Pinterest places brands inside 80 billion monthly searches with Visual Search Ads

Pinterest announced Visual Search Ads on 17 September at Pinterest Presents, its annual advertiser summit, placing advertisers in Pinterest Search Results and Pin closeups as people search, compare and move closer to a decision.

Pinterest users conduct more than 80 billion searches per month, the vast majority of which are visual, and more than half of which are commercial. More than 96% of those searches are unbranded, according to remarks from CEO Bill Ready at the summit.

The format matters because it moves advertisers from the feed into the moment when a shopper is actively comparing products. Visual Search Ads place advertisers prominently within Pinterest Search Results and Pin closeups, connecting brands with users as they visually search, compare options and move closer to a decision. Advertisers can bid for a top response and drive users directly to their websites, creating a new performance opportunity at a critical point in the decision journey.

What Pinterest didn't publish

Pinterest announced Visual Search Ads on 17 September 2026 at Pinterest Presents, alongside same-day announcements of Performance+ Priority Products, self-serve A/B testing, a dedicated App Promotion objective and a consumer feature called Restyle.

Pinterest already sells ads inside search results. It introduced Top of Search ads a year earlier, on 25 September 2025, with testing finding an average click-through rate 29% higher for Top of Search ads compared to standard campaigns.

The Visual Search Ads announcement, a year later, carries no equivalent figure for the format itself. Pinterest did not disclose conversion rates, advertiser returns, or revenue results specific to Visual Search Ads in the announcement. The beta will test whether the format delivers enough value to keep advertisers spending after their initial campaigns.

That matters because the performance claims Pinterest did publish relate to App Promotion, a separate beta. App Promotion showed an 85% improvement in cost per install during alpha testing with a major US enterprise advertiser, based on data from August 2025 through August 2026. That's a mobile-app install format, not a conversion study for Visual Search Ads.

Why visual search is performance inventory now

Pinterest is betting that AI-powered visual search can unlock a different kind of intent, letting advertisers reach consumers based on what they're looking at, not just what they type.

The company frames that behavior as more valuable than feed engagement because it captures shoppers still forming preferences. People arrive with intent but before they have decided what to buy, Ready said.

The new ad format is powered by Pinterest Intelligence, the company's AI system that combines first-party signals with its understanding of images, products, user tastes and intent. Pinterest CEO Bill Ready positioned the format as an extension of search advertising beyond keywords, with visual interactions providing additional signals about what users may be considering.

Visual search advertising isn't new. Google Lens handles around 20 billion visual queries monthly, according to industry data. What's new is Pinterest packaging its visual search activity as biddable lower-funnel inventory at scale. Visual Search Ads support lower-funnel objectives and are compatible with Pinterest Performance+, Pinterest's AI-powered performance advertising suite.

Performance+ matters here because our breakdown of Pinterest's AI campaign assistant covered how the platform embeds automation deeper into campaign creation to lower manual effort.

The state of play on Pinterest now

Pinterest reported Q2 2026 revenue of $1,180 million, an increase of 18% year over year, and global monthly active users increased 11% year over year to 640 million.

Gen Z is now more than half Pinterest's audience, Ready said at the summit. That demographic shift explains why Pinterest tells advertisers to launch Q4 campaigns now, not November, as 55% of weekly users still shop post-Christmas. Planning cycles on Pinterest start earlier than on feed-based platforms.

Visual Search Ads arrives a year after Top of Search ads, and six weeks after Pinterest ran advertiser guidance recommending early Q4 launches. The timing suggests Pinterest is layering performance formats into the same search inventory as it heads into the highest-spending quarter of the year.

Visual Search Ads will be available in beta for eligible advertisers in all Pinterest ad markets in the coming weeks. Pinterest has not published eligibility criteria or pricing benchmarks.

What else launched alongside it

Pinterest added Priority Products to Performance+, letting advertisers flag items for a seasonal push while automation keeps running, plus self-serve A/B testing across creative and targeting.

Restyle, launching in beta in the US and Canada, lets people use a photo to reimagine a space, test ideas and compare options in their own home. That's a consumer feature, not an ad product, but it reinforces the visual-first positioning.

The platform is also returning with a second season of Bring My Pinterest to Life, its CTV series that pairs Pinterest users with creators and brands to turn saved ideas into physical spaces.

The implication for social advertisers

Pinterest is converting search volume into performance ad placement faster than most people tracking platform updates have clocked. If you're testing Pinterest for anything beyond upper-funnel brand work, Visual Search Ads is the format that matters, not the CTV series.

The question isn't whether visual search works as an intent signal. It does. The question is whether Pinterest's execution converts better than the mix you're running now, at a cost that makes reallocating budget defensible.

Without published conversion data, that's a test, not a recommendation. Wait for beta access, compare it against your existing Pinterest campaigns, and watch for whether the ads reach new shoppers or just capture demand already created elsewhere on the platform.

The other watch is whether Pinterest's luxury audience, which spends 87% more than shoppers on other platforms, shows up in Visual Search Ads reporting differently from the platform's broader base. If premium buyers are overindexed in visual search behavior, the format becomes selective rather than universal.

Pinterest built this on the back of 80 billion monthly searches. That's large enough to matter. Whether it's differentiated enough to pull budget from Google, Meta or Amazon is the part we'll know in Q4.