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Pinterest launches Visual Search Ads and new AI tools at Pinterest Presents 2026
Key Takeaways
Pinterest has announced Visual Search Ads, a new performance ad format placed in Search Results and Pin close-ups.
Pinterest Performance+ is adding Priority Products and self-serve A/B testing, while App Promotion gives brands a dedicated objective for app installs.
Restyle, a new camera feature for reimagining a room from a photo, is launching in beta in the US and Canada.
Bring My Pinterest to Life, the platform's CTV series on Roku, is returning for a second season.
Most search advertising still starts with somebody typing a few words into a box, but on Pinterest people are just as likely to search with a picture of the sofa, outfit or kitchen they cannot stop thinking about.
At Pinterest Presents 2026, its annual global advertiser summit, Pinterest unveiled Visual Search Ads alongside a wider set of performance tools and consumer features, all powered by what it calls Pinterest Intelligence. Together, they are designed to connect brands with people at the moment an idea starts to become a purchase.
Visual Search Ads, smarter automation and a camera that restyles your home
Visual Search Ads give advertisers prominent placements in Pinterest Search Results and Pin close-ups, pairing keyword relevance with a distinctive new format. Brands can bid for a top response and send people straight to their own site while they are still searching, comparing and deciding. The format supports lower-funnel objectives, works with Pinterest Performance+ and will be available in beta for eligible advertisers in every Pinterest ad market over the coming weeks.
The scale behind it is significant, with Pinterest users conducting more than 80 billion searches a month, most of them visual, and more than half of them commercial.
Performance+, Pinterest's AI-powered advertising suite, is also giving brands more control. Priority Products lets advertisers push specific product groups during key moments such as a seasonal launch or promotion, while new self-serve A/B testing makes it easier to compare creative, targeting and campaign strategies. For brands focused on mobile growth, App Promotion is now in global beta with qualified advertisers, and one saw up to an 85% improvement in cost per install compared with previous workarounds.
On the consumer side, Restyle lets people take a photo of a room and reimagine it, test ideas and compare options in their own space. Bring My Pinterest to Life also returns to Roku for a second season, with digital creator Tay BeepBoop Nakamoto and fashion editor Caroline Vazzana among the creators who turn users' boards into real spaces, experiences, and looks.
Why visual search gives Pinterest a stronger pitch to advertisers
Pinterest has always sat in an interesting place for brands, as people often arrive on the website or app with clear intent or are planning something specific, but they express that intent through images, boards and saves rather than a neat list of keywords. Visual Search Ads turn that behaviour into something advertisers can buy against, placing products in front of people while their taste is still taking shape.
CEO Bill Ready framed the launch around the idea that search itself is changing. He said traditional search advertising has long relied on keywords, but people now express themselves in much richer ways in an AI-driven world, and Pinterest wants to meet them at the points where they "see, save and decide".
Restyle and the Roku series matter to that story too. They show Pinterest moving ideas off the board and into real life, which strengthens its case that the platform is where plans turn into purchases, not only where people collect inspiration.
Why The PR Insider loves it
We love that Pinterest has leaned into the thing that has always made it different. Plenty of platforms are racing to add AI search, but few have years of people pinning exactly what they want their home, wardrobe or wedding to look like. Visual Search Ads make that habit commercially useful without asking users to behave any differently, and Restyle is the kind of feature we can already imagine losing an entire Sunday afternoon to.
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