In the world of lighting retail, visual impact is a huge factor when it comes to paid social campaign success. Therefore, the social media platform Pinterest is a powerful tool for advertisers wanting to use visual creativity to engage their audience. With over 500 million monthly users, Pinterest is a popular social media platform that is primarily used by people looking for discovery and for advertisers wanting to reach customers in the consideration stage of the buying journey. 

For lighting brands, Pinterest provides a unique opportunity to connect with a visually minded, intent-driven audience. Because Pinterest users are on the hunt for new ideas that they can bring into their home, advertisers can create ad campaigns that speak directly to this audience to drive traffic, increase brand visiubility and ultimately boost sales. 

In this blog, I am going to discuss the key to creative success on Pinterest, how to convert consumers on the platform and performance+ campaigns. As well as all of this, I will explore key Pinterest stats and unpack a compelling Embryo case study: the successful campaign from Downsing & Reynolds, a lighting brand that saw tangible results by aligning with Pinterest’s visual-first environment.

If you are looking for support with your Pinterest advertising, then our team of experts are here to help. Get in touch with our team today and let’s start creating campaigns that drive results. 

What is Pinterest advertising? 

Pinterest is a leading social media platform primarily used for discovery, where users can find, save and share ideas for a wide range of interests. It was launched in 2010, and since then has grown into a powerful tool for marketers. 

Pinterest advertising is a form of paid social media marketing; it allows businesses to promote products and services on the platform. Contrary to many other mainstream social media platforms, Pinterest works as a search engine, as users can look for ideas, products or services they would like to explore. Because Pinterest users are often open to products and services rather than looking for one specific item, it is a good platform for brands wanting to reach customers in the early stages of decision making. 

Pinterest ads (commonly known as Pinterest Pins) pop up in users’ feeds, search results and ‘related’ pins. Although Pins look similar to organic posts, they are labelled with a ‘sponsored’ tag. Pinterest advertisers can use various formats when creating a pin, such as images, videos, carousels and shopping ads. As well as this, advertisers can make use of detailed targeting options based on demographics, interests, keywords and even website visitors. 

A huge advantage of Pinterest advertising is that it offers ad longevity. Pins can stay at the surface of Pinterest search results and drive traffic for long periods of time. Therefore, Pinterest is a useful platform for brands in the e-commerce space. It is also a very visual platform, so Pinterest is ideal for those wanting to use creative visuals to drive awareness, traffic and conversions.

Before we get into Pinterest advertising for lighting companies, I have provided some key stats to help you understand the Pinterest platform and the power it holds within the social media world.

Key statistics on Pinterest 

• Pinterest has over 550 million monthly active users 
• Users spend on average 14 minutes on the platform per day 
• 8/10 weekly users discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest
• Pinterest users save around 1.5 billion pins each week
• Pinterest advertisers on Pinterest will see a 2.3x higher return on ad spend compared to other platforms.
• Pins with product tags experience a 35% higher click-through rate.
• Pinterest’s ad impressions grew by 38% in Q1 of 2024
• 1 in 3 Pinterest shoppers have an income of over $100k
• Pinterest generated $1.15 billion in revenue in Q4 of 2024
• Pinterest sees a 23.2% year-over-year growth
• 78% of users say Pinterest makes them feel positive
• Almost 70% of Pinterest users are women, with 22.6% of users men and 8% of users unspecified or identify with another gender
• The largest portion of Pinterest’s audience is Millennial women aged 25-34
• The platform should have around 26.1 million Gen Z users in 2025
• Pinterest averages over 1 billion monthly visits

Reaching visual thinkers through ad creative on Pinterest 

Described as a ‘visual discovery platform’, Pinterest customers are a little different to your typical social media users, as they’re using the platform to plan, visualise and be inspired. More often than not, Pinterest users will have an idea of what they’re looking for, they just need the help in finding it, which is exactly where brands can play a part with advertising. 

People don’t always have the right words to explain what they’re looking for, they need to see it. With Pinterest ads (or ‘Pins’ as they’re called), users can visualise what they’re looking for, and it’s here where retailers, and specifically those in the lighting and home industry, can use Pinterest for strong success, albeit they have the right creative.

96% of searches on the platform are unbranded, so as users search for different trends, interests and categories, brands can put themselves and their products right where their audience are already looking. Combining that with the fact that 46% of Pinterest users have discovered a new brand or product on the platform, there’s a key opportunity for brands to find their audience, making Pinterest a vital brand awareness tool. 

The key to creative success

Unlike other paid social channels like Facebook and Instagram, which can generate ad revenue from product feed shopping ads, Pinterest ads need to be inspiring, visually appealing and allow users to discover more, especially at the top of the funnel and the start of their journey to becoming a customer. Products need to be shown being used, or in the case of lighting retailers, the product needs to be shown in a home, for the user to be able to visualise it in their own and become more interested in the product and the brand. With shoppers on Pinterest known to spend twice as much as they do on other platforms, it’s a key platform for those with high price point products to focus on too. 

