Retail media has changed. The way advertisers evaluate channel performance should change with it. These benchmark insights can help you reassess where efficient return is really coming from.
Retail marketers have never had more data at their fingertips. Better signals. Better attribution. Better modelling. Better ways to understand what drives incremental growth. Yet when planning season comes around, many media plans still follow familiar patterns. Channels play the same roles, budgets gravitate towards established favourites and insights end up filed away rather than acted on.
The real opportunity is not in collecting more data. It’s in using it to rethink how channels contribute across the wider media mix.
To examine that properly, Pinterest commissioned Ekimetrics to analyse 85 retail brands and 115 marketing mix models (MMMs) across Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain between 2024 and 2025. The study measured Pinterest's short- and long-term incremental return on ad spend (ROAS) within retail media plans. Here are three insights to act on.
1. Efficient channels are often underplanned
Total media ROAS = 100; short-term = 0-4 months post ad exposure
Channels often keep the same role long after the evidence suggests they deserve a different one. That is a planning problem, not a measurement problem.
Across the benchmark analysis, Pinterest delivered 14% higher short-term incremental ROAS than total media and 12% higher short-term ROAS than other paid social. It also ranked among the top three measured media channels on short-term ROAS.1
That matters because many retail advertisers still treat Pinterest as a supporting channel—useful for inspiration, visibility or testing—but not always planned as a meaningful commercial driver. These findings suggest it's time to revisit that assumption.
What to test next: Consider whether Pinterest’s efficient short-term returns across the wider retail media mix warrant a more deliberate role in your plan, rather than a primarily supporting one.
2. Short-term efficiency is only part of the picture
Immediate return still dominates many planning conversations. But some channels keep creating value after the first response window and a narrow read on short-term performance can miss that.
That broader view is what makes this analysis useful for planning. While many traditional MMMs focus on short-term ROAS—ad effects up to 4 months after exposure—Ekimetrics measures both short- and long-term ROAS, with long-term ROAS capturing effects up to 24 months after exposure.
Using that broader lens, Ekimetrics found that Pinterest’s long-term ROAS was 1.7x its short-term ROAS. In other words, Pinterest didn’t just perform efficiently in the moment. Its value continued to build over time. When those longer-term effects were included, Pinterest still remained among the top three measured channels on long-term ROAS, delivering 21% higher long-term ROAS than total media. Combined with its strong short-term performance, that suggests Pinterest is contributing efficiently both in the moment and over time.2
Viewed through that lens, Pinterest looks less like a test channel and more like a durable part of the mix. Advertisers who continue treating it as an experiment risk overlooking opportunities that competitors could already be capturing.
What to test next: Measure success over a timeframe that reflects how channels create value, not just how quickly they generate results. That may help clarify whether Pinterest contributes beyond short-term return alone.
3. The best-performing channels don’t work in isolation
How to read: Sales contribution of an "other social" campaign increased by on average +4% when activated alongside a Pinterest campaign.
Advertisers do not buy channels one by one. They buy a system. So the most useful question is not always which line performed best in isolation, but how each channel shapes the effectiveness of the wider plan.
The benchmark findings suggest that when Pinterest was activated alongside other digital channels, sales contribution increased on average by 4% for social platforms, 3% for display and 2% for online video.3 Rather than operating in isolation, Pinterest acted as a multiplier, strengthening the performance of neighbouring channels alongside its own.
The brands that get ahead won't necessarily be the ones spending more. They'll be the ones building media systems that reflect how customers make decisions.
What to test next: Consider evaluating Pinterest not only as a standalone line item, but also for how it may support the wider mix through sequencing, allocation and overall media efficiency.
What this means for your next plan
Don't let these findings become another interesting read that's filed away. If you're still evaluating Pinterest as a supporting channel, you may be under-planning for one that can drive efficient return across the wider mix. Connect with your Pinterest team to apply these findings to your next plan.
