Pinterest's new advertising solutions for e-commerce
Pinterest is opening up ever more space for e-commerce in the UK. Online stores can now not only run catalogue sales, but also use product ads and dynamic campaign retargeting.
Product catalogues on Pinterest
Pinterest has given UK retailers the ability to upload entire product catalogues, which are then shown to users as pins. By adding a Pinterest tag to the store's website and properly formatting the catalogues, these pins include information about price and availability alongside the product name and description. The data is updated automatically every 24 hours. Such pins can be distributed organically, grouped together and, more recently, also promoted via product ads.
– The mechanism works similarly to pins on Instagram or Facebook. A product ad takes you straight to the store where you can complete the transaction. So the purchase path is shorter than with classic Pinterest advertising – explains Magdalena Pietruk, social content manager at Open Mobi.
Targeting without keywords
A product campaign can be targeted by gender, age, location, language or the device the user is on. There is no need to add keywords or audience interests, because Pinterest will do this automatically based on source data and knowledge about Pinners.
– In the UK there are around 3 million active users, in the US or France over 10 million, and in Germany as many as 12.5 million people use Pinterest every month. Globally, the platform has 300 million users. That's huge potential worth using to promote and sell a brand's products in overseas markets – notes Magdalena Pietruk.
Global reach and retargeting
The platform also allows dynamic retargeting of product ads, reaching people again who visited the store's website or added a product to their basket but did not complete the purchase.
Global benchmarks:
- the number of shopping pins has grown 2.5x over the past year
- the cost per conversion from Pinterest ads is 2.3x lower than on other social media
- the average ROAS for catalogue sales campaigns in the fashion category is 4.5x higher, and in the home decor and improvement category 9.75x higher than with a traditional campaign
- most catalogue sales conversion campaigns achieve the same or better results than the set CPA targets
Open Mobi is a digital agency that helps reach every consumer segment, whether via mobile or desktop. Drawing on its own know-how and modern technologies, it runs campaigns that reach millions of unique users.
Terms from the article
How Pinterest ads for e-commerce work in practice
How Pinterest's advertising solutions for e-commerce work
ROAS — Return on Ad Spend. A measure of paid advertising effectiveness expressing the revenue attributed to ads relative to media spend. Unlike ROI, it usually does not account for all operating costs.
Why it matters: It tells you directly whether an ad pays for itself: campaign revenue versus the spend on it. A simple, quick metric for day-to-day budget management.
When it is used: In e-commerce and performance: ongoing campaign optimisation and comparing sales channels.
What happens if you skip it: Without return on ad spend, campaigns are judged by clicks and reach — you can spend years funding ads that lose money.
Summary
Pinterest is expanding its advertising tools for e-commerce in the UK, enabling retailers to upload product catalogues and promote them through product ads and dynamic retargeting. Thanks to automatic data updates every 24 hours and a shorter purchase path, campaigns can be more effective than classic ad formats.
The platform has around 3 million active users in the UK and 300 million globally, which creates opportunities for overseas expansion. As benchmarks show, the cost per conversion on Pinterest is 2.3x lower than on other social media, and ROAS in the fashion category reaches 4.5x.
