Shoppers are turning to images, not keywords, and Pinterest’s November 11 research shows why UK advertisers need to act. The platform found 52% of UK consumers struggle to describe what they want with text, so brands are being urged to expand product catalogues and use Pinterest’s AI-powered Performance+ tools to capture early-stage discovery and boost sales.
- Half stuck on words: 52% of UK shoppers say they can’t easily articulate product needs with text, making visual discovery crucial.
- Catalogue power: Advertisers with feeds larger than 2,500 items see about 3.8x higher ROAS, so scale matters.
- Performance+ wins: Automated catalog campaigns cut CPA and improve conversion rates versus manual setups, with real-world retailers reporting big uplifts.
- Creative matters: Lifestyle imagery and subtle motion help shoppers imagine products; Pinterest reports a 14% average conversion bump when creative tools are used.
- Practical fix: Upload complete, accurate product data (titles, categories, descriptions) so Pinterest’s visual algorithms can match inventory to intent.
Why Pinterest’s 52% stat should make marketers sit up and rethink search-led plans
Start with the number: over half of UK consumers struggle to translate what they want into words, and that’s a hard truth for any keyword-driven strategy. It’s a sensory problem as much as a technical one , people think in images and scenarios, not search syntax, so they turn to platforms that let them browse visually. That means brands depending on exact-match keywords are increasingly fishing in the wrong pond.
The finding comes from a Retail Week survey of 1,000 UK consumers run with Pinterest, and it lands as search behaviour shifts under AI. With search engines producing generative overviews and keyword precision eroding, Pinterest’s visual-first approach offers an alternative route to discovery that catches people earlier in the shopping journey.
How expanding your product catalogue pays off and cuts through shopper uncertainty
Pinterest’s advice is blunt: upload complete product feeds. The platform’s data shows advertisers with catalogues over 2,500 items get about 3.8 times the ROAS of smaller feeds. That’s because more SKUs increase the chance the algorithm will surface something that matches a visual intent signal, even if the shopper can’t describe it.
Practically, this means investing time in clean metadata , accurate titles, categories and granular descriptions. It’s not just a backend chore; it’s the ticket to greater visibility and longer trend lifecycles on Pinterest, where planning behaviour stretches discovery windows and gives your campaigns more time to perform.
Performance+ automation: where it helps and when you still need human judgement
Pinterest’s Performance+ suite automates bids, budgets and signal analysis for catalog sales campaigns and claims meaningful efficiency gains. Internal tests and partner case studies point to lower cost per acquisition and higher conversion lifts versus manual optimisation, and early adopters like Wickes reported dramatic click and cost improvements.
That said, automation isn’t a creative substitute. Performance+ creative tools amplify existing assets , they add motion, alternate angles and lifestyle context so shoppers can imagine use cases. You’ll still want human-led creative direction to avoid bland, AI-only output and maintain brand tone and safety via negative keyword filters and brand controls.
What the creative brief should include to win on visual discovery
The content that works on Pinterest is less about hard sell and more about inspiration. Think lifestyle shots, multiple product angles, subtle motion and context that helps shoppers picture the product in their lives. These sensory cues reduce the need for textual description and make it easier for Pinterest’s multimodal systems to match intent to inventory.
A short checklist: high-res lifestyle images, close-ups of key features, short looping video or motion, correctly tagged products, and descriptive text that complements images rather than trying to force keyword matches. Advertisers using these creative best practices see better conversion rates and stronger engagement.
Measurement, attribution and the challenge of capturing early discovery value
Visual discovery often happens early in the funnel, which breaks traditional last-click attribution models geared to text search. Pinterest’s research highlights the need for new measurement approaches that capture the value of inspiration and extended planning windows. Incrementality testing, multi-touch attribution and engaged-view metrics are more relevant than last-click alone.
For marketers, that means aligning measurement with business goals , track assisted conversions, longer conversion windows, and on-platform engagement as performance signals. Integrating catalog-level data and clean tracking setups is essential to prove ROI from discovery-driven spend.
What this means for where you should invest your 2026 media budget
If half your potential customers can’t describe what they want, put budget where visual discovery is strong. Pinterest’s shopping ad growth, Top of Search format testing and partnerships with retail media networks point to more cross-platform commerce opportunities. Especially for fashion, home and lifestyle categories, visual-first placements can complement, or in some cases outperform, keyword-led search ads.
Start small if you must: expand your product feed, test Performance+ catalog campaigns, and allocate a portion of creative budget to visual-first assets. Monitor ROAS and engagement over longer windows, and scale what performs.
Ready to rework discovery for shoppers who think in images rather than keywords? Check your catalogue completeness, experiment with Performance+ creative, and see how visual-first placements change the way customers find your brand.
Noah Fact Check Pro
The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first
emerged. We’ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed
below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may
warrant further investigation.
Freshness check
Score:
10
Notes:
The narrative is based on a press release dated November 11, 2025, indicating high freshness. No earlier versions with differing figures, dates, or quotes were found. The content is original and not recycled from other sources. The press release format typically warrants a high freshness score.
Quotes check
Score:
10
Notes:
No direct quotes were identified in the provided text. The absence of quotes suggests the content is original or exclusive.
Source reliability
Score:
10
Notes:
The narrative originates from a press release by Pinterest, a reputable organisation. This enhances the reliability of the information presented.
Plausability check
Score:
10
Notes:
The claims about UK consumers’ struggles with text-based searches align with recent research on visual discovery trends. The recommendations for advertisers to expand product catalogues and utilise Pinterest’s AI-powered tools are consistent with industry best practices. The language and tone are appropriate for the topic and region.
Overall assessment
Verdict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): PASS
Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): HIGH
Summary:
The narrative is a recent, original press release from a reputable organisation, presenting plausible and consistent information without discrepancies or signs of disinformation.
