. Your bid communicates what a desired result is worth to your business, but the highest bid doesn’t automatically win.
Pinterest also considers how likely the person is to take the intended action, using signals such as targeting relevance and landing-page quality. Pinterest charges only the amount needed to beat the next-best ad in the auction, so the amount paid may be lower than the advertiser’s maximum bid. Setting a bid too low, however, can limit delivery.
You have two main bidding approaches:
- Custom bidding. You set the bid or target cost yourself; depending on the objective, this might be a maximum CPM, maximum CPC, or target average CPA.
- Pinterest Performance+ bidding. Pinterest adjusts bids automatically to pursue the selected campaign result within your budget. Performance+ ROAS (return on ad spend) bidding can also optimize for the value of conversions rather than their total number.
Additionally, several factors can affect what you pay:
- Auction competition. Costs can rise when more advertisers compete for the same opportunities and fall when competition decreases.
- Campaign objective. Your objective determines the outcome Pinterest optimizes for and the bidding options available.
- Audience and targeting. Location, audience size, targeting relevance, and the number of eligible ad opportunities can all affect delivery. For instance, very restrictive targeting may leave Pinterest with fewer opportunities to serve the ad.
- Creative and landing-page relevance. Pinterest estimates how likely someone is to take the desired action; relevant targeting and a suitable landing page can thus make an ad more competitive in the auction.
- Seasonality and market demand. Competition may change around holidays, sales events, and other periods when more advertisers target similar shoppers.
Average costs by industry
CPA is especially important for ecommerce brands because it tells you how much you’re spending to land a single conversion. Actual CPC and CPA benchmarks vary; some industries consistently run cheaper, others more expensive.
Below are the latest global averages based on 2025 data from AdBacklog:
| Industry | Average CPC | Average CPM | Estimated CPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail (ecommerce, fashion) | 50¢–70¢ | ~$3 | ~$7–$8 per action |
| Beauty (cosmetics, skin care) | 40¢–60¢ | ~$2.50 | ~$7–$10 per action |
| Home décor (furniture, DIY) | 50¢–80¢ | $3–$4 | ~$10+ per action |
| Food/CPG brands | 30¢–60¢ | ~$2–$3 | $5–$8 per action |
How to create a Pinterest ad
Start with a Pinterest business account, then choose automated or manual campaign setup, pick your objective, define your targeting, set a budget and schedule, select or build your pin, publish, and track what happens next.
1. Set up your Pinterest business account
You need a free Pinterest business account to run ads. Create a new one on desktop, or convert an existing personal account without losing its pins or followers. Then, converted accounts become public, so private profiles must first be switched to public.
A business account gives you access to Ads Manager, Pinterest Analytics, product catalogs, and other business tools.
2. Choose between automated and manual campaigns
From the Pinterest Business Hub, select Create campaign. Then, from the Create campaign page, use the dropdown in the upper-right corner to choose an automated or manual campaign.
Choose a manual campaign when you want greater control over targeting, placements, bidding, budgets, and how ads are organized. You can still enable Pinterest Performance+ within a manual campaign, as shown below, letting Pinterest manage optimization while you retain control over the broader campaign setup.
On the other hand, with an automated campaign, Pinterest guides you through a two-step setup process. After entering your campaign, you can select existing Pins from your boards or create a new standard, video, collections, or carousel pin. The builder currently recommends including two to four Pins per ad group.
Choose this option when you want to launch quickly and don’t need detailed control over bids, placements, targeting, or ad-group structure.
3. Choose your campaign objective
Your campaign objective tells Pinterest which result to optimize for and determines the bidding options and ad formats available to you. Choose the objective that most closely matches the primary outcome you want from the campaign.
For example, choose Consideration when the immediate goal is to bring shoppers to a product page. Or, choose Sales when Pinterest can track purchase-related events and you want the campaign optimized toward those actions.
Note: Pinterest has replaced its previous Conversions and Catalog sales objectives with Leads and Sales. Product catalogs can now be used as the creative source within either Consideration or Sales campaigns.
4. Define your targeting
Your ads are targeted by who’s eligible to see them. In the Performance+ setup shown below, you can choose locations and age ranges, then add audience lists for retargeting. A manual campaign provides additional controls for interests, keywords, demographics, placements, and audience types.
Choose targeting based on how familiar people already are with your business:
- Interests. Reach people who engage with topics related to your products, such as home décor, skin care, or travel.
- Keywords. Reach people searching for or engaging with specific terms.
- Retargeting. Reconnect with previous site visitors, people who engaged with your pins, or customers from an uploaded list—website visitor audiences require the Pinterest tag.
