Set up expanded targeting

Expanded targeting uses signals from your ad to broaden your targeting and reach additional people on Pinterest who may be interested in or searching for relevant ideas.

For example, a snack company might target topics such as 'recipes' and 'snacks' but not think of targeting 'road trips'. Without the company selecting 'road trips', expanded targeting will put their ads in front of people interested in or searching for related ideas.

Note: Expanded targeting is switched on by default in Ads Manager, but you can switch it off at any time. With expanded targeting, you can see improvements in reach, clickthrough rates and total spend.

Add expanded targeting in Ads Manager

1. Log in to your Pinterest business account
2. Click Ads at the top of the screen, then click Create ad
3. Click New ad group from the left-hand side navigation
4. Click Targeting from the left-hand side navigation
5. Scroll down to Advanced options 
6. Click the box beside Use your Pin to expand your targeting
7. When complete, select your Budget & schedule, Optimisation & delivery and Ads
8. Review your information
9. Click Launch

Add expanded targeting in Bulk Editor

1. Log in to your Pinterest business account
2. Click Ads at the top of the screen, then click Bulk Editor
3. Click Download sample sheet to download a sample spreadsheet
4. Fill in column Y, Expanded targeting
   1. Enter YES to switch expanded targeting on
   2. Enter NO to disable expanded targeting
5. When complete, click Upload template to upload your bulk editor sheet
6. Click Upload

Find out how to edit your existing ads using the Bulk Editor.

Ad review process

When you launch your campaign, we’ll review it to make sure it follows our Advertising Guidelines. The campaign review process can take up to 24 hours. 

If your campaign targeting goes against our Advertising Guidelines, we’ll send you a notification in Ads Manager letting you know what needs to change so that your ad can be reviewed again for approval. Once it has been approved, we’ll start distributing your ad.

Explore targeting on Pinterest

If you want to set up several different kinds of targeting on Pinterest or edit current campaign targeting, you can find out more in our targeting overview article.