Pinterest is a powerful visual search engine, not just social media, offering significant growth potential for e-commerce businesses by connecting them with actively searching consumers who are closer to making purchase decisions.
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If you're running an online store and
you are not on Pinterest yet or you've
set up an account and it's just sitting
there collecting dust, this episode is
for you. I am Kate All, host of this
podcast here, the Simple Pin Podcast,
where we talk all strategies related to
Pinterest marketing. Before we dive into
the episode, I just want to call out Q1
of 2026. This may be your breakout
quarter when it comes to Pinterest. I
want Pinterest to be an amazing growth
engine for you. From building a
high-erforming account from the ground
up because maybe you're new or to
creating images that stop the scroll and
get clicks and saves. We want to help
support you with your organic or your
Pinterest marketing. And right now, some
of our ads are delivering 5x, even 10x
return on ad spend. So, we have you
covered when it comes to Pinterest
expertise. If you are ready to hire that
out to an agency with over 12 years of
Pinterest experience, you can simply
click the link below to book a call with
our discovery call team. It's just a
call to get to know you. You get to know
us and figure out if this is the next
right step for you in 2026. All righty,
let's dive back into the episode. So,
e-commerce e-commerce is huge on
Pinterest and there's a lot of store
owners who are stepping back and going,
I don't know. In fact, I just did a
great podcast with Andrew of Ecom Fuel.
I'll link that below in the podcast,
too, as well because a lot of e-commerce
owners set Pinterest aside. They think,
"This is not for me. It is just for
recipes or weddings. My product won't
sell on Pinterest." And I'm here to tell
you that is not true. So, I'm going to
break down today what you need to know
to get started as an e-commerce brand on
Pinterest. But I'm also going to wrap it
up by addressing those who have already
started and maybe you're a little bit
frustrated. You might be seeing growth
but no sales. I'm going to talk about
that at the end. Number one, why does
Pinterest matter for e-commerce? Let's
talk about why Pinterest should even be
on your radar. Because here's the thing,
Pinterest isn't social media. I know it
might look like it, but it's actually a
visual search engine. And that kind of
changes everything. When someone's
scrolling Instagram or Tik Tok, they're
usually killing time. But when
somebody's on Pinterest, they're
actively searching for solutions. They
are planning a wedding, redecorating
their living room, looking for the
perfect birthday gift, or maybe even
something specific for travel that
they're about to take. The intent is
completely different. Pinterest users
are in a discovery and planning mode,
which means they're much closer to
making a purchase decision. Here are
some stats that might surprise you.
Pinterest has almost 600 million monthly
active users. That is an 11 to 15% jump
yearover-year. And they're not just
browsing, they are buying. In fact, one
in three online shoppers on Pinterest
earns over $100,000 annually. And those
are the people with purchasing power.
But here's my favorite. 80% of weekly
users find inspiration for purchases on
Pinterest. That's right. They are
actively looking for things to buy. And
85 to 90% of usage happens on your
phone. I would actually say it's
probably even closer to 95% which means
when people are pinning, they're out and
about. I have actually been in a
location taken a picture of something
and to see if I could actually buy it
because maybe it wasn't for sale or
maybe it was decor. Also, video is doing
amazing on Pinterest right now. I did a
Google search the other day and actually
a video came up right below the AI
overview right next to YouTube and
Instagram. So, we'll dive into video in
just a minute. All right. Number two,
setting up your Pinterest business
account. You want to have a Pinterest
business account because this allows you
to get all the amazing features on the
platform. We're not using a personal
account here. A business account is
free. It gives you access to analytics,
Pinterest ads, and most importantly, all
the shopping features that you're going
to need so people can buy directly from
your pins. When you're setting up your
profile, think of it like a storefront.
Your profile name should include what
you sell, not just your brand name.
Think Lux Home Company. and maybe match
it with modern furniture and decor. This
helps with search. Also tells the person
when they land on your profile exactly
who you are and what you do. Your
profile also needs a description to
clearly explain more of that title or
your brand name. So, make sure you fill
that out. And here's something people
often miss. Claim your website. This
verifies your domain and gives you
access to deeper analytics. It takes
less than five minutes and honestly it
makes a massive difference in how
professional your profile looks. I did a
review for some merchants at one point
and some of them did not have a business
account set up or they didn't even have
a profile picture. They didn't have a
profile name or description. I literally
could not figure out what they sold.
Step three, create your very first
boards or organize the boards that you
do have. Think about boards like
categories in your store. They need to
be really thoughtfully organized. I
actually just recorded a great episode
all about boards, so I'm going to link
that below in the description. So, go
listen to that next. You want to start
with at least five or 10 boards that
really represent your main product
categories and some themes. So, if you
sell skin care, you might have boards
like nighttime skin repair routines,
anti-aging tips, natural skin care, or
skincare for acne prone skin. Notice I
just didn't say our products. I've seen
that a lot. That is boring, and nobody
is searching for our products. Your
board name should reflect what people
are actually looking for. Each board
needs a description packed with
keywords. Do not keyword stuff, but
naturally include some terms that your
customers are going to use. Here's a pro
tip. Make your first three to five
boards at the top of your profile
really, really strong because people
only scroll about three to four times
when they hit a profile, a board, or a
section. So, it's always better to have
more fewer active engaged boards than a
ton of empty ones with like one to two
pins. I think we're on step four. Create
pins that convert. Here's where the
magic happens. People on Pinterest when
they are scrolling, right? They're
looking at pins. These are the images
that you see on Pinterest. Your pins
should be vertical. The ideal 2:3 ratio.
It's 1,00x,500.
