Q5 on Pinterest: Your bonus marketing moment
25 November 2025
The festive season is a no-fail moment for advertisers, but there’s another crucial marketing period that shouldn’t be overlooked: Q5.
While the core gift-giving season may be over, shoppers aren’t putting away their wallets just yet. Q5 the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is one of the most active periods of the year on Pinterest. 55% of weekly Pinterest users keep buying online and 45% continue buying in-store, giving brands an extra sales window and an important marketing opportunity.1 Read on for more insights about Pinterest user behaviour during Q5, learn why Pinterest’s visual search capabilities help people to discover new products, and see how advertisers can reach shoppers during this critical time.
of weekly Pinterest users keep buying online from 26-31 Dec
of weekly Pinterest users keep buying in-store from 26-31 Dec
Goodbye gifts, hello deals
During Q5, searches on Pinterest spike to one of the year’s highest peaks. Instead of finding gifts, shoppers are turning their attention to items that will make get-togethers with loved ones extra special in other ways, especially in two of the most-shopped categories: Food and drinks and Fashion. For example, Pinterest searches for ‘new years cocktails’ surge by 9.8x,2 and ‘nye casual outfit’ increase by 30x.3
Shoppers on Pinterest are also switching gears and taking advantage of Q5 sales as they buy for themselves. We particularly see this happening in health and beauty, another top-shopped category on Pinterest. As the year draws to a close, people on Pinterest are searching for ways to treat themselves, which we see in beauty categories like clear skin (+2.1x), detox bath (+48%) and body oils (+22%).4
Mindfulness matters
During the quiet days after the festive season, people also take the opportunity to turn inwards for some much-needed reflection. It’s a time when they are looking to reset for the year ahead in categories such as goal-setting, self-care, finance, health and home. More than 1 in 3 Pinterest users set New Year’s resolutions and goals. They’re 2.4x more likely to do so compared to non-Pinners.5 From health to wealth, here are some of the searches that people on Pinterest are more likely to look for, compared to the rest of the year:
‘budgeting’ +2.5x6
‘personal finance’ +2.3x7
‘home organisation ideas’ +79%8
‘vertical vegetable garden’ +74%9
‘makeup routine’ +14%10
‘...73% of consumers said the visual nature of Pinterest results makes it better than traditional search.’
How Pinterest’s AI-powered visual search features help Q5 shoppers
After they’ve spent the festive season hosting parties, planning menus and purchasing gifts, people are burnt out. By this point, they’ve had to make thousands of choices, both online and offline, and they’re experiencing decision fatigue. And when they try to find something online, traditional search doesn’t help to lessen the fatigue.
That’s why people are embracing visual search tools fuelled by AI, such as the search features available on Pinterest. In fact, 73% of consumers said that the visual nature of Pinterest results makes it better than traditional search.11 Rather than requiring users to have the perfect words for what they’re looking for, our visual search features allow for structured wandering: Pinterest is like an AI-powered shopping assistant that helps people to get inspired until they find that perfect New Year’s Eve cocktail set or hair curler.
Invest in Pinterest during Q5, the best buy of the year
With so many people flooding the platform looking to buy, Q5 is a great time to create campaigns on Pinterest. After the festive-season rush, Pinterest sees much more efficient auction dynamics for advertisers. Because of the spike in searches, auctions after the festive season get cheaper and broader: lower eCPMs pair with higher reach for cost-efficient impact.
Plus, on Pinterest, it’s easier for you to take charge of the customer journey—without AI agents getting in the way, your brand stays at the forefront and you can better control everything from margins to customer relationships. No matter which industry you’re in, there are ways to maximise the potential of Q5. Here’s how:
Drive omnichannel results: Local inventory ads help you to put your on-the-shelf products in front of nearby shoppers, and encourage local delivery or pick-up from shops. You can also showcase available products with shop-level data, such as price and availability
Tap into trends: Optimise your ad strategy and reach Pinners effectively by using the Pinterest Trends tool to stay informed on search behaviour as it evolves during Q5.
