Pinterest’s Latest Update Makes Advertising Easier for Small Businesses

Pinterest is one of those social media platforms that doesn’t usually make the same headlines as Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook, but the company recently rolled out something that’s making marketers stop and take a closer look.

This month, Pinterest announced a few new updates that will help small businesses run ads with less manual work. One focuses on reaching new customers, while the other is designed to help Shopify merchants launch campaigns faster.

These updates aren’t flashy, but for smaller businesses that need a little help with speeding up their marketing efforts, these updates could make a difference.

The bigger theme is one we’ve been seeing across almost every social media platform lately: more automation, more AI, and fewer buttons for advertisers to push themselves.

So what exactly is Pinterest changing, and is it something businesses should pay attention to? Keep reading for everything you need to know.

Q: What did Pinterest announce?

Pinterest rolled out two new additions to its Performance+ advertising suite. One focuses on helping businesses find new customers, while the other helps Shopify merchants get shopping campaigns live faster.

On their own, neither update is particularly groundbreaking. But together, they tell an interesting story. Pinterest is trying to reduce the manual work involved in running ads, especially for smaller businesses that don’t have as many resources as larger brands.

Q: What is Pinterest Performance+?

The easiest way to think about it is Pinterest’s version of ad automation. Instead of spending time adjusting audiences, bids, and campaign settings yourself, advertisers can lean more heavily on Pinterest’s system to do some of that work behind the scenes.

Pinterest says businesses using Performance+ campaigns have seen improvements in metrics like return on ad spend, cost per acquisition, and cost per click. In testing, the company also reported a 28% improvement in return on ad spend for certain small businesses using Performance+ campaigns with ROAS bidding.

Q: What’s the new customer acquisition feature?

This is probably the update that will get the most attention. Businesses can tell Pinterest who their current customers are, and the platform then looks for people with similar behaviors and interests who haven’t purchased from that business before. The goal isn’t just to find more clicks. It’s to find new buyers.

According to Pinterest, advertisers testing the feature saw a 64% increase in new-customer conversions on average. That’s Pinterest’s data, not ours, but it’s still a number that will likely catch marketers’ attention.

Q: Why are platforms so focused on finding new customers right now?

Growth becomes increasingly challenging as time goes on. Getting an existing customer to buy again is important, but most small businesses eventually need fresh customers coming into the pipeline. That’s especially true for smaller brands that are still building awareness.

What Pinterest is trying to do here is remove some of the guesswork. Instead of spending hours building lookalike audiences and fine-tuning targeting, the platform wants its AI to handle more of that work automatically for brands.

Will it work perfectly every time? It’s questionable, but that’s clearly the direction these advertising platforms are heading.

Q: What’s the Shopify update?

This one is all about convenience. Pinterest is introducing pre-built campaign templates that allow eligible Shopify merchants to launch a Pinterest Performance+ shopping campaign with essentially one click. The templates come with Pinterest’s recommended settings already enabled.

Businesses can still adjust budgets and campaign duration, but the idea is to eliminate a lot of the setup work that often stops smaller businesses from getting started in the first place. If you’ve ever opened an ad platform and immediately felt overwhelmed by all the options, you’re probably the target audience for this update!

Q: Does this mean AI is replacing marketers?

No. What it’s replacing, or at least attempting to replace, are some of the repetitive tasks that eat up a marketer’s day.

The strategy still matters. The messaging still matters. The creative still matters. AI can help automate parts of the process, but it can’t magically turn a weak campaign into a strong one.

Q: What’s the biggest takeaway?

The bigger story here isn’t Pinterest. It’s the fact that platforms continue to make automation a larger part of digital advertising.

A few years ago, running paid campaigns often meant navigating complicated settings, audience targeting, bidding strategies, and constant optimization. Now we’re seeing platforms use AI to simplify much of that process. For small businesses with limited time, resources, or teams, that’s a pretty meaningful shift.

Will these tools guarantee success? Of course not. But they do lower the barrier to getting started, and that’s probably exactly what Pinterest is hoping to accomplish.

As social media platforms continue to evolve, having a marketing partner like Bennington Brookstone who stays on top of these changes can help ensure your small business is ready to jump on new opportunities as they emerge. Call, DM, or email us at sbellem@brookstone.com to get started.