The basic process of setting up a catalog for Pinterest shopping ads in Smartly is:

Create a catalog and enter the catalog details.
Connect the catalog data source.
Configure the feed field mappings.
Add an image template (optional).

Note If you are creating the catalog for the first time for this Pinterest advertiser, set it up in Pinterest Ads Manager first. After you've added the very first data source from the Pinterest Ads Manager and processed the feed there at least once, you can create a catalog in Smartly.

Templates

We recommend using image templates. Templates are an easy way to make sure that your images use the 2:3 ratio required for shopping ads - and of course allow you to add overlays to your Pinterest shopping ads to make them more enjoyable and effective.

When you use an image template in the catalog, you must also map the catalog fields to the image template fields.

Catalog-feed-product group logic

In Pinterest, you can have only one retail catalog, but multiple feeds in it. You can also have multiple hotel catalogs, but only one feed in each. In Smartly a virtual catalog is created for each retail feed to make the management aligned and easier.

When you set up campaigns, you can use multiple product groups from different catalogs under the same Merchant account (Pinterest's commercial account).

See more information on feed files and supported formats.

New experience

Note Syncing existing catalogs from Pinterest and claiming them is only available in the new Pinterest catalog management solution that is in general availability, but currently still behind a feature gate. If you want to start using this new functionality, contact your Smartly Customers Success Manager.

We have recently introduced a new Pinterest catalog management experience that aligns the Pinterest catalog management with other channels in Smartly.

You can sync and claim catalogs & feeds from Pinterest
You can manually refresh and schedule feed processing in Smartly with processing logs and catalog alerts.
Image template management is now similar to other channels.
Product group management is available.
Hotel catalogs are supported.

Note In the new experience the catalogs are synced from Pinterest per ad account, but there is an ongoing issue that might lead into a situation where catalogs from other ad accounts, that the ad account authorise has access to, are shown in the listing. We are working with Pinterest to solve this issue. In the meanwhile, we don't recommend taking the new experience in use if you have multiple ad accounts in Pinterest that should not have access to each other's catalogs (for example, if your company is an agency with multiple client accounts).

Create a catalog

In the main navigation, select Catalogs > Pinterest (New experience).
Under Advertiser, select the ad account you want to create the catalog for.
Click Create Catalog.
Enter a name for the catalog and select the catalog vertical.
Click Create.

Note Due to Pinterest API limitations, Hotel catalogs can only be created in Pinterest Ads manager.

Add a feed to the catalog

After creating a catalog, you're directed to a feed listing view in the newly created catalog. The feed is where the catalog gets the information about your products.

Click Add New Feed.
Enter a name for the feed.
Under Feed updates, define an update schedule for the feed.
- Note While you can define an update schedule for the feed in Smartly, it will only affect the processing in Smartly. Pinterest will continue to fetch the latest file that Smartly has processed according to the schedule defined in Pinterest.
- Note Pinterest requires updating the catalog at least once every 7 days to maintain eligibility of organic distribution. Items not updated within 90 days will be deleted by Pinterest.
In Data source, enter the feed URL.
- If the feed is hosted on an SFTP server, add the URL in the following format:
```
sftp://username:password@mydomain.com/path/to/file.csv
```
  Note When a username and password added as part of the feed URL, there are cases where Smartly can't encode some special characters. We recommend using only alphanumeric values for the username and password. If this is not possible, try to URL encode any non-URL-safe characters in the file path. For example, instead of a space, use '%20'.
If needed, define advanced settings for the feed.
Select the Default currency.
- The default currency is used to add the required currency information to price fields if the currency is missing from the feed.
Select the Default Country.
- Select the country of the aimed core audience of the feed. This is overridden on the ads side of campaign targeting.
- You cannot change this value after creating the catalog.
Select the Default locale to define what language the feed claims its contents to be. The locale is useful when there are multiple versions of the same product in different languages, because products with the same IDs are unified and the locale version that's best suited for the user's country is shown to the user.
- You cannot change this value after creating the catalog.
After the feed preview loads, map the fields coming from your data source (Feed fields) into the predefined Catalog fields in the Field Mapping section.
- If there are any missing or incorrect mappings, see Manual field mapping for more information on how to modify them.
- The catalog fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required. Other fields are optional.
- If you are using a Hotel vertical catalog and have the "image" field in the JSON format, you'll need to use the following liquid template to take the first image from the list of images:
```
{%- assign images = image | parse_json -%}
{{- images[0].link -}}
```
Click Create New Feed.
Pinterest now accesses and fetches the feed from Smartly!

When existing feeds are updated, the changes generally appear within 24-48 hours. This is because Pinterest first fetches the feed from Smartly once in 24 hours (the scheduling is defined on the Pinterest side) and then needs to process the changes on Pinterest side. This means that any changes to the catalog will take time to have a visible effect.

When you can see the products in Pinterest Ads Manager, you can set up product groups if needed.