This is where retailers in the home industry have an edge over other retailers. Pinterest is a popular platform for those looking for home decor inspiration, with frequent searches on the platform being specific to rooms, styles, designs and projects. More specifically, Pinterest notes Home Decor as it’s most popular category and search term, with over 23 billion pins and 682 million boards dedicated to this category alone. 

When looking at lighting specifically, retailers can often categorise their targeting based on different styles, applications and types. For style, subcategories include minimalist lighting, industrial lighting and modern lighting, whilst for applications, this can break down into ceiling lights, wall lights, floor lamps, table lamps, outdoor lighting and more. For type, it can even go as far as accent vs ambient lighting focuses. 

The wide range of different targeting available can benefit lighting brands not only capture their key interested audience, but also tap in to other relevant audiences, like home improvement, DIY or renovation audiences.

Converting users into shoppers on Pinterest 

With the above in mind and with 60% of Pinterest users utilising the platform for shopping, the platform can be a beneficial tool not only for brand awareness, but also for retailers wanting to encourage conversion with their ad activity, and find new, engaged customers.

After pushing ad creative that sparks joy, discovery and inspiration, Pinterest advertisers can use conversion campaigns to drive purchases on their retail website. Using creative that focuses closely on the product, shows it in a different environment or simply just the product alone, the user will further engage with the product they’ve already seen in a different light. 

The funnel on Pinterest

It’s not just creative that can ensure success on Pinterest though, it’s important that campaign and audience structure plays it’s part in finding the right users at the right stage and encouraging them to buy when they’re ready. 

Campaigns like retargeting campaigns can help find users on site, abandoned baskets, those who have viewed content on site or those who have simply engaged with a pin they’ve seen on the platform. By applying the right creative to these types of audiences, advertisers can encourage users back to site to convert, therefore generating revenue but also decreasing costs as they encourage a warm customer back to buy.

And whilst above, we disencourage product style ads in awareness and consideration campaigns and talk more about nurturing the customer, at the bottom of the funnel it can be an effective strategy to make use of catalogue ads and show products that users are interested in to encourage that purchase.

Performance+ campaigns on Pinterest

Whilst Pinterest advertisers can implement their own campaign and targeting funnel, in the last year or so, Pinterest has launched Performance+, a similar campaign type to PMAX on Google and Advantage+ Shopping campaigns on Meta: all of which work to a full funnel targeting approach. 

Performance+ can effectively target both a broad audience, based off learnings in the algorithm, and a retargeting audience to find the right customer, bundling automation and AI features to boost campaign performance.

Case study: Dowsing & Reynolds 

Pinterest has been a key paid advertising platform for our client Dowsing & Reynolds. As a luxury online lighting retailer, Dowsing & Reynolds’ primary audience focuses on homeowners with medium to high disposable income, who are looking for home furnishings that are both modern and luxurious.

As a result, Pinterest has been an effective platform in not only finding those interested in home decor and furnishings, but also driving revenue and return as the customers are there and ready to shop.

With the task to increase YoY revenue and achieve a Pinterest ROAS of 6-8, our paid social team applied the above strategies mentioned to the Dowsing & Reynolds activity, to ensure they were reaching the right audiences, but also serving the right creative and talking to each user at the right stage of their purchase journey. 

Performance+ was also a key part in the success of the activity, enabling us to target users at all stages of the buying journey from consideration to conversion. We overlaid this campaign type with user-generated content too, to provide engaging creative across the funnel that showed both in-home images but also product focus. 

As a result of implementing the above strategies, we achieved the following: 

• 250% increase in outbound clicks to site
• 58% increase in revenue YoY 
• 64% increase in checkouts YoY
• ROAS on target, and in some individual campaigns, surpassed target

Ready to master your Pinterest advertising? 

Hopefully from this blog, you understand that Pinterest is more than just a place for ideas; it’s a powerful, intent-driven platform where inspiration meets action. For lighting brands, it offers a rare opportunity to connect with consumers at a visually rich and emotionally resonant stage of the buying journey. From discovering new interior trends to saving specific lighting products for future purchase, Pinterest users are not just browsing, they’re planning, and even ready to buy.

Success on Pinterest comes down to understanding the mindset of its audience and delivering content that inspires while guiding them toward conversion. As we saw with Downsing & Reynolds, aligning strong visual storytelling with smart advertising strategies can lead to impressive, measurable results.

So … whether you’re a boutique lighting designer or a large-scale retailer, the opportunity is clear: Pinterest is the ideal environment to showcase your products, tell your brand story, and meet your audience where they’re already dreaming about their next space. 

Get in touch with our agency! We can help you create and implement a Pinterest strategy that drives the results you want. Sound good? Then let’s light up your next campaign.

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