Your starter guide to Pinterest shopping ads

27 August 2026

News

Close-up of shopping ads in a green colour palette.

Whether you’re just setting up shop or looking to scale sales, this practical guide will help you to identify the right tools and resources to build, launch and optimise shopping campaigns on Pinterest.

1. Build your foundations

Before launching your first shopping campaign, you need to establish a solid presence on Pinterest so that your products seamlessly sync with the platform.

Set up your shop: Get an overview of the Pinterest shopping features and tools available to you in this foundational, 15-minute course from Pinterest Academy. Walk through the steps to set up your shop and learn how to scale product Pins with targeted ads.

Connect your catalogue: You can automate your catalogue upload and keep your inventory in sync using e-commerce integrations or the Pinterest API for Shopping. Alternatively, you can upload your merchant product feed directly to Pinterest. Whatever method you choose, you can learn how to upload your product catalogue to Pinterest in this short video.

Implement tracking signals: Set up the Pinterest tag to anchor your performance baseline. This code can help you to track conversions with full visibility and maximise your overall return on ad spend.

2. Launch and automate your shopping ads

Once your inventory is live, use the right tools to help you set up your ads so you can meet active buyers at the exact moment of decision.

Anticipate seasonal demand: Identify rising trends early by using the revamped Pinterest Trends tool. Master the tool alongside our experts in our trends tutorial live demo. You’ll dive into hands-on campaign scenarios where the tool will be useful, including a highlight on shopping trends.

Automate with Pinterest Performance+: Use AI and automation to streamline your targeting, bidding and creative delivery. This suite of tools helps to improve your return on ad spend with up to 50% fewer operational inputs.1 Curious about how it works? See how brands like Wayfair are finding success with Pinterest Performance+ and explore this course to learn how to apply these features to your next campaign.

Expand lower-funnel reach: Explore how shopping campaigns with dynamic retargeting, local inventory ads and engaging promotions can help you to reconnect with past visitors and encourage more online and in-store sales. Advertisers who use local inventory ads see online conversion rates that are 1.7x higher than standard campaigns,² and adding a promotion to a shopping campaign results in an 18% increase in conversions.³ Take the Run Shopping Campaigns on Pinterest course and learn how to set up and optimise for these features to support your sales goals.

3. Measure, optimise and scale your campaigns

After your campaign launches, it’s time to track performance and measure results—to help make every pound in your marketing budget count. Define what success looks like, strengthen your signals and create a robust measurement strategy for long-term impact. Need help with getting started? Take a look at these measurement best practices and learn more with the Measuring & Optimising Your Shopping Campaigns course. 

4. Supercharge your shopping skills on Pinterest

Pinterest Shopping Essentials gives you practical, step-by-step guidance to create effective shopping ads. In less than a day, you can learn everything that you need to know to confidently connect your shop, upload your products, track results and use shopping ads to help drive more sales.

Pinterest ‘Shopping Essentials’ badge with the Pinterest logo, standing on a pastel block.
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