The news: Brands that wait until late fall to start their holiday marketing campaigns may miss out on consumer interest and attention.

To help brands avoid missed opportunities, Pinterest is encouraging campaigns to go live as early as possible, ideally between September and November, to scale budgets and creative during Q4, it shared in a blog post.

• Nearly three-quarters (71%) of US adults plan to start buying before Black Friday, and 46% will do so before November even starts, per Attentive.
• Pinterest suggests brands use events that occur earlier on, such as back-to-school shopping and Halloween, to test out engagement and targeting strategies ahead of bigger purchase events like Black Friday.

In addition, extending digital campaigns into the post-holiday period can capture late shoppers, as 70% of US consumers keep shopping the week after Christmas to take advantage of deals and gift cards, per National Retail Federation.

Zooming out: Brands are competing for holiday dollars amid cautious consumer spending, which may tighten more due to economic anxieties. Those that delay campaigns risk losing visibility, optimization time, creative testing opportunities, and early holiday spending.

We expect that holiday retail sales will lag behind the annual average in 2026 for the second year in a row.

Recommendations for marketers: Waiting until the ninth hour to launch holiday campaigns is a risky strategy, and Pinterest’s call to action to start early and keep campaigns running late reflects a broader shift toward expanded holiday shopping.

• Move up holiday campaign planning to late summer or early fall to capture consumers during the research phase, not just at peak purchasing periods.
• Plan campaigns around long-term experiences rather than viral social trends, which may have faded in relevance by the time ads go live.
• Use early season events to optimize targeting and measurement before big-ticket sales moments.
• Allocate budget beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday to reach shoppers who continue purchasing into the new year.