Black Friday Marketing Strategy: 5-Step Pinterest Success Plan (2025 Update)

If you’re mapping out your Black Friday marketing strategy for Pinterest, you need to plan well ahead, just like the folks that use Pinterest! They don’t go Pinterest to kill time, it’s where they go for inspiration and to plan. And that planning mindset is exactly what makes it so powerful for e-commerce brands, especially in Q4. Shoppers on Pinterest start looking for ideas, deals, and gift inspiration weeks (sometimes months!) before Black Friday. So by the time November rolls around, they’ve already pinned and saved their shortlists.

Their searches are mostly unbranded. People aren’t typing your brand name; they’re looking for “best Black Friday kitchen deals” or “holiday outfit ideas under £100.” That means your products can get discovered alongside (or instead of) the big players if you’re showing up with the right keywords, creatives, and offers.

Success on Pinterest isn’t about dumping most of your budget into campaigns during Cyber Week. It’s about doing the right things early: getting your catalogue and SEO in shape, running prospecting campaigns that fill the funnel, and making sure your creatives feel fresh and seasonal.

That’s why I’ve put together this updated 5-step plan. It’s packed with practical tactics for e-commerce and DTC brands who are already active on Pinterest and want to get the most out of Pinterest for the biggest shopping season of the year. Let’s dive in.

Black Friday 2025: Shoppers are getting ready!

Last year, Black Friday was the biggest single online shopping day of 2024 in and outside of the UK. Spending hit £1.12 billion online, up 7.2% from the previous year. With Christmas around the corner, many took advantage of the day’s heavy discounts to make their budgets go further. Across the pond, US consumers spent $10.8 billion online, while worldwide Black Friday sales climbed to $74.4 billion, a year over year (YoY) increase of 5%.

What’s more, shoppers weren’t waiting for the big day, they started their searches well in advance, with mobile purchases driving the majority of sales. That’s why it’s crucial to get your Black Friday marketing strategy in place early on Pinterest, where users actively search for deals and gift ideas weeks ahead of time. Many people use Pinterest as the central hub for their holiday ideas and plans. E-commerce marketing on Pinterest is all about reaching those eager Black Friday shoppers with the right content at the right time!

The Black Friday marketing strategy tips in this article are geared toward online brands that already have a Pinterest business account and regularly post organic content or run paid ads. If you’re just starting out, I recommend checking out How to Build a Winning Pinterest Marketing Strategy for Your Business first.

There are many ways to approach Pinterest marketing depending on your specific goals. The strategy outlined in this post focuses on one possible approach for e-commerce stores looking to run paid ad campaigns effectively during the holiday season. It’s all about reaching those eager Black Friday shoppers on Pinterest with the right content at the right time!

Step 1: Start with a traffic campaign

Timing is everything on Pinterest, especially when it comes to a Black Friday marketing strategy. Don’t wait until November to get serious about Black Friday on Pinterest. By then, you’re too late. Pinterest is not a last-minute platform. People come here to plan, and that means they start saving ideas weeks, sometimes even months, before they purchase. This is especially true for Black Friday and Christmas.

Searches for holiday deals and gift inspiration start climbing as early as September, with steady growth through October. If you only show up in mid-November, you’re trying to join the conversation when many shoppers have already made their shortlists. Not only that, it’s MUCH harder to get visibility on Pinterest in a short timeframe.

Ideally, you want to begin planning and creating your campaign 2-3 months ahead of time. Think of September and October as your “warm-up phase.” This starts with front-loading keywords into your organic Pinterest SEO and ads to give your content time to index, circulate, and gather saves long before peak shopping week. This is the time to:

By running your first campaigns early, you can start showing up in their feeds, sparking interest, and gathering valuable data. This data will help you retarget those engaged users when the big day arrives. Whether you’re launching a new product, driving holiday sales, or clearing old stock, kicking things off with a traffic campaign is a smart way to build momentum and build up audiences you can retarget later, once they’re ready to buy. On Pinterest, these are called consideration campaigns.

The types of ads you create will depend on when you launch. If you’re kicking things off in August or September, it’s a bit early to start talking about Black Friday offers. Instead, start off by warming up your audience with eye-catching ads for the products you’ plan to ‘ll be promoting for Black Friday. The goal here is simple: get your product on their radar, encourage clicks to your website, and start building those all-important audience lists (see step 2 below). Need some creative ideas? Check out our Complete Guide to Pinterest Ad Specs.

