Set Up Pinterest Ads for Your Business

What Exactly is Pinterest Ads?

Pinterest Ads — also called Promoted Pins — are paid placements that appear within Pinterest’s search results and home feeds. They look like regular pins, carry your brand, and link directly to a page on your website.

The key difference between Pinterest and other paid platforms is the mindset of the person seeing your ad. On Facebook or Instagram, most users are not actively looking to buy anything. On Pinterest, they are in discovery mode — researching purchases, collecting ideas, and planning decisions. This makes the audience more receptive and the intent behind each click more meaningful.

Pinterest Ads supports several formats including standard image ads, video ads, carousel ads for showing multiple products, and shopping ads that pull directly from a product catalogue. Each format serves a different stage of the purchase journey, from building awareness to driving direct conversions.

 

How Pinterest Ads Works

Step 1 — A Pinterest Business Account is created or verified, giving access to Pinterest Ads Manager, analytics, and the full suite of campaign tools.

Step 2 — The Pinterest Tag is installed on your website. This is a small piece of code that tracks visitor behaviour, records conversions, and enables retargeting audiences — similar in function to the Meta Pixel.

Step 3 — Campaign objectives are defined based on your goals — whether that is driving traffic to your website, generating product sales, building awareness, or collecting leads.

Step 4 — Targeting is configured using Pinterest’s interest-based and keyword targeting, alongside custom audiences built from your website visitors or customer lists.

Step 5 — Ad creatives are reviewed and uploaded in the correct formats. Campaigns are structured with appropriate bid strategies and daily budgets.

Step 6 — The campaigns are launched, and conversion tracking is confirmed to be recording correctly before handover.

 

Why Pinterest Advertising Matters

Most advertising platforms are built around interruption. Pinterest is built around discovery. The people using it are already in the process of making decisions — about their home, their wardrobe, their next event, their next meal. They are not browsing idly. They are collecting and comparing with the intention of eventually purchasing.

This changes how advertising performs. On Pinterest, an ad that aligns with what someone is already looking for does not feel intrusive. It becomes useful. And useful advertising converts.

Pinterest also offers something the other platforms do not: extended reach over time. A pin does not disappear from a feed after 24 hours. It continues to surface in search results, get re-saved by users, and drive traffic for weeks or months after it was published. For businesses investing in visuals and creative, that longevity has real commercial value.

 

The Problem with Skipping Pinterest While Your Competitors Do Not

Most businesses running paid advertising focus on Google and Meta because those are the most familiar platforms. Pinterest is often overlooked — even by businesses whose products are perfectly suited to it.

The result is that many Pinterest audiences remain underserved and less contested. Ad costs on Pinterest are often lower than on Meta, and competition for keywords in high-intent categories is less intense than on Google Search.

Businesses that set up Pinterest Ads now, build a presence, and accumulate engagement data are positioning themselves ahead of competitors who will eventually arrive on the platform. The advantage shrinks as the platform becomes more crowded. Setting up early is not just an option — for visually-led businesses, it is a competitive edge.

 

What We Will Do During Your Pinterest Ads Setup

• Create or verify your Pinterest Business Account and connect it to your website domain
• Install and configure the Pinterest Tag to track page views, conversions, and key site events
• Set up your product catalogue if you sell physical products, enabling shopping ad formats
• Define campaign objectives aligned with your business goals
• Build campaign structure including ad groups, targeting, keyword lists, and audience segments
• Configure interest and keyword targeting based on your products, services, and customer profile
• Produce campaign-ready ad specifications so your creative team or designer knows exactly what to produce
• Set bid strategies and daily budgets appropriate to your goals
• Launch campaigns and verify that conversion tracking is recording correctly
• Provide a summary of the full setup, campaign structure, and what to monitor going forward

 

You Need Pinterest Ads When

• Your business sells products or services that people search for visually — interiors, fashion, beauty, food, health, weddings, events, gifts, or lifestyle
• You are looking for a lower-cost paid channel than Meta or Google to test
• You have a product catalogue and want to run shopping-style ads
• Your current ad platforms are saturated or returning diminishing results
• You want to reach audiences earlier in the decision-making process, before they have committed to a competitor
• You have strong visual creative and want a platform that gives it longer exposure

 

What We Need From You to Set Up Pinterest Ads

To complete the setup efficiently, the following access and information is needed.

• Access to your Pinterest account, or confirmation that a new one should be created
• Your website URL and access to the website backend to install the Pinterest Tag
• A list of the main products or services you want to advertise
• Your target audience — who you are trying to reach, their interests, and where they are located
• Your advertising budget — monthly spend and any limits on daily spend
• Existing ad creative, product images, or confirmation that creative will need to be produced separately

If you are unsure about any of the above, this can be clarified on a short call before the work begins.

 

When You Should Set Up Pinterest Ads

The right time to set up Pinterest Ads is before a campaign is needed — not during one. The Pinterest Tag needs time on your website to collect audience data before it can build effective retargeting and lookalike audiences. The earlier it is installed, the more data it accumulates.

If you are planning a product launch, a seasonal campaign, or a push around a key retail period, set up Pinterest Ads at least four to six weeks in advance. This gives your tag time to populate audiences and gives your campaigns time to exit the learning phase before you need results.

If you already run ads on Meta or Google and want to expand your reach without significantly increasing your budget, Pinterest is a logical next step — particularly if your business has a strong visual angle. The cost-per-click is often lower, and the audience intent is high.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Pinterest only for e-commerce businesses? No. While Pinterest Ads performs particularly well for product-based businesses, it is also effective for service businesses in visual categories — interior design, event planning, catering, beauty services, fitness, and similar fields. If your service has a strong visual component or people search for it using images and inspiration, Pinterest Ads can work.

How is Pinterest Ads different from boosting posts on Instagram? Instagram boosting amplifies content to a social audience that may or may not be interested. Pinterest Ads targets people who are actively searching for specific topics and keywords. The traffic from Pinterest tends to arrive with a clearer intent, which often translates into better-quality website visitors.

Do I need a lot of followers on Pinterest before running ads? No. Pinterest Ads runs independently of your organic follower count. You can run effective campaigns from a brand-new business account without any existing presence on the platform.

 

Want Your Pinterest Ads Set Up Correctly?

Setting up Pinterest Ads involves more than creating an account and uploading an image. The Pinterest Tag needs to be installed and verified. Campaign structure, targeting, and bid strategy need to be configured correctly from the start. And shopping catalogue integration needs to be done properly if product ads are part of the plan.

At 10x Marketing Lab, the setup is handled end-to-end — from account creation and tag installation to campaign structure, targeting, and launch. The tracking is confirmed before the work is considered complete, and you receive a clear summary of how everything is set up and what to watch once campaigns are live.