Pinterest: the visual compass to conquer Black Friday, Christmas and the sales

Every year, seasonal marketing follows the same ritual: brands start their engines in mid-November, paid media teams adjust budgets in panic mode, and consumers get bombarded with discounts, campaigns, and messages that all sound the same.

But while all that noise is happening, there’s one place where purchase decisions are made weeks in advance: Pinterest.

Now more than ever, Pinterest is the starting point of desire—the place where consumers plan their season before activating on channels like Meta, Google, or TikTok.

And with the latest innovations introduced at Pinterest Presents 2025, the platform has become a far more strategic marketing tool: visual, predictive, and automated.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• The new Pinterest: inspiration with intention

• 🖤 Black Friday: plant before the battle begins

• 🎄 Christmas: from boards to carts

• 💸 Sales season: closing the loop with automation and retargeting
• 🔮 Visual trends shaping winter 2025

The new Pinterest: inspiration with intention

Pinterest is no longer just a showcase of pretty ideas. It’s a network where inspiration connects directly to data, algorithms, and purchase intent signals.

With the evolution of its technology, unveiled at Pinterest Presents 2025, the platform has refined three essential elements:

1. How it detects intent (through visual AI and save-pattern recognition).
2. How it turns inspiration into action (thanks to the new Performance+ formats).
3. How it delivers real-time relevance (via the upgraded Pinterest Trends).
   
   

This means that someone uploading a photo of a coat, searching for “natural Christmas décor,” or saving a festive outfit is leaving behind signals that Pinterest can translate into tangible opportunities for your brand.

💡 In simple terms: Pinterest has become the first step of the seasonal funnel—the place where users dream, compare, plan… and get ready to buy.

🖤 Black Friday: plant before the battle begins

The most common mistake brands make is showing up late. By the time you publish your ads on November 20th, the Pinterest audience has already been saving ideas for weeks under boards like “Black Friday Gifts,” “Winter Outfits,” or “Tech Deals.”

The new Pinterest allows you to be present at that exact moment of inspiration. Thanks to its enhanced visual search, users can discover your products even if they’re not actively searching for your brand—just from an image or something similar.

👉 Combine this with the new Performance+ formats, which automatically adjust bids and creatives based on detected intent, and you can keep your campaigns profitable without increasing budget.

Realistic example:
A beauty brand launches a “Black Friday Beauty Prep” board in October. As users save those pins, the algorithm detects purchase intent and prioritizes those products in holiday and sales feeds. The result: by December, your ads reach a pre-warmed audience.

🎄 Christmas: from boards to carts

In December, Pinterest becomes the global wishlist. People aren’t browsing aimlessly; they’re choosing. And that’s where brands that started early reap the rewards.

The new Pinterest Trends 2025 tools now let you identify fast-growing searches—for example, “eco gifts,” “warm minimalism,” or “maximalist style,” the three aesthetics defining this season according to Pinterest Predicts 2025.

With that insight, you can adjust creatives and featured products in real time. And with the new Where to Buy links or integrated local inventory, each pin can lead directly to the nearest store or your e-commerce site with live pricing.

✨ Example: A fashion brand spots that Cherry Coded (deep red) searches are up 45%. They update their holiday campaign visuals, reoptimize their AMP feed, and add Product Pins in that color. Within a week, their ads gain visual relevance and higher CTR without additional spend.

💸 Sales season: closing the loop with automation and retargeting

By January, Pinterest shifts tone. Searches move from “gifts” to “sales,” “organization,” or “new wardrobe 2026.” And this is where the platform shines again—its data structure connects what users saved in December to what they can now buy at a discount.

Thanks to integrations announced at Pinterest Presents 2025 with Shopify, AppsFlyer, and MikMak, prices and promotions now update automatically in your ads. No need to rebuild creatives—Pinterest syncs them with your product feeds, showing messages like “You saved this—now it’s on sale” or “Available near you.”

This kind of contextual, visually coherent, frictionless remarketing is what turns inspiration into final action.

🔮 Visual trends shaping winter 2025

To close the year, Pinterest released its Pinterest Predicts 2025 report—its digital taste oracle that gets 8 out of 10 predictions right. Among the top trends defining the season (and perfect for creative campaigns):

• Cherry Coded: deep red as a symbol of energy and celebration.
• Rococó Revival: ornate luxury, rich textures, sophisticated maximalism.
• Surreal Soirées: dreamlike parties with bold contrasts.
• Terra Futura: organic décor, nature, and raw materials.
• Twin Style: coordinated fashion and mirrored aesthetics.

👉 Aligning your campaigns with these aesthetics makes your ads blend seamlessly into Pinterest’s natural content flow—something the algorithm rewards with greater reach and higher CTR.

Beyond the pin: Pinterest in an omnichannel strategy

What’s fascinating about Pinterest today isn’t just its aesthetic value—it’s its evolving role in the media ecosystem. The platform now integrates with external tools like Shopify for e-commerce, Smartly and Adsmurai AMP for campaign management, and Google Analytics 4 for measurement.

This means Pinterest no longer needs to be treated as an “isolated channel,” but as part of a connected sequence: users discover on Pinterest, engage on Meta or Google, and convert on your website. And you can measure it all seamlessly.

💡 Adsmurai insight:
Brands using unified feeds and cross-platform automation with AMP achieve 30% higher efficiency in seasonal campaigns—because Pinterest captures the one thing other channels don’t: the moment before intent.

The season starts (and is won) on Pinterest

Pinterest doesn’t compete for clicks—it competes for context. Its new features turn every search, every save, and every idea into a measurable opportunity. And those who understand that win the season before it even begins.

Because the real Black Friday doesn’t happen in a day. It starts when someone saves your product to a board and thinks:

“I’m getting this as soon as it goes on sale.”

And there—without discounts, without noise, and driven purely by intent—Pinterest has already done its job.