Pinterest launches Visual Search Ads at its advertiser summit

“Traditional search advertising has long relied on keywords, but in an AI-driven world, people are expressing themselves in much richer ways,” said Bill Ready, chief executive of Pinterest.

The company announced Visual Search Ads on 17 September at Pinterest Presents, its annual advertiser summit. The format places advertisers in Pinterest search results and in Pin closeups.

Advertisers can bid for a top response and send people straight to their own site. The ads support lower-funnel objectives and work with Performance+, the company’s AI advertising suite.

The format goes into beta for eligible advertisers in every Pinterest ad market in the coming weeks, Pinterest said.

Eighty billion searches a month

Pinterest users run more than 80 billion searches a month, according to company data from its second-quarter earnings. The vast majority are visual and more than half are commercial.

Ready said more than 96% of those searches are unbranded, in remarks at the summit. People arrive with intent but before they have decided what to buy, he said.

He also said Pinterest has 640 million monthly users, that it has set user records for 12 straight quarters, and that Gen Z is now more than half its audience. In May, TNW reported that the company had crossed $1bn in quarterly revenue on the same search bet.

More tools for advertisers

Performance+ is adding Priority Products, which lets advertisers pick the products to push during a seasonal launch or a promotion. Pinterest is also adding self-serve A/B testing for creative, targeting and Performance+ campaigns.

App Promotion, an objective built for app installs, is now in global beta with qualified advertisers. One advertiser saw “up to an 85% improvement in cost per install” against previous workarounds, the company said.

That figure comes from a single US enterprise advertiser in an alpha test, Pinterest’s own footnote says. It covers August 2025 to August 2026.

Restyle and Pinterest Intelligence

Restyle, a consumer feature, is launching in beta in the US and Canada. It lets people photograph a room, then test and compare options in their own home.

Users can prompt the AI to add wall art, furniture or plants, change paint colour and lighting, or swap and erase individual items, TechCrunch reported. They can also ask for a different style, such as bohemian or industrial.

Restyle is an early preview for now and rolls out more widely next month, according to TechCrunch. Pinterest says the feature runs on Pinterest Intelligence, its visual understanding of images, products, taste and intent.

Pinterest said on Monday that Pinterest Intelligence combines Nvidia Blackwell GPUs and Nvidia Dynamo with open-source models and its own technology.

Ads inside AI products

The summit also brought back Bring My Pinterest to Life, a connected TV series, for a second season. Creators Tay BeepBoop Nakamoto and Caroline Vazzana return.

Other platforms are placing ads at the point of decision too. OpenAI is testing Sponsored Agents in ChatGPT. On Prime Day, AI assistants beat search at its own game.

Pinterest is changing its advertising model while a US judge puts Google’s ad tech business under a monitor. Its chief financial officer, Julia Donnelly, announced her departure on 31 August.