Pinterest Business Updates & Release Notes

If your holiday campaign anxiety is high, you’re not alone. Holiday campaigns come with a low hum of nerves. Budgets are bigger, expectations are higher and every decision on media or creative feels amplified.

Holiday campaigns don’t leave much room for guesswork. As shoppers move from inspiration to purchase, brands need to know what’s working, and adapt quickly when it isn’t. That’s especially important when reaching high-intent shoppers is a top holiday concern for marketers: according to tvScientific by Pinterest's 2026 Holiday & Seasonal Shopping Trends Report, 30% of marketers say reaching high-intent shoppers is their top stressor heading into the season.

This year, you have a new way to take the anxiety out of holiday optimization: the campaign optimization score. This new feature turns your campaign setup, signals and creative mix into a clear, at-a-glance score with specific ways to improve. It's one score that tells you exactly where to focus next, so nothing about your holiday setup is left to guesswork.

People who use Pinterest already show up ready to shop, so you’re starting in the right place. This guide shows you how to put your new campaign optimization score to work, pair it with live diagnostics and Pinterest Performance+ creative, and keep your campaigns improving while the season is on.

Let real-time recommendations sharpen every campaign

Campaign optimization score in Ads Manager gives you an instant read on how closely your campaign setup aligns with proven best practices for performance. Across all objectives, we see that higher campaign optimization scores correlate to better campaign performance.

You can use campaign optimization score when creating, editing or duplicating campaigns. Your score is built on three pillars - campaign setup, creative mix, and signal strength. It starts with a few simple foundations—focus on getting these right:

• Fully adopt Pinterest Performance+ so targeting, budgets and bidding work together, instead of relying on one-off manual tweaks.
• Give the system options. More creative variations and a broader product set help people see ads that feel relevant, which can lead to more impressions, clicks and conversions.
• Keep your audience broad, or use Pinterest Performance+ targeting, so it’s easier to find people who are likely to act.
• Choose a steady budget that’s big enough to hit your goals, and avoid changing it too often. If you’re unsure where to land, use Media Planner to see projected outcomes.

Stay present as people turn holiday inspiration into decisions

Two thirds of people who use Pinterest describe their sessions as purposeful shopping. And it’s not just focused—it drives expanded discovery: 71% say Pinterest helps them discover products and ideas they wouldn't normally encounter.

That combination of intent and discovery is your holiday advantage: when you connect with people in the moments they’re actively planning, you can influence what makes the list instead of just fighting for the last click. Use that mindset to pressure-test your holiday plans. Ask yourself:

• Are your current campaigns showing up in those decision-making moments?
• Are they helping people discover something new?
• Are you staying present as people move from inspiration to purchase?

Creative is the new currency of performance: how are you spending it?

Holiday shoppers don't scroll in a straight line, so your creative shouldn't look the same in every placement. Variety helps you show up in more of the moments when people are deciding what to buy—without relying on a single asset to do all the work.

Within each ad group, aim to run at least three different ad formats. Then expand the number of creatives in that same ad group so the system has more options to test. Once you move to five or more distinct ads, you give it enough signals to understand what resonates with different audiences and contexts.

When you toggle on Pinterest Performance+ creative, you let the system remix your existing assets into additional formats and variants without adding production overhead. That makes creative variety sustainable all season. That makes creative variety sustainable all season.

Put your biggest moments in the spotlight

For your biggest moments use Premiere Spotlight, our high-impact video placement that reserves prominent space in the Home feed and search results to maximize reach and awareness. It’s designed for your biggest moments. With Premiere Spotlight you can broaden the top of your funnel, then let your always-on media build on that awareness and drive day-to-day performance. Awareness strategies that included Premiere Spotlight saw a 1.5x improvement to median lifts in Pin Awareness AKA ad recall.

As you build this mix, keep creative fundamentals tight: show the product clearly, use lifestyle scenes and make the offer easy to understand at a glance.

Strengthen your signals so every decision counts

All of this creative and campaign work only pays off if your signals keep up with real behavior. Strong, timely signals help Pinterest understand what success looks like, identify people most likely to take action and invest your budget where it can have the greatest impact.

• Make sure your conversion data reflects what is happening now so bids can respond to current shopper behavior—not last week’s results. Use Pinterest Conversions API (CAPI) alongside the Pinterest tag so you can see web, app and offline conversions in a single view, instead of piecing them together after the fact.
• Keep your product feed healthy and up to date. Accurate product details, availability and pricing give the system stronger inputs—and help people see relevant products when they are ready to act.
• Then set your intentions by defining how you’ll measure success. How will you judge performance across your media buys and on Pinterest this holiday season?

Holiday jitters won't disappear, but you can turn them into momentum. Strong signals give your holiday campaigns a clearer path to learn, adapt and improve throughout peak season. Check your campaign optimization score in Ads Manager to see where you can strengthen your foundation and keep performance moving forward

Want to stay up-to-date on all things Pinterest advertising? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

First impressions matter. On Pinterest, where 600 million people come to search, save and shop new ideas each month,1 showing up first can make all the difference—and shapes what people buy. People come to Pinterest ready to discover and decide: 96% of top search results are unbranded,2 and 45% of clicks happen in the top ten search results.3 Now, you can use Pinterest Top of Search ads to put your product or brand front and center at the moment decisions are made.

How Pinterest Top of Search ads work

Pinterest Top of Search ads put your brand at the top of relevant search results and in Related Pins. Your products show up where shoppers are looking, and ahead of competitors when it matters most.

