Q5 on Pinterest: Your bonus marketing moment
November 10, 2025
The holiday season is a no-fail moment for advertisers, but there’s another crucial marketing period that shouldn’t be overlooked: Q5.
While core gifting 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 behavior during Q5, learn why Pinterest's visual search capabilities help people discover new products, and see how advertisers can reach shoppers during this critical time.
of weekly Pinterest users keep buying online during Dec 26-31
of weekly Pinterest users keep buying in-store during Dec 26-31
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 & Beverage and Home & Garden. For example, Pinterest searches for “nye appetizers” surge by 456.9x,2 and purchases for drinkware sets increase by 2.6x.3
Shoppers on Pinterest are also switching gears and taking advantage of Q5 sales as they buy for themselves. We see this happening particularly in Health & 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 skin care tools (1.8x), aftershave (1.7x) and cosmetic sets (1.5x).4
Mindfulness matters
During the quiet days after the holidays, people also take the opportunity to turn inward for some much-needed reflection. It’s a time when they are looking to reset for the year ahead in categories like goal-setting, self-care, finance, health and home. Compared to people who don’t use the platform, Pinterest users are 1.6x more likely to spend their post-holiday week setting goals and new year’s resolutions.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:
“debt management” +6.4x6
“affirmations” +2.8x7
“cleaning bedroom” 3.1x8
“craft storage” 5.5x9
“healthier hair” +6.0x10
“...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 holidays hosting parties, planning menus and purchasing gifts, people are burnt out. By this point they’ve had to make thousands of choices, online and off, and they’re experiencing decision fatigue. And when they try to find something online, traditional search doesn’t help lessen the fatigue.
That’s why people are embracing visual search tools fueled by AI, like the search features available on Pinterest. In fact, 73% of consumers said 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 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 holiday rush, Pinterest sees much more efficient auction dynamics for advertisers. Because of the spike in searches, post-holiday auctions 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 maximize the potential of Q5. Here’s how:
Drive omnichannel results: Local inventory ads help you put your on-the-shelf products in front of nearby shoppers, and encourage local delivery or in-store pickup. You can also showcase available products with store-level data like price and availability
Tap into trends: Optimize your ad strategy and reach Pinners effectively by using the Pinterest Trends tool to stay informed on search behavior as it evolves during Q5.