Manual field mapping

In Field Mapping, you can fine-tune the feed content by mapping your data source feed fields to the predefined field names used in Pinterest catalogs.

For example, if your product name is defined in the field called namein the data source,map that to the catalog field title, because that's where Pinterest picks the names of the products.

Any feed fields that Smartly can't automatically map to catalog product fieldsare highlighted in red.

You can use dynamic fields, static text, and Liquid templating in the mappings. To use static text or Liquid templating, select Use Liquid template in the feed field menu.

The Preview value shows you a preview of what Pinterest will see as the catalog values. Use the arrows above the column to preview the values for the products in your feed.

Note It's important that you reduce the number of errors at this point. Otherwise you may see unexpected or incorrect behavior when you launch campaigns using the catalog.

Extra fields

Sometimes you need additional fields for data that you want to use with image template or for field transformations with liquid templating, but don't need to send to Pinterest. Or you might already have all the Pinterest custom_label fields in use.

In these situations you can use the Smartly extra fields, extra_1 - extra_9. These fields allow you to map whatever data you want to those fields and use them with Image templates and with liquid templates for field transformations. These fields are not send to Pinterest. At the moment, it is not possible to update the name of these fields.

Current solution

Create a new Pinterest catalog

In the top navigation bar, select Catalogs > Pinterest.
Click Add new catalog. The Pinterest catalog setup page opens.
In Pinterest Catalog Details, define the following details:
- Feed name: Define a name for the feed to help you identify the correct feed in the Smartly library. This name is only used in Smartly.
- Pinterest advertiser:Smartly connects the catalog to the Merchant account associated with the Pinterest advertiser. If the advertiser doesn't have a Merchant account, Smartly sets it up automatically.
  Note that the same Merchant account can be used by multiple ad accounts. Any changes to the catalog setup affect all the advertisers that use the same Merchant account.
- Default currency: The currency that Pinterest uses when it is not explicitly set in the feed.
- Country: Select the country of the aimed core audience of the feed. This is overridden on the ads side of campaign targeting.
  - You cannot change this value after creating the catalog.
- Locale: This defines what language the feed claims its contents to be. The locale is useful when there are multiple versions of the same product in different languages, because products with the same IDs are unified and the locale version that's best suited for the user's country is shown to the user.
  - - You cannot change this value after creating the catalog.
Connect the source for the product data outside of Smartly (see example).
When you define the feed URL, note the following:
- If the feed is hosted on an SFTP server, add the URL in the following format: sftp://username:password@mydomain.com/path/to/file.csv
- Note: When added as part of the feed URL, there are cases where Smartly is unable to encode some special characters used in the username and password. If you spot any fetching issues, try using only alphanumeric values for the username and password instead or try to URL encode any non-URL-safe characters in the file path. For example, instead of a space, use '%20'.
Define the field mappings (for more information, see Field mappings).
Click Save configuration.

Pinterest now accesses and fetches the feed from Smartly!

With updates to existing feeds, the reflected changes generally appear within 24-48 hours. This is because Pinterest first fetches the feed from Smartly once in 24 hours (the scheduling is defined on the Pinterest side) and then needs to process the changes on Pinterest side. This means that any changes to the catalog will take time to have a visible effect.

When you can see the products in Pinterest Ads Manager, you can set up product groups if needed.

Field mappings

In Field Mapping, you can further fine-tune the feed contents by mapping your data source fields to the predefined field names used in Pinterest catalogs.

Data source fieldshows the fields in your data source, and Destination field shows the predefined field names used in Pinterest catalogs.

Map your desired data source fields to the destination fields. You must map data source fields at least to the mandatory destination fields (marked with a red asterisk).

Mappings support using dynamic fields, static text, andLiquid templating. To use Liquid templating, selectUse Liquid templatein the feed field dropdown selector.

For example, if your data source contains the product name in the field name, map that to the destination field title, because that's where Pinterest picks the names of the products.

Sample value shows you a preview of what Pinterest will see as the catalog values.

Pinterest doesn't support adding additional custom fields to catalogs.

Note: It is important to reduce the number of errors at this point. Otherwise there might be unexpected or incorrect behavior while launching campaigns using the catalog.

Example: Connect a Google Sheet as a data source

You need a CSV link to your Google Sheet. See how to use Google Sheet to import a data source.
After you have successfully created the CSV link to your sheet, copy and paste it to the URL field in Data Source.

Smartly now fetches a preview (sample) of your data source. You can see it in the Field Mapping section, under Sample value.

Advanced feed settings

You may also need to define some advanced configurations in Advanced settings. See details on how to define the settings.

Add an Image Template to the catalog

You can also set up Image Templates to use in your Pinterest shopping ads. First get acquainted withhow Image Templates work with Pinterest catalog, and especially with the limitations related to changing images.

See instructions on how to add the Image Template to the catalog and map the catalog fields to the Image Template fields.

Migrate existing catalogs managed in Smartly into the new experience

The new Pinterest catalog management experience is in general availability, but currently still behind a featuregate. If you want to start using this new functionality, please contact your customers success manager.