- Actalike audiences. Find people whose behavior resembles that of an existing customer, visitor, or engagement audience.
Pinterest Performance+ targeting is enabled by default for new campaigns. It uses visual and written signals from your creative to expand beyond selected interests and keywords, but it won’t override restrictions such as location, age, language, placement, or an audience list.
If you’re a Shopify Plus brand, you can also connect Shopify Audiences to Pinterest. The integration exports prospecting, retargeting, actalike, and existing-customer audiences into the connected Pinterest ad account.
5. Set your budget and schedule
Choose a daily budget if you want to control average spend per day, or a lifetime budget if you want Pinterest to distribute a fixed amount across the campaign’s full run.
Pinterest Performance+’s daily budgeting uses an average amount rather than a strict daily limit. Pinterest may spend more on days with stronger opportunities and less on others, but spending should average no more than your selected daily budget over a Sunday-to-Saturday week.
Pinterest aims not to exceed 125% of that budget on any single day.
Next, choose the campaign’s start date and time. The end date is optional, but adding one helps contain spending for a promotion or other time-bound campaign.
Check the time zone shown in Ads Manager before publishing.
6. Select or create your Pin
Each ad group needs at least one Pin before it can launch. You can:
- Select Pins from your boards or choose an eligible paid-partnership Pin.
- Create an ad in a standard image, video, collections, or carousel format.
- Create an Idea ad using image or video creative.
A fourth option, Create collage, combines multiple cutouts into an interactive ad, though it may not be available on every account.
Pinterest also recommends adding URL parameters at the ad-group level so tracking remains consistent across its ads.
When selecting an existing Pin, check that its creative, copy, and destination page support the campaign objective you chose. You can also create several ads within the same ad group to compare different images, videos, messages, or product angles.
7. Review and publish
Review the campaign objective, targeting, budget, schedule, creative, destination links, and tracking (UTM) parameters before publishing.
When everything’s complete, click Publish. Pinterest then reviews the ad against its advertising standards, an up to 24 hours process.
8. Track your results
Once your campaign launches, use Campaign Manager to monitor performance at the campaign, ad group, and ad levels. Pinterest’s reporting dashboard shows metrics such as spend, impressions, pin clicks, outbound clicks, click-through rate, and cost per result. You can filter the data, compare campaigns, and export the reporting table for further analysis.
Focus on the metrics tied to the objective you selected. In a Q4 2025 Shopify survey of store owners* 44% of merchants earning more than $1 million in revenue said they track ROAS.
Pinterest tag setup and conversion tracking
To properly track performance and optimize for conversions, you’ll need to set up the Pinterest tag, which is Pinterest’s equivalent of Meta pixel.
Pinterest’s tag provides valuable information, telling you what actions users take on a site after they’ve clicked on your Pinterest ad. Instead of just measuring the number of clicks, you can track how valuable their clicks are to you.
Installing the Pinterest tag
If you’re a Shopify brand, skip manual code work with the Pinterest for Shopify app, which automatically installs tags and maps events such as page visits, add to carts, and checkouts.
- Go to the Pinterest app listing in the Shopify App Store.
- Click Install app and follow the prompts to connect your Pinterest business account.
- Once you’re connected, the Pinterest tag will track page visits, add-to-carts, and checkouts.
If you’re not on Shopify, or if you want granular control over event tracking, use this guide to manually install the Pinterest tag via Google Tag Manager.
Once your Pinterest tag is in place, head to Ads > Conversions > Test events in Ads Manager to verify it’s firing correctly. Pinterest will flag any missing or malfunctioning events so you can fix them fast.
Setting up conversion events
Once you’ve installed your base tag, you’ll want to track specific actions, like purchases or sign-ups, to optimize campaigns and measure ROI (return on investment).
If you’re using the Pinterest app for Shopify, standard events are automatically tracked, including:
- Page visit
- View category
- Search
- Add to cart
- Checkout
- Purchase
Tip: Use the Pinterest Tag Helper Chrome extension to verify real-time event firing and troubleshoot issues.
Pinterest ads best practices
To get the most out of your Pinterest ads, follow these best practices and strategies to create pins that will stand out and generate clicks.
Test different strategies
Experimentation is your best friend with any kind of marketing. Test different strategies, pins, and targeting options like keywords to determine what resonates with your audience.
Want to run A/B tests quickly for ads on Pinterest? Create multiple ads under a single ad group or campaign, or you can duplicate a past Pinterest ad campaign and add some changes. This way, you can test specific factors to see how they affect your results.
Make the most of your description
Pinterest ad descriptions can contain up to 800 characters. Although people won’t see the description in their home or search feeds, or when they open the ad, Pinterest uses it to determine the ad’s relevance and delivery. Think of it like alt text.