Step 2: Build audiences to retarget

Audience retargeting is your secret weapon for your Black Friday marketing strategy on Pinterest. If you want your Black Friday campaigns to really deliver, you need to start building warm audiences now. On Pinterest, that means creating specific groups you can retarget later: people who’ve visited your site, users on a customer list you upload, or shoppers who’ve already engaged with your Pins. You can also go a step further with Actalike audiences, which mirror the behaviour of your best customers and site visitors to help you reach new people who are likely to buy.

Pinterest retargeting is powerful, but it only if you’ve done the groundwork. You need to start building your holiday runway now. If you wait until November to take action, your audiences will be too small or too cold to make an impact.

How to build retargeting audiences on Pinterest

Pinterest lets you build a wide variety of audiences based on people’s interactions with your ads or based on your customer list. So, how do you set this up? On desktop, click the button in the top left corner and select “Audiences” from the dropdown menu.

From here, you can create more than one audience and mix different options to match your Black Friday marketing strategy goals for Pinterest. For example:

• People who saved or clicked on on a specific ad (or any ad within your campaign)
• Visitors to a specific page on your site in the last 30 days (or any timeframe you choose)
• People who behave similarly to your existing customers or audiences you’ve already built

This gives you flexibility to test and find what works best.

Step 3: Monitor results and adjust

Starting your Black Friday campaigns 2-3 months in advance not only allows you to plan, but also gives you ample time to experiment with different visuals and see what resonates best with your audience. This early start is essential for fine-tuning your creative approach and ensuring your content stands out during the busiest shopping season of the year. During this audience-building phase, it’s smart to check your results weekly. However, resist the temptation to make quick changes!

When you’re monitoring results, focus on three main areas:

Budget

During the test and warm up phase, start with a low budget. Try out a different creative angles, adjust targeting, or play with different ad formats. Small tests now can tell you a lot about what to scale in the final 2-3 weeks before Black Friday. On Pinterest performance builds over time. A prospecting campaign you launch in September may look expensive in week one, but you’ll often see the cost per click come down as the algorithm learns and audiences grow.

Pinterest metrics to track

The testing phase is all about learning, and the numbers you track now will shape how successful your Black Friday campaigns become later. By keeping a close eye on your data, you can spot what’s working, make smart adjustments, and steadily build warm, engaged audiences that are primed for retargeting when it’s time to buy.

Here are the key KPIs to watch during this stage:

Pinterest metrics to track during testing and audience building phase:

• Impressions (are you reaching enough people?)
• Saves (are prospects signalling future intent?)
• Outbound clicks (is your content driving traffic?)
• CTR (is your creative catching attention?)
• Engagement rate (are people interacting with your pins?)
• Audience growth (are your retargeting lists building up?)

Pinterest metrics to track during Black Friday week:

• Add-to-carts
• Checkouts
• ROAS

Step 4: Prepare a retargeting campaign

Many shoppers begin planning their holiday purchases early, around the end of October, so this is your moment to shift gears and put the audiences you’ve been building (see Step 2) to work. These audiences are full of Pinners who have already engaged with your ads, giving you a solid group to target. These are people who have shown interest in your brand and products, which makes them far more likely to convert once you put your Black Friday offers in front of them.

How to structure your retargeting

For your retargeting ads, start by building excitement. Use teasers or countdowns to spark interest, and then gradually shift to ads that clearly highlight your special Black Friday offers with a strong call to action. This creates a natural flow from anticipation to action. Consider running several retargeting campaigns, with different ad messaging, based on audience engagement levels. Audiences based on Saves are likely to be warmer than those that ‘only’ clicked through to your website (unless they’re on your mailing list).

Keep in mind that Pinterest ads have a 7-day ramp-up period, so make sure to kick off your retargeting campaign at least 2 weeks before Black Friday. Here are a few ad examples from past Black Friday campaigns to inspire you:

Suggested Budget Split

As a rule of thumb, retargeting works best when it complements (not replaces) your prospecting campaigns. A typical Black Friday budget split might look like this:

• 70% prospecting and awareness (keep feeding new people into your funnel even as sales begin)
• 30% retargeting (focus on those who engaged with your brand in September and October)

This balance ensures your retargeting campaigns hit a warm audience that’s ready to buy, while your top-of-funnel campaigns continue to grow demand for Cyber Week and beyond.

