Pacsun
The apparel retailer drove a 7x increase in conversion rate.
Goal
In the competitive Gen Z fashion landscape, holiday campaigns need to stand out to be successful. Pacsun, facing this challenge head-on, took a fresh approach, capturing attention during the crucial holiday season and converting that attention into actual sales.
Pinterest was the perfect fit for Pacsun since so many Gen Z shoppers already use the platform to find style ideas and shopping inspiration. Pacsun leveraged Pinterest's Performance+ suite — a collection of AI and automation tools designed to optimize campaign performance. And the retailer was particularly interested in testing the platform's ROAS bidding capabilities to maximize the impact of every dollar spent during the height of holiday shopping.
Strategy
While Pacsun maintains an always-on, full-funnel presence on Pinterest, the retailer made a strategic pivot for the holiday season. In December, Pacsun switched all of its conversion campaigns to Performance+ ROAS bidding — Pinterest's AI-powered system that automatically optimizes ad delivery to shoppers who are most likely to make valuable purchases.
The technology did the heavy lifting, continuously refining bid strategies to target high-potential prospects who were interested in Pacsun's priority products. This approach allowed Pinterest's algorithms to maximize conversion value rather than just conversion volume, focusing the budget on shoppers with the highest purchase intent and potential basket size during the competitive holiday rush.
"
The holiday season demands both precision and scale when it comes to reaching Gen Z shoppers. With Pinterest's Performance+ ROAS bidding, we were able to automatically optimize our campaign, focusing on customers who had the highest purchase intent. It allowed us to cut through the noise and focus on what mattered most — shoppers who were ready to buy our priority products.”
Brie Olson
CEO, Pacsun
Results
Pacsun’s strategic shift to Performance+ ROAS bidding delivered impressive returns for the retailer during the crucial holiday shopping period. Pacsun achieved a 3.5X increase in return on ad spend compared to the previous year.1 This dramatic shift was driven by Pinterest's AI optimization, focusing budget on high-value prospects shopping for priority products. Pacsun also saw their return on ad spend jump by 34% from direct response efforts2, showing how effectively Pinterest's smart bidding turned casual Gen Z browsers into actual customers.
7x
increase in conversion rate1
3.5x
decrease in cost per site visit1
3.5x
increase in site visits from Pinterest ads1
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