Describe the product clearly and include terms your audience might use when searching for it. Keep the wording natural and consistent with the image, title, targeting, and landing page.
For the message shoppers see, focus on the pin title, creative, text overlay, and call to action. According to Pinterest, hashtags are optional. Prioritize clear product language and relevant search terms before adding them.
Choose your landing page carefully
If you’ve run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns before, you know your landing page is important. Send users directly to the content that they expect. Don’t send them to your homepage, or to a random lead offer, or subscriber page, or they’ll get frustrated and exit, even if they were interested in buying before. This mismatch between customer intent and destination affects website metrics like your bounce rate.
Use video
Pinterest ad videos autoplay on mobile devices and can help you stand out. How-to videos and brief product highlights both do well on the platform.
Your Pinterest videos should be:
- High resolution. Keep your videos sharp and professional for high clickability.
- Short. Users come to Pinterest to browse. Satisfy their needs with short, teaser videos.
- Good without sound. Pinterest videos autoplay without sound, and not all users will choose to enable it. Use on-video text and subtitles for the best results.
Optimize for pin longevity
Pinterest is more like a visual search engine than a news feed. That’s why a well-optimized pin can drive traffic and conversions for months—even years—after it’s first published.
To take full advantage of this long shelf life, here’s how to optimize your pins for longevity:
- Re-pin high-performing content seasonally. If a pin did well last fall, bring it back next fall. Pinterest rewards engagement history, so reusing winning pins or giving them a fresh twist can extend their impact year after year.
- Design for clarity and branding. Add your logo or domain subtly to build brand recall over time, especially as pins get re-shared or saved to boards.
- Use keyword-rich descriptions. Include long-tail phrases naturally in your descriptions (e.g., best yoga mats for beginners, budget travel hacks for Europe).
- Don’t delete underperforming pins.Pinterest’s algorithm often surfaces older pins once they’ve aged, especially if they match a trending search later. Deleting them too early cuts off this long-tail potential.
Pinterest ad examples
Sweaty Betty
Sweaty Betty, a UK-based athleisure brand, wanted to grow its audience and inspire them to shop on Pinterest.
They created a full-funnel campaign using Shopping ads with direct links, tailored their product offerings to Pinterest trend data and user behaviors, and focused on products and exercises that resonated with its core demographic of women aged 18 to 54.
The campaign led to a 39% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) year over year, a 34% lower cost per acquisition (CPA) compared to other channels, and established Pinterest as Sweaty Betty’s top-performing channel.
Dulux
Dulux, a legacy paint brand, needed to stay ahead of trends and appeal to a changing demographic in a competitive market.
They secured the Pinterest Predicts Trend badge, creating a multiobjective campaign with targeted ads that leveraged Pinterest’s trend data to reach users planning home improvements.
The campaign achieved a 23% higher ad recall compared to ads without the trend badge, a 21% higher click-through rate compared to internal benchmarks, and a 1.6-point lift in action intent.
E.l.f. Cosmetics
E.l.f. Cosmetics wanted to launch its new Lash ’N Roll mascara in a disruptive and unexpected way to target Gen Z and millennial makeup lovers.
They used Pinterest’s Premiere Spotlight video format, followed by a six-week retargeting campaign of standard video ads.
The campaign’s use of Spotlight Premiere boosted video completion rates by 11%, achieved a 13% higher video view rate with Gen Z compared to industry baselines, and successfully positioned E.l.f. as the first beauty company to use Premiere Spotlight on Pinterest.
*Based on a November 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.
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Pinterest ads FAQ
Are Pinterest ads worth it?
Pinterest ads can be worth testing when your customers use the platform to discover, compare, or plan purchases. In a Q4 2025 Shopify survey,* 31% of store owners earning more than $1 million said paid advertising was their most effective marketing channel.
How do Pinterest ads work?
Pinterest ads are promoted pins delivered through an auction. You choose an objective, audience, budget, schedule, and creative, and Pinterest determines delivery using factors such as your bid, targeting relevance, and the likelihood of achieving your selected result.
How do I create a Pinterest ad?
Create or convert to a Pinterest business account, choose an automated or manual campaign, select an objective, define your targeting, set your budget and schedule, add your creative, and publish.
What type of ads do best on Pinterest?
Pinterest says that shopping ads perform best on Pinterest, providing a 15% increase in ROI compared to standard pins.
How long does it take for Pinterest ads to see results?
There’s no fixed timeline. Pinterest’s learning phase takes about two weeks, on average, although spend, conversion volume, and engagement can affect the duration. Pinterest recommends evaluating performance weekly or monthly rather than reacting to daily fluctuations.