Brands who ran campaigns using Top of Search ads drove a 41% higher CTR.4 When ads appeared in the top ten slots of search results and Related Pins, brands saw a 39% higher CTR than those in lower slots.5

Top of Search gallery auto-groups multiple relevant products from your catalog.

Top of Search ads show in top ten slots for relevant Search results and Related Pins.

If you're promoting your catalog using Top of Search ads, Pinterest will automatically group multiple relevant products in a brand-exclusive gallery. Your products appear side-by-side, helping shoppers zero in and decide on the right item even faster.

Advertisers who use Pinterest’s Top of Search ads saw +41% higher median CTR vs. control4

Proof in market

Top brands are already using Top of Search ads to turn discovery into results. JCPenney and Altra used Top of Search ads to appear at the top of relevant search results and Related Pins. For JCPenney and their agency partner dentsu X, being front of the pack drove a 45% higher CTR and a 53% higher ROAS, in comparison to their typical Consideration campaigns.6

Make being at the top your advantage

In today’s crowded market, every search is a chance for someone to choose your brand—or someone else’s. With Pinterest Top of Search ads, you’re not leaving that moment to chance. Contact your Pinterest rep to activate and get guidance on objectives, targeting and more.

After reaching the top slot with Top of Search ads, reinforce your lead and keep showing up with Shopping ads and Pinterest Performance+. Pinterest Shopping ads help you appear in more shopping moments on Pinterest, while Pinterest Performance+ helps your ads get seen by more of the right people through AI and automation. Be first when it counts and shape what happens next.

Planning campaigns is now easier than ever with Pinterest Media Planner. This tool streamlines media plan creation for all of your brand awareness and consideration campaigns—from the ones you’re running next week to the ones you have planned for next quarter.

How Media Planner works

The Pinterest Media Planner is built right into the Ads Manager, giving you a single place to plan upper-funnel campaigns without needing any additional tools or manual modeling on spreadsheets. Here’s everything you can do within the tool:

• Explore audiences: Discover and size high-value audience segments for your campaign goals. Get Pinterest insights and analyze audiences based on different demographics, interests and keyword affinities.
• Estimate opportunities: Use Media Planner to explore your budget options and see estimates for key awareness campaign metrics like impressions, reach, frequency and CPM, as well as consideration campaign estimates for clicks and CPC. You can even get estimates for specific countries.
• Model scenarios: Review different projections to determine the right budget and media needed to accomplish your goals. Compare scenarios across everything from budgets and flight dates, to audience and format.

Start planning and collaborating

To get started, log in to Ads Manager, click the menu in the top left, navigate to Manage campaigns, then Media Planner. You can also easily save and share plans with your team or other collaborators—just share the link to the plan or export it as a file.

There’s a new badge on the block. Starting today, you can be one of the first to earn the Pinterest Performance Essentials skills badge on Pinterest Academy, our free learning platform.

To earn this badge, complete a series of ten performance-focused courses where you’ll learn how to maximize your lower-funnel campaign results, increase conversions and achieve success on Pinterest. In the end, you’ll have everything you need to make your ads stand out, reach more people and spend your budget more efficiently. Once you pass a 20-question quiz, the badge is yours. Then, celebrate your win by sharing the badge with your professional network.

Already earned the Pinterest Advertising Essentials skills badge? In that case, it’s even easier to advance from novice to next-level and get your next badge. You’ll build on your Pinterest expertise with new courses that enhance what you’ve already learned about performance on Pinterest.

The Performance Essentials skills badge is available now to anyone using Pinterest Academy in English, and we’ll launch the badge in more languages soon. You can work towards it over time or earn it in less than a day. So enroll now, complete the courses and pass the quiz to earn your badge. And just like that, you’re on your way to making the most of your marketing dollars on Pinterest.

You’ve put in hard work perfecting your Pinterest media skills. Now, reward yourself with an official certification to celebrate your expertise.

Our new Media Buyer Certification is now live on Pinterest Academy. This free program recognizes on-the-job experience and Pinterest expertise, helping marketers showcase their skills—and empowering agencies and brands to spot good talent, fast.

You asked. We delivered.

Certifications have been a top request from agencies and advertisers since we launched Pinterest Academy. We’re excited to kick off the program with our Pinterest Media Buyer Certification.

If you’re already using Pinterest Academy, you may have earned an Advertising Essentials skills badge after completing our foundational e-learning courses. Certifications are a different kind of milestone, designed to be more rigorous and require a higher level of commitment. They’re carefully crafted to showcase your broader expertise that specifically aligns with your job function.

Certifications are professional credentials that also come with bragging rights—and a shiny gold badge. Your certification shows that you’re an advanced marketer on Pinterest, earning the right to say “I’m Pinterest certified”. You can add the badge to public social profiles to stand out and celebrate your work. Employers can also look for these badges to ensure they’re hiring top talent with a Pinterest seal of approval.

How it works

The Media Buyer Certification program is already live, and you can take the exam at any time. It’s available to all, but we especially recommend it for people with two to five years of media buying experience, including one to two years specifically using Pinterest advertising tools.

To get certified, you’ll need to pass a 60-question multiple choice exam. The exam covers topics like campaign activation, optimization and ads reporting. While no coursework is required, you can use our study guide and practice exam to make sure you’re ready to go.

Get started today

We’re launching the Pinterest Media Buyer Certification today globally in English. We’ll add more languages later in 2024, and even more certifications starting in 2025. To get started, enroll here —and when you’re ready, take the exam to earn your new certification.