Pandora captures hearts early with 6x more conversions across channels

The goal: Reach Valentine’s Day shoppers before the rush

For Pandora, love is always in the air—but especially around Valentine’s Day, when timing is everything. As one of the world’s most well-known jewelry brands, the company treats this holiday as a moment for true connection. But with many shoppers leaving gift buying to the last minute, the team wanted to reach people earlier in the season and turn that interest into sales.

After strong results from past Microsoft Advertising campaigns, Pandora wanted to reach more shoppers and carry that momentum into Valentine’s Day.

Pandora’s objectives were simple but strategic: raise brand awareness, improve consideration, and drive conversions throughout the U.S. market. The key was finding a way to pair search intent with inspiring creative before the Valentine’s Day rush began.

The solution: Where every spark meets its match

Pandora worked with Microsoft Advertising to build a cross-channel approach using Performance Max, linking early intent with late-stage conversions. The team combined Audience ads and Search ads to engage shoppers across the journey.

Here’s what made the strategy stand out:

• Continuous seasonal investment: Pandora maintained consistent media spend throughout December and January to capture early gift shoppers and build remarketing lists for re-engagement closer to Valentine’s Day.
• Advanced audience segmentation: The team targeted both in-market and remarketing audiences, using granular segments like cart abandoners, “gifts & occasions” visitors, and shopping bag viewers to reach people with high intent.
• Cross-channel measurement: Using multi-touch attribution and browser data, the team tracked user journeys across Microsoft’s owned-and-operated properties to understand how exposure on one channel influenced conversion on another.
• Collaborative insights: Pandora’s analytics team worked closely with Microsoft’s Insights specialists to quantify the incremental impact of Audience ads on search performance.

By running Performance Max campaigns that unified Audience and Search ads under one strategy, Pandora turned interest into intent—and intent into sales.

The results: Finding love—and shoppers—in all the right places

The campaign resonated with shoppers throughout their buying journey. For every dollar Pandora invested in Audience ads, it saw an additional $1.50 in return through Search. Audience ads also expanded Pandora's visibility beyond the Microsoft Advertising Network for Search, delivering 9% incremental reach and creating a steady stream of high-value traffic.

Shoppers who saw Audience ads were 6x more likely to convert than those who only saw Search ads—proof of cross-channel engagement's effectiveness when intent and inspiration come together in one campaign.

Following this success, Pandora expanded its Audience ads investment to the U.K. market, extending the same approach to new audiences.