Once you have enabled the new Pinterest catalog management experience, you can navigate to it from the main navigation Catalogs>Pinterest (New experience). On the landing page you can see all the hotel catalogs and retail catalogs you have claimed to Smartly or migrated from the legacy solution. If you have been managing your Pinterest catalogs from the legacy solution, you’ll need to migrate them to the new experience.

Migrating the catalog from the legacy side, will keep your feed settings and mapping, as well as connected image template, as is. And it’s essentially just one button click.

After migrating to the new experience, the catalog can’t be no longer managed from the legacy solution.

Migrate catalog to new experience from the new experience

To migrate catalog to the new experience:

In the top navigation bar, select Catalogs > Pinterest (New experience).
Select the Unclaimed retail feeds tab.
For wanted catalog click Migrate.

Migrate catalog to new experience from the legacy solution

To migrate catalog to the new experience:

In the top navigation bar, select Catalogs > Pinterest.
Under Actions column of the wanted Catalog, click Migrate Feed.

After this, you can find the catalog from the All or Retail tab (might require to refresh the browser window) in the new experience. Please check that the Feed updates schedule is set as wanted. Otherwise the feed settings, mappings and connected image template should remain the same as in legacy solution.

FAQ

Can I refresh the feed manually?

No, unfortunately Pinterest catalogs feeds can’t be updated to Pinterest on-demand, but rather Pinterest fetches them based on the schedule defined on the channel side. You can define the preferred refresh schedule directly on Pinterest when creating the feed. By default Pinterest fetches the data from your feed once every 24 hours.

You can check Pinterest Ads Manager to verify when Pinterest has last updated your catalogues: go to Catalogues and Product groups -> Data sources, and see "Past ingestions."

In the new experience it is possible to refresh the feed manually and get it processed in Smartly. This can be useful in case you have some processing issues and want to see if the changes solved the processing issues. However, even in the new experience the feed gets updates to Pinterest only once per day when Pinterest fetches it from Smartly.

Is it possible to push updates to Pinterest more than once per day?

No, at the moment that is not possible. The new experience allows processing the feed up to once per hour, but updates to Pinterest will happen only once per day, when Pinterest fetches the updates from Smartly.

What are the main differences between hotel and retail catalogs?

The different verticals are mostly working the same, but the big difference is the delivery logic & optimisation that Pinterest has for each vertical. The feed fields are also difference.

Hotel catalog creation from Smartly is currently not possible due Pinterest limitations. Also Product group management is not support for hotel catalogs at the moment.

In Pinterest I can see only one retail catalog, but there are multiple in Smartly. Why is that?

Pinterest allows setting up only one retail catalog per ad account, but multiple feeds in it. In order to make the catalog management easier, Smartly has harmonised the structural logic across channels & verticals, and creates a "virtual" catalog for each Pinterest retail feed in Smartly. This way the catalog management works in the same way as with other channels.

Can I prevent Pinterest users from saving or repinning the pins created from the catalog?

Yes. To avoid the automatically created pins from being saved or repinned, send field "saved_pin_disabled" with value "true" in the feed for wanted items in the catalog. This is recommended for items that have limited licensing or that are time sensitive. Items set as save-disabled in the feed are shown as organic pins for Pinterest users, but they won't be able to save or re-pin them.

For now, using the field requires allowlisting from Pinterest, in other words, the feature must be activated for your Pinterest business account from the Pinterest end.

Who's authorisation is Smartly using for Pinterest catalog updates?

For all the catalog actions towards Pinterest, Smartly is using the Pinterest user token of the Smartly user who connected the Pinterest ad account to Smartly. That user token can be reset by reconnecting the Pinterest ad account.

How can I use an Amazon S3 based data source?

Enter "s3://" (or the full URL) in the Data source field. After this, you see the additional configuration fields S3 region, AWS role ARN and AWS role external ID.

Is there some size limitation for the catalog from Smartly or from Pinterest?

Smartly doesn’t have any size limitations. From Pinterest side the limitation is 20 million products per retail catalog.

Is there a limitation on how many catalogs / feeds I can have under one ad account?

Yes, there can be maximum 50 feeds (across catalogs) under one ad account.

The feed processing failed with an error "Feeds::DropRateError", what should I do?

The feed processed failed, because the number of items in the feed dropped by over 50%. This functionality is known as "acceptable drop rate" and aims to prevent accidental removal of items from the catalog if there is an unwanted big drop in item count in the feed. Typically the drop could happen for example, if part of the content in data source is accidentally removed or Smartly only receives a partial file due network issues.

If you get this error, you should fix the feed and process it again (with the item count dropping less than 50%). If the drop was expected, you can click the "click here" link in the error message and the feed processing will allow drop as low as the item count was just recorded (but not any lower).

The rate is hardcoded to 50% and can't be adjusted for now. If this is causing issues for your, there is an opportunity to opt-out from this functionality.