Pinterest Ads for the Holiday Season: Planning and Formats

Pinterest is often the first place consumers go to find inspiration, which means your advertising calendar must start sooner than your Meta or Google campaigns. A common pattern is for users to start searching for holiday decor, gift ideas, and party recipes as early as August and September. If you wait until November to launch your first pin, you might miss the entire planning phase where users are building their boards and deciding which brands to trust.

In a typical account, we suggest a three-phase approach. The awareness phase should kick off in late September to reach the ‘early bird’ planners. During this time, the focus is on being seen and saved. By October, you move into the consideration phase, where you target users who have already engaged with seasonal content. Finally, the conversion phase peaks in November and December, focusing on those ready to complete their purchase.

A Shopify store selling handmade jewelry, for example, might start by promoting ‘holiday outfit inspiration’ pins in early October. By mid-November, they would switch the focus to ‘last-minute gift ideas’ to capture the shoppers who have already been exposed to the brand’s aesthetic during the earlier inspiration phase. This long-tail approach builds a warmer audience for the expensive final weeks of the year.

On platforms like Google, the search intent is often immediate. A user searches for ‘buy red winter coat’ when they are ready to put in their credit card details. On Pinterest, the intent is much more aspirational. A user might search for ‘winter fashion trends’ or ‘outdoor holiday party ideas’ weeks before they actually decide what to buy. This gives advertisers a unique opportunity to influence the decision-making process before a competitor even enters the picture.

The cost-per-click (CPC) often stays more stable on Pinterest during early Q4 compared to the sharp spikes seen on other platforms during Black Friday week. By front-loading your budget into October and early November, you can secure lower costs for building your remarketing lists. When the high-competition days arrive, you are not just bidding against everyone else for cold traffic; you are showing ads to people who have already saved your pins to their personal boards.

Choosing the right format is critical for seasonal success. Catalog ads, also known as Shopping Ads, are the most effective way to turn inspiration into a transaction. These ads pull information directly from your product feed, showing the current price and availability. When a user clicks a Shopping Ad, they are taken directly to the product page on your website, reducing the friction in the buying journey.

Collections ads are another powerful tool for holiday gifting. This format features one large hero image or video followed by three smaller product thumbnails. It is an ideal way to showcase a ‘gift guide’ or a themed set of products. For instance, a home decor brand could use a hero video of a decorated living room with thumbnails for the specific candles, pillows, and ornaments shown in the scene.

To set these up, you must first have a functional product feed connected to your Pinterest Business account. Navigate to the ‘Ads’ menu in your Pinterest Ads Manager and select ‘Catalogs’ to ensure your data is syncing correctly. You can then create product groups specifically for the holiday season, such as ‘Gifts Under $50’ or ‘Stocking Stuffers,’ to make your ad targeting more granular.

Keywords on Pinterest act differently than on traditional search engines. You should use a mix of broad seasonal terms and very specific long-tail phrases. Broad terms like ‘Christmas gifts’ or ‘holiday decor’ will get you high volume but also high competition. To find more efficient traffic, look for niche phrases that describe the specific problem your product solves or the specific person it is for.

• Use ‘Pinterest Trends’ tool to see when specific holiday keywords start to rise in popularity.
• Include keywords like ‘DIY holiday gifts’ if your products are craft-related or kits.
• Target ‘holiday party hosting’ for kitchenware or apparel brands.
• Add ‘aesthetic’ to your keywords, such as ‘minimalist Christmas aesthetic,’ to match how Pinners search.
• Use negative keywords to exclude irrelevant traffic, such as ‘free’ or ‘printable’ if you only sell physical goods.

When you set up your campaign in the Ads Manager, go to the ‘Keywords & Interests’ section. It is often best to keep these two targeting types in separate ad sets or use them together to narrow down a very specific audience. For holiday campaigns, leveraging the ‘Interests’ of people who enjoy ‘seasonal celebrations’ alongside your specific product keywords ensures you reach people who are actively in a shopping mindset.

A standard product pin that works well in July will likely underperform in December. Pinners are looking for a specific seasonal mood. A creative refresh involves updating your imagery to include festive elements, warmer lighting, or gift-wrapping themes. This does not mean you need to change your entire brand identity, but you should adapt your visual language to the context of the season.

Text overlays are particularly effective during the holidays. Adding a simple ‘2024 Gift Guide’ or ‘Holiday Special’ text to your image can improve click-through rates. Make sure the text is legible on mobile devices, as the vast majority of Pinterest browsing happens on phones. Keep the branding subtle but present, usually in one of the corners, so it doesn’t distract from the main inspiration of the pin.

Before launching your holiday shopping ads, you must ensure your technical foundation is solid. Pinterest requires a verified merchant status to get the most out of shopping features. This involves verifying your domain and ensuring your Pinterest Tag is tracking ‘Add to Cart’ and ‘Checkout’ events accurately. Without this data, the Pinterest algorithm cannot optimize for conversions.

• Ensure your product feed updates at least once every 24 hours to keep stock levels accurate.
• Check that your ‘availability’ column in the feed correctly identifies ‘in stock’ versus ‘out of stock’ items.
• Use high-resolution images with a 2:3 aspect ratio (e.g., 1000 x 1500 pixels).
• Populate the ‘google_product_category’ or ‘product_type’ fields to help Pinterest categorize your items.
• Create ‘Custom Labels’ in your feed to easily group items by price point or holiday theme.

In the Pinterest Ads Manager, you can find the ‘Health’ tab under the Catalogs menu. This section will alert you to any issues with your product data, such as missing descriptions or broken image links. Fixing these errors before you start scaling your budget is essential for maintaining a high Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).