Step 5: Boost engagement with Holiday-themed content

Black Friday isn’t just about deals. It’s also about feeling like the holiday season has officially kicked off. On Pinterest, that sense of seasonal inspiration is what makes people stop scrolling, save your pins, and click through to shop. As Black Friday approaches, lean into that holiday energy with content that looks and feels festive. This is the time to:

• Bring in seasonal design elements. Use holiday colours, warm textures, or subtle festive touches in your creatives. Use clear, action-driven language like “Shop Now,” “Limited Time,” or “Exclusive Black Friday Offers” to encourage clicks.
• Curate holiday boards. Think Black Friday Deals for Her, Holiday Gift Guides Under £50, or Best-Selling Bundles for Christmas. Shoppers use boards to plan, so make it easy for them to find your products and save them into their own collections.
• Blend organic and paid content. Organic pins give you consistency and visibility, while promoted pins ensure your offers reach the right audience at the right time. Together, they keep your brand top-of-mind and helps you maintain a consistent presence during the busiest shopping season of the year.

Bringing a touch of holiday spirit into your Black Friday marketing strategy can make a big difference. The audiences you’ve been warming up are already in a festive mindset. When your pins feel seasonal and your message is clear, your brand stands out as more than just another promotion, it becomes part of their holiday celebration.

Black Friday Marketing Strategy – Summary

Pinterest isn’t a last-minute play during Q4. It’s where shoppers start planning, comparing, and saving long before they pull out their payment cards. By showing up early, building the right audiences, monitoring results, layering in retargeting, and leaning into holiday-themed content, you’re setting Pinterest up to bring you sales when the annual shopping frenzy starts.

The real key is to treat Pinterest as a planning engine, not just a conversion channel. Your Black Friday marketing strategy for Pinterest should focus on filling the funnel early, keeping audiences warm, and then turning that interest into sales during Black Friday week. By following this 5-step plan, you’ll be well-positioned to build Q4 momentum that carries into Christmas and maybe even into Q1.

Frequently Asked Questions: Black Friday Marketing Strategy for Pinterest

Why is Pinterest so effective for Black Friday marketing?

Pinterest users are big planners and big spenders. They come to the platform to level up their holiday celebrations, searching for gift ideas, festive recipes, and creative décor. And with 66% of Gen Z and Millennials who use Pinterest weekly saying they celebrate more holiday moments than older generations, there are endless opportunities for brands to inspire them.

When should I start my Pinterest Black Friday marketing campaign?

Start your first Pinterest Black Friday campaign(s) 2-3 months before Black Friday (August-September). Pinterest users begin planning holiday purchases early, with searches for holiday deals starting in September. Beginning early allows your content to index, circulate, and gather saves before peak shopping season, giving you a significant advantage over competitors who wait until November.

What type of Pinterest campaign should I run first for Black Friday?

Launch a traffic campaign (consideration campaign on Pinterest) as your first step. Focus on getting your products on users’ radar and driving clicks to your website to build retargeting audiences. If starting in August-September, promote seasonal products rather than specific Black Friday offers, as it’s too early for direct promotional messaging.

What’s the difference between organic and paid Pinterest content for Black Friday?

Blend both strategies for maximum impact. Organic pins provide consistency and long-term visibility, while paid ads ensure your offers reach targeted audiences at the right time. Together, they maintain brand presence during peak shopping season and help you appear in both organic search results and targeted feeds.

Should I keep running Pinterest ads after Black Friday?

Yes, as long as the offer on your ads is still valid. Pinterest doesn’t like ads that link back to irrelevant or invalid content. Many shoppers keep buying through Cyber Monday and into December, especially for holiday gifts. Keep campaigns running through at least until mid-December to capture late shoppers. Your warmed-up audiences from Black Friday will still be valuable.

Any other questions?

If you’d like to know more about Pinterest or how it might work for your brand, feel free to get in touch or connect on Linkedin.

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Mary Lumley – Pinterest Marketing for eCommerce & Travel / Black Friday Marketing Strategy: 5-Step Pinterest Success Plan (2025 Update)