Discovering Pinterest ads is a key strategy for marketers and business owners to research their competitors, find creative inspiration, and understand what's working on the platform. Unlike some social media platforms, Pinterest ads are designed to blend seamlessly with organic content, making them less disruptive but also a bit harder to spot if you don't know what to look for.


Here's how you can discover Pinterest ads:

1. Identify "Promoted" Pins in Your Feed and Search
The easiest way to spot an ad on Pinterest is to simply browse the platform with a critical eye.

Look for the "Promoted by" label: All Pinterest ads have a small tag that says "Promoted by [Brand Name]" directly below the image. This is the official indicator that the Pin is a paid advertisement.

Where to look:

Home Feed: As you scroll through your home feed, you will see a mix of organic Pins and promoted Pins that are relevant to your interests and browsing history.

Search Results: When you search for a specific product or idea, Pinterest will intersperse ads with the organic search results.

Related Pins: Ads also appear in the "More like this" section when you click on a Pin.

2. Use the Pinterest Ads Repository
This is the most direct and efficient way to discover ads for research purposes. The Pinterest Ads Repository is a public database of all ads running on the platform.

How to access it: Go to the official Pinterest Ads Repository website. (Note: This is a resource for businesses and may not be as straightforward to find as a public-facing ad library on other platforms.)

What you can do:

Search for a specific advertiser: If you know the name of a brand, you can search for them to see what ads they are currently running.

Filter by criteria: The repository allows you to filter ads by category (e.g., fashion, electronics), country, gender, and age, which is incredibly useful for competitor analysis.

3. Competitor and Third-Party Ad Spy Tools
If you want to go beyond the basics, a number of third-party tools are designed to track and analyze competitor ads across various platforms, including Pinterest.

How they work: These "ad spy" tools scrape and organize ad data, providing you with a more detailed look at a company's advertising strategy. They can often provide information on:

The duration of an ad campaign.

The specific keywords and targeting a company is using.

Top-performing ad creatives.

Why use them: These tools can be invaluable for gaining a competitive advantage, as they offer insights that are not available through native Pinterest features.

4. Create a Pinterest Business Account and Explore Analytics



While this doesn't directly show you other companies' ads, it provides you with a crucial understanding of how Pinterest advertising works from an advertiser's perspective.

What it offers: A Pinterest Business account gives you access to the Ads Manager and analytics dashboard. By creating a sample ad campaign (you don't have to launch it), you can see all the targeting options available, the different ad formats (e.g., video, carousel, collections), and how ad performance is measured. This knowledge will make it much easier to spot and analyze ads as you browse the platform.

By combining these methods, you can go from casually spotting ads to a systematic process of discovering, analyzing, and learning from the advertising strategies of brands on Pinterest.