Pinterest Ads for Ecommerce: A UK Guide for Shopify Brands

Key Takeaways

• Pinterest is a visual planning platform, which makes its ads a natural fit for home, fashion, beauty, food and gift brands.
• Pinterest says it has 640 million monthly active users worldwide and reaches 39% of 18 to 24 year olds in the UK.
• The Pinterest app for Shopify syncs your catalogue and adds the Pinterest tag and API for Conversions at no cost; you pay only for ads.
• Shopping ads come as standard, video, collections and carousel formats, and Performance+ automates targeting, bidding and creative.
• We test Pinterest ads for at least six weeks, because people save ideas and buy later.
• Strong product imagery matters more here than anywhere: after Halo Coffee's relaunch with specialist photography, conversion rate rose from 0.5% to 3%.

Quick Answer

Pinterest ads let Shopify brands put products in front of people planning what to buy. Install the Pinterest app for Shopify to sync your catalogue and add conversion tracking, then run shopping ads, ideally with Performance+, which automates targeting, bidding and ad formats. Pinterest suits visual products and gifts, its UK audience is mostly female, and results build over weeks as saved Pins turn into purchases, so test for at least six weeks and judge it on new customers and return on ad spend.

Table of Contents

• Why Pinterest Suits Product Brands
• How to Connect Shopify to Pinterest
• Pinterest Ad Formats for Ecommerce
• Pinterest Performance+ Campaigns
• How to Budget and Test Pinterest Ads
• Creative That Works on Pinterest
• How to Measure Pinterest Ads
• Pinterest Ads Compared with Meta and Google
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

Pinterest gets less attention than Meta and TikTok, but for the right products it behaves differently from both. People come to Pinterest to plan a kitchen, a wedding, a wardrobe or a Christmas list, which means they are open to discovering brands they have not heard of. For a Shopify store with good product images, that is a valuable place to be.

Why Pinterest Suits Product Brands

Pinterest's audience page says it has 640 million monthly active users worldwide. In the UK it says it reaches 39% of people aged 18 to 24, 31% of 25 to 34 year olds, 29% of 35 to 44 year olds and 30% of people aged 45 and over, and that its UK audience is 70% female and 28% male. These are Pinterest's own figures.

In words: Pinterest reaches the largest share of 18 to 24 year olds, and roughly three in ten adults in each older group. That spread, together with the planning mindset, makes it a strong fit for:

• Home and interiors, where people collect ideas for months before buying.
• Fashion, beauty and jewellery, which are bought on looks.
• Food, drink and recipes, where a product can be shown in use.
• Gifts and seasonal products, which people plan well ahead.

How to Connect Shopify to Pinterest

The Pinterest app for Shopify, built by Pinterest, is free to install; Pinterest charges only when you buy ads. It uploads your product catalogue and keeps it updated in near real time, and adds the Pinterest tag and API for Conversions for tracking. The steps:

1. Create or convert to a Pinterest business account, owned by your business.
2. Install the Pinterest app in Shopify and connect the business account.
3. Sync your catalogue. Your products become product Pins. Fix any rejected products; the same feed problems that cause Google Merchant Center disapprovals, such as missing barcodes and unclear shipping, apply here too.
4. Confirm tracking. Check that the tag records page visits, add to basket and purchases, and that the API for Conversions is switched on.
5. Group your products into product groups for advertising, such as best sellers, new arrivals or gift ideas.

Pinterest Ad Formats for Ecommerce

Pinterest's shopping ads guide lists four shopping ad types:

Shopping ads can also retarget people who visited your store or left items in their basket, which is often the most profitable place to start.

Pinterest Performance+ Campaigns

Performance+ bundles Pinterest's automation and AI features. It simplifies targeting to a country, age and customer lists, uses Performance+ bidding to get the most results for the lowest cost, and creates ad groups automatically, including remarketing. On sales campaigns it can also turn product Pins into collections and shopping ads, generate backgrounds with AI and resize images. It is available for the consideration, lead and sales objectives.

For most Shopify brands starting out, a Performance+ sales campaign using the catalogue is the simplest test. Add a separate retargeting campaign once there is enough traffic.

How to Budget and Test Pinterest Ads

Pinterest ads are sold at auction, so there is no fixed price. As a rule of thumb, we test with £20 to £30 a day for at least six weeks: at £25 a day that is £1,050 over the test. Keep the budget steady so the results can be compared, and plan seasonal campaigns earlier than on other platforms, because people save ideas well before they buy.

