• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 1, 2024

Pinterest on Tuesday began rolling out AI and automation campaign features to support performance advertising at its annual global advertiser summit. 

While October signals a start to the end-of-year holiday shopping season, as consumers begin searching in earnest for the best prices on products, this year might present challenges for some.

Dockworkers went on strike this morning at dozens of ports from Maine to Texas over issues with wages and automation -- following through with a walkout that could threaten the American economy.

Retailers reportedly say they can deal with a possible short shutdown but, if it is prolonged, shortages of products are likely, along with higher prices.

Pinterest said its advertising suite of products including Performance+ provide an option to drive lower-funnel performance by optimizing targeting, managing budgets and determining the amount to bid.

Campaign creation time is reduced in half with support from AI and automation features. The technology will bundle the features automatically, or advertisers can mix and match products based on needs.

Results from alpha and beta testing show that most advertisers saw at least a 10% improvement in cost per acquisition (CPA) for Conversion and Catalog sales campaigns or a more than 10% improvement in cost per click (CPC) for Consideration campaigns. 

Prada in the U.S., an early adopter, experienced improvements on its Pinterest Performance+ campaigns, with a 64% decrease in CPA and a 30% increase in conversion rate. They also saw a 1.8x increase in return on ad spend (ROAS) for checkouts, according to Pinterest.

Ads can be altered depending on the location being served or time of year. Generative AI (GAI) enables advertisers to change white, blank or flat color backgrounds into lifestyle imagery to improve engagement.

Walgreens, also an early tester, used Pinterest Performance+ creative for about 50 products across multiple categories. The retailers showcased some retail products and saw a 55% higher clickthrough rate (CTR) and 13% lower cost per click (CPC) using Pinterest-generated backgrounds compared to white backgrounds. 

Pinterest also will make Performance+ bidding for ROAS available in all markets to qualified advertisers. 

The tool was historically optimized for clicks or conversion volume. Now it will analyze thousands of signals to predict the value of potential conversions in real-time, helping advertisers maximize return on investments.

For advertisers who have a range of products with different prices, this can help capture the largest shopping carts from users who are most likely to make a purchase. Most advertisers in early testing saw at least a 15% increase in ROAS by using Pinterest Performance+ ROAS bidding, according to Pinterest.

The holidays are here, and shoppers have begun searching for discounts. The 2023 holiday shopping season saw a global average discount rate of 21% -- the highest since the start of the pandemic.

Users can search for discounts and Pinterest can now surface items on sale with Promotions. These tools are available to advertisers on request in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. 

Pinterest today also announced improvements to Pinterest Search and Home Feeds with personalized, branded shopping recommendations powered by machine learning. 

Personalized promotions serve shoppers promotions and sales based on what they have searched and pinned, allowing advertisers to reach users as they shop.

Through Deals ads, modules ads have become more visible to consumers across the Home Feed.

Custom haircare and skincare company Prose used promotions and found it drove cheaper incremental checkouts compared to the business-as-usual conversion campaigns, but they also generated a 48% higher clickthrough rate.