Why most Pinterest CPG campaigns earn back more than they spend

Open up your latest media plan. You’ll probably see a familiar pattern. Channels that drive discovery are often judged on awareness metrics, not on the downstream business impact they can create. That feels sensible, until you look at when people actually choose what goes into the basket. 

Those decisions often happen earlier, while someone is still planning, comparing and building a shortlist. If you only measure those early moments on recall or reach, you miss the sales they unlock later. This is where Pinterest fits.

People come to the platform to plan what they will do, try or buy next, not just to scroll. Findings from Circana show what happens when CPG brands show up in those planning moments. Even when awareness is the primary objective, the majority of CPG campaigns on Pinterest earned back more than they spent and drove incremental sales that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. In other words, awareness on Pinterest can deliver measurable lower-funnel impact too.

Proof, not platform metrics

Circana measured incremental sales using an experiment-versus-control approach, comparing sales in regions where Pinterest ads ran with sales in similar regions where Pinterest ads did not. To make that comparison fair, stores in the experiment and control groups were matched within about 5% of total sales and key attributes such as size, format, range and promotional and media activity.

The findings come from 17 Matched Market Tests (MMTs) run between June 2024 and June 2025 across five countries and four CPG categories, with some findings below based on the full set and others based on the European subset of 12 studies. Circana then calculated the incremental sales driven by Pinterest using a rigorous methodology and significance testing at the 95%+ level. In other words, this is rigorous sales measurement, not just platform reporting.

Finding #1: Pinterest is a sales and ROI engine

Across the 17 MMTs, Circana found that 82% of campaigns generated positive incremental ROI, meaning the incremental sales impact was greater than the Pinterest media spend.¹ And 76% of campaigns achieved an ROI of 1.5x or higher.²  

In everyday terms: if you put $1 into these Pinterest campaigns, most brands got back more than $1, and many got $1.50 or more. That’s awareness translating into measurable business results.

These are early but consistent results and a strong signal that awareness-led campaigns on Pinterest can also drive measurable lower-funnel impact. The implication is clear: even when Pinterest is planned for awareness, it can still earn back its spend in real sales.

Finding #2: Pinterest often outperforms the social benchmark 

Circana ran 12 of the MMTs in the UK, France and Germany. The headline result is clear: 83% of studies achieved either ROI or sales uplift above the Circana social benchmark, the typical result they see across other social platforms.³

If you only care about ROI, the story still holds. Seven out of ten MMTs delivered ROI above that benchmark,⁴ and on average Pinterest campaigns came in 17% above Circana’s EMEA social benchmark for ROI.⁵

This is the part that changes the internal conversation. When findings from a measurement partner show incremental sales and ROI above the social benchmark, it gets harder to keep Pinterest in the "test" bucket.

Why Pinterest performs like this

The Circana results line up with how the platform is built. Pinterest is a visual search platform designed for decisions, which means your ads can show up when people are actively looking for what to do, try or buy next, not after they have already decided. That’s why Pinterest is the #1 social media platform used when shoppers want to seek out a specific idea or product.⁶

In plain terms, Pinterest is where people go when they’re ready to decide. That helps explain why the analysis found that 82% of campaigns generated positive incremental ROI.⁷

Act on these insights

You don’t need a complicated reinvention. You need a plan built for the way people use Pinterest.

1) Plan around real CPG missions, not just audiences
Anchor your campaigns to concrete shopper missions: weekly dinner planning, seasonal cleaning, bathroom reset, haircare overhaul. Then align your keywords, targeting and creative to those missions, so your ads show up when people are actively planning what to do and buy next. When you’re ready to scale across missions, Pinterest Performance+ can help streamline setup and optimisation.

2) Make it easy to move shoppers from inspiration to action 
Pair idea-led creative (recipes, routines, how-tos) with clear product cues and where-to-buy context, so people can move from Pin to purchase with ease. If you do have a product catalogue, use shoppable formats to shorten that path even further. Snickers did exactly this in Australia, pairing “Should’ve packed a Snickers” creative with travel-focused targeting to reach people in a high-intent planning mindset. The campaign delivered a +6.9 point sales uplift in NSW and an average 1.6x ROI in offline sales, showing how Pinterest can help turn inspiration into measurable retail sales.⁸ 

3) Use measurement to move Pinterest from test budget to core investment
The MMT approach used in the Circana studies isolated incremental sales. You can do the same. Work with your measurement partner to run an MMT for a priority brand or category, with incremental sales or ROI as the success metric. Once you have proof from an MMT, bring those results into your joint business planning and category reviews. That is how Pinterest moves from a nice-to-have test to a core part of your CPG media investment.

For CPG planners, the takeaway is simple: keep using Pinterest to inspire, but value that awareness investment for the measurable sales impact it can drive too.