Before you start, work out the return on ad spend you need to break even. Our ROAS calculator does this from your margin, and our guide to a good ROAS for ecommerce explains how to set targets.

Creative That Works on Pinterest

• Vertical images that fill the screen on a phone.
• The product in use or in context, a room, an outfit or a table, not only on a white background.
• Clear, simple text on the image explaining the idea, for example a gift for a keen gardener.
• Seasonal and occasion themes, published early.
• Video for products that need demonstrating.

Photography makes the difference on a visual platform. When we helped Halo Coffee with its rebrand and relaunch, it invested heavily in specialist product photography, and conversion rate rose from 0.5% to 3% after the new site went live. Our guide to product photography for ecommerce covers what to shoot.

How to Measure Pinterest Ads

Use the Pinterest tag and API for Conversions installed by the app, and judge Pinterest on the same measures as your other channels: new customers, cost per first order and return on ad spend on margin. Because many people save a Pin and buy days or weeks later, look at results over the whole test rather than day by day, and compare Pinterest's reported sales with Shopify's orders to make sure nothing is counted twice.

Our customer acquisition guide explains how to compare channels on new customers rather than total revenue.

Pinterest Ads Compared with Meta and Google

Pinterest rarely replaces Google or Meta; it adds buyers at an earlier stage. Our guide to Google Shopping for Shopify covers the search side.

Why Matters Perspective

Pinterest is an underused channel for many of the product brands we work with. It suits stores with strong imagery and products people plan around, and it tends to bring customers who have not met the brand before. The tests that fail are usually too short, use weak images, or are judged on the first week.

We plan Pinterest alongside Meta, TikTok and Google rather than in isolation, and work to a floor of at least 2x ROAS across the accounts we manage. Ad accounts we set up always belong to the client. We are a Shopify Select partner with Verified Skills across development and marketing, our pricing is published, and retainer clients are billed one month in arrears with no long contracts. For a free social media review, visit our social media marketing agency page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Pinterest ads worth it for ecommerce?

They are often worth testing for visual products such as home, fashion, beauty, food and gifts, because people use Pinterest to plan what to buy. Pinterest says it reaches 39% of 18 to 24 year olds in the UK. Judge a test on new customers and return on ad spend over at least six weeks, not on the first few days.

How much do Pinterest ads cost?

Pinterest ads are sold at auction, so there is no fixed price: you set a daily or lifetime budget and the cost per result depends on competition and your creative. As a rule of thumb we test with £20 to £30 a day for six weeks, so £25 a day costs £1,050 over the test.

How do I connect Shopify to Pinterest?

Install the Pinterest app from the Shopify App Store and connect a Pinterest business account. The app uploads your product catalogue and keeps it updated, and adds the Pinterest tag and API for Conversions so sales from Pinterest are tracked. Your products then appear as product Pins you can promote.

What are Pinterest shopping ads?

Shopping ads promote products from your catalogue to people browsing Pinterest for ideas. Pinterest lists standard shopping ads with a single image, video shopping ads, collections ads with a hero image and three supporting images, and carousel shopping ads.

What is Pinterest Performance+?

Performance+ is Pinterest's automated campaign setup. It simplifies targeting, uses automated bidding to get the most results for the lowest cost, and for sales campaigns can turn product Pins into collections and shopping ads, generate backgrounds and resize images.

Who uses Pinterest in the UK?

Pinterest says it reaches 39% of people aged 18 to 24 in the UK, 31% of 25 to 34 year olds, 29% of 35 to 44 year olds and 30% of people aged 45 and over. It says its UK audience is 70% female and 28% male.

How long should I run a Pinterest ads test?

Give it at least six weeks. People often save ideas on Pinterest and buy later, so early results understate what the ads produce. Keep the budget steady, refresh creative if results stall, and compare new customers with your other channels at the end.

Final Thoughts

Pinterest ads give visual product brands a way to reach people while they are still deciding what to buy. The Pinterest app makes the catalogue and tracking simple, and Performance+ handles most of the campaign setup.

Use strong vertical images, test for at least six weeks and measure new customers, not just early sales. If you would like us to run a Pinterest test for your store, email us.

Related Articles

• Product Photography for Ecommerce
• Customer Acquisition for Ecommerce
• Google Shopping for Shopify
• Ecommerce Marketing Calendar
• User Generated Content for Shopify Brands
• What Is a Good ROAS for Ecommerce?
• Meta Pixel and Conversions API on Shopify