Pinterest has been quietly publishing hard numbers behind Performance+, its AI-powered suite of automated campaign tools, and the results are strong enough to change how marketing teams think about Pinterest ad management in 2026. Across catalog sales, creative optimization, and audience targeting, Pinterest reports meaningful cost and revenue improvements over manually managed campaigns, with nearly 80% better outcomes than traditional setups in A/B testing.
What’s Inside Pinterest Performance+
Performance+ is not a single feature. It’s a bundle of automated tools that advertisers can activate as a full suite or pick individually inside regular campaign setup, with no minimum budget requirement. The suite covers:
- Streamlined campaign setup for consideration, conversions, and catalog sales
- Creative optimization that generates and tests thousands of ad variations automatically
- ROAS bidding that prioritizes high-value purchases over raw click volume
- AI-generated backgrounds that replace plain white product backgrounds with engaging scenes
- Visual targeting that finds new audiences without relying on keywords
- Dynamic budgeting and bidding that adjusts spend in real time
The Numbers Behind the Hype
Pinterest’s published results give marketers real benchmarks instead of vague promises:
- 20% lower cost per action on catalog sales campaigns
- 10% higher ROAS from ROAS-focused bidding
- 19% more checkout revenue from automated creative optimization
- 11% higher conversion rate from AI-generated backgrounds
- 17% lower cost-per-thousand-impressions from visual targeting
- Nearly 80% better performance than traditional campaigns in head-to-head A/B testing
American Eagle is Pinterest’s headline case study, reporting a 2x improvement in ROAS after using Performance+ targeting to expand its audience beyond its existing customer base.
How This Fits the Bigger Pinterest AI Push
Performance+’s automated optimization runs on the same AI infrastructure behind Pinterest’s expanded Nvidia partnership, which is making the platform’s visual search and content understanding dramatically faster. Together, the two moves show Pinterest betting its future on AI doing more of the campaign work automatically, from creative generation to audience discovery to bidding, while advertisers focus on strategy and budget rather than manual optimization.
Should You Turn On Performance+?
Because there’s no minimum budget and features can be activated individually, testing Performance+ carries low risk for most advertisers already running Pinterest campaigns. Retail and catalog-heavy brands stand to see the fastest results given the reported catalog sales and creative optimization numbers, but the visual targeting feature is worth testing even for service-based businesses trying to find net-new Pinterest audiences.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pinterest Performance+?
Pinterest Performance+ is an AI-powered suite of automated advertising tools covering campaign setup, creative generation, bidding, budgeting, and audience targeting, designed to reduce the manual work of running Pinterest ad campaigns.
How much can Performance+ lower ad costs?
Pinterest reports up to a 20% reduction in cost per action on catalog sales campaigns and a 17% reduction in cost-per-thousand-impressions through its visual targeting feature.
Is there a minimum budget to use Performance+?
No. Advertisers can activate the full suite or individual features during regular campaign setup with no minimum spend required.
Is Performance+ only for ecommerce brands?
Catalog and retail brands see the most directly comparable published results, but the visual targeting and creative optimization tools are available to any advertiser running consideration or conversion campaigns on Pinterest.
Ready to put Pinterest’s automated ad tools to work for your brand? Book a free consultation with Visuapex Creatives or learn more about our paid media management services.
Sources: Pinterest Business.