Make Pinterest Performance+ campaigns your new default

You know the drill: launch the campaign, then spend the next two weeks optimising it nonstop. Tighten. Exclude. Reallocate. Refresh. It may feel like control, but it’s actually work that automation should have taken off your plate years ago.

Meanwhile, expectations keep rising while the tools feel harder to trust. Nearly two‑thirds of agencies, brands and publishers say they face significant challenges in adopting AI in media campaigns, from complex setup and data quality to legal requirements and fragmented tools.¹ When every quarter brings a privacy update, a new modelling approach or an analytics caveat, the old hands‑on‑keys playbook gets less effective.

The real cost isn’t just time. It’s opportunity. Every hour you spend fixing structure or nudging bids is an hour you’re not spending on the work that actually moves the needle.

Pinterest Performance+ campaigns help you work smarter. With this streamlined setup that brings our latest tools together across your performance campaigns you can focus on what compounds over time: better inputs in, better results out.

From manual control to relevance that scales

People don’t come to Pinterest to passively scroll. They come to find inspiration and options that feel right for them. In recent research, 58% agreed that ads can speed up decisions by spotlighting relevant choices early in the journey.² That’s exactly where automation can help. In internal tests, advertisers who used Pinterest Performance+ campaigns saw a 10%+ improvement in CPC and CPA compared to traditional campaign setups, as automation leaned into the combinations of creatives, audiences and placements that actually delivered.³

If relevance is what gets people to act, your job isn’t to micromanage delivery. It’s to keep feeding the system strong creative and product signals so it can identify what’s working and scale it. With Pinterest Performance+ campaigns, best practice isn’t “set it and forget it”. It’s a simple, repeatable rhythm: launch with smart defaults, validate with a clear experiment, then double down on what works. Automation earns more budget through repeatable learning, not hunches.

Pinterest Performance+ campaigns are different

Pinterest is the AI‑powered visual search platform designed for decisions. Pinterest Performance+ campaigns do the work to ensure you show up in those moments with smarter automation and simpler campaign management across consideration, conversions and catalogue sales. To get the most from that launch–test–scale rhythm, focus on two things:

1. Run full Pinterest Performance+ campaigns

The best way to get started is to create a Pinterest Performance+ campaign that bundles our performance tools—bidding, budgets, targeting and creative signals—into a single, simplified setup. That structure gives Pinterest Performance+ the best chance to learn quickly and find incremental gains you might miss with traditional setups.

You don’t have to choose between efficiency and control. You still set the objective, budget, countries and key guardrails; Pinterest Performance+ campaigns handle the heavy lifting in the background. It’s easy to start with a small test against your current setup, then scale once you see the results.

2. Lean on built-in best‑practice setup

Pinterest Performance+ campaigns streamline creation by defaulting to a proven setup aligned to your objective: consolidated ad groups, broad targeting where it makes sense and clean, full‑funnel structures.

You spend less time rebuilding campaign architecture and more time on higher‑impact work: sharpening your strategy, strengthening creative and making sure your catalogue and landing pages are ready to convert. With consistent setup and new reporting breakdowns for age, gender, geography, placement and device, it’s easier to see where results come from, spot what’s working and roll those patterns across markets and key moments.

Build for learning, not tweaking

The teams that win the next phase of growth won’t be the ones doing the most day‑to‑day tweaking. They’ll be the ones with the clearest operating model and the strongest learning loops.

Pinterest Performance+ campaigns help you move from day‑to‑day changes to a more reliable learning system, so you can invest in what matters most: better creative inputs, smarter testing and faster scaling.

Start by moving one lower‑funnel or catalogue sales effort into a Pinterest Performance+ campaign and A/B testing it against your current setup. Once you see the results, make Pinterest Performance+ campaigns your new default on Pinterest.

Set up your first Pinterest Performance+ campaign in Ads Manager today.