Horizontal images just don't perform
best on Pinterest. Caveat. Your product
pins, which are selected when your
catalog is connected. I'm going to talk
about that in a second. So I know I've
gone a few steps too far, but they are
square. They're uh you know was that a
1:1 ratio 200 by 200 minimum. So in that
case you really don't have a lot of
control over product images. But when
you can create your own images, we want
them to be vertical and that is simply
because majority of the users on
Pinterest engage with vertical type
pins. So let's talk about pin design.
Your pin design of those pins should be
clean. eye-catching and kind of clearly
show what you're offering. Text overlay
is your friend here. We often call this
the copy on the pin. So, Pinterest is a
search platform. They have visual
search. So, they will read that text on
the actual pin image. So, don't put a
lot of words. Maybe you could say summer
2025 sandal collection. You could have a
roundup of the best leather wallets that
you offer. make it a little bit more
explanative explanative. I'm sure it did
add some explanation. There you go. To
the copy on the pin. Now, here's one
caveat. The only time I would say for a
product business not to add pin copy if
you are in the home decor space,
especially if you're in design, right?
Because people want to see the whole
image. You can certainly do roundups of
quote unquote the best of whatever or
the top 10 throw pillows and yours are
included, but when it comes to home
design, we find that pin copy on the
actual image actually performs worse
than those that don't have pin copy. So,
that's just one thing to note for those
in the home design space. Let's talk
about video. I mentioned it in the
beginning, but I want to stress this.
Video is huge right now. Nearly 1
billion videos are watched on Pinterest
every day and consumption is up 200%
year-over-year. Users are 55%
more likely to buy after watching a
product video on Pinterest compared to
other platforms. Your videos don't need
to be fancy. Think of quick product
demos, styling tips, befores and afters,
unboxing clips. You could even ask if a
user has done an unboxing or they have
sent you a testimonial if you could use
that on your pin images. Keep them short
and make sure you add captions. Then
most people watch without sound. And
make sure that first two seconds grabs
people's attention. When you're creating
pens, whether static or video, your
title and your description matter just
as much as your visuals. The title needs
to be clear and keywordri. Your
description should expand on that.
Explain all the benefits. Maybe include
a call to action. You don't have to say
something like click here, but you can
say grab this great travel tech
organizer for your next vacation. And
here's something crucial. Every pin
should link back to a specific product
page or blog post on your website. Do
not send everybody to your homepage.
Match the pin with the most relevant
landing page. I cannot tell you how many
products I find on Pinterest that do not
have a link. And then when I use the
visual search tool because I'm trying to
match that image, I find a bunch more
images that don't have a link because
everybody keeps saving. That's the
beautiful part about Pinterest is that
somebody found, in my case, it was a
shirt. this shirt that was so amazing
and then there was really no place to
find it and everybody else thought it
was amazing too because they had saved
it as well. Always always always
add a link. Somebody messaged me or
maybe it was on YouTube and they asked
me about a new strategy that's being
taught which I I actually kind of can't
believe this where you don't add a pin
link. Please don't do that. Please
please don't just add a link. It is
never worth it to gify something for a
short win when Pinterest is a long-term
platform. It is counterintuitive to me.
And I'm sure somebody would say, "Well,
it might increase monthly views, which
might increase more of the saves on my
other pins." I don't buy it. I'm not
buying what they're selling. Always add
a link. I'm pretty sure you got that
message. After I talk about creating
pins, people naturally ask, "Then how
many do I create? How many do I pin?" If
you have one product listing and you can
do an unboxing,
you can do a before and after, you can
do a testimonial, you can do a a couple
lifestyle shots, and you can do up close
and maybe features of the products.
That's five pins I've just created for
one landing page. But here's the key. I
have a differentiator in each one of
them. It's not the same type of pin over
and over again. Oh, number six would be
a video. So, that being said, you can
take one product listing and you can
actually pull it out and create this
six. In fact, this gives me a great
idea. I should probably do this in a
YouTube video and show you exactly how
to do that. So, comment below if you
would love for me to do that if you are
on YouTube. You can always email us hello@simplepia.com
hello@simplepia.com
as well. All right, a few last minute
things I want to talk about. Pinterest
SEO. I said this earlier, but I want to
reiterate it again. Pinterest works like
Google. People search for things and
Pinterest shows them the most relevant
results. Your job is to make sure your
pins show up. In addition, Pinterest has
added their new Pinterest assistant to
help users find the products they love.
I'm going to share the link to the press
release in the show notes, but of
course, AI is everywhere. It's helping
us assist and do life. some good, some
bad, but in this case, AI will help you
find the product that you're looking
for. A big thing when it comes to
Pinterest is that the user approaches
the platform saying, "I'll know it when
I see it." And so having this Pinterest
assistant, your keywords, and a great
image, really pulls all those together
so someone can have an aha moment when
they encounter your product. So, it's
really important to make sure that
you're using keywords. Two places to do
that. You can start your keyword
research simply in the Pinterest search
bar. Start typing in relevant search
terms. It auto suggests really popular
searches. Those are gold. Write them
down and then use those. You can also
use the Pinterest trends tool. I'll link
that below in the description or you can
go to trends.pinterest.com.
This is such an important tool, like
really important. It actually is being
updated. It's amazing. So, go there and
look for shopping trends. It's It's
amazing. All right, shopping features.
Now, all the things that I've talked
about up until this point, if you're a
creator listening to this, you could
probably do all the things I just talked
about and have a smoking Pinterest
strategy. It would be great. But for
those who have a selfhosted
shopping platform and what I mean by
self-hosted is you are not Etsy you are
not on something like teachers pay
teachers you are using Shopify Woo
Commerce big commerce all the commerce
or maybe you created your own commerce
platform this is what I mean by
self-hosted you need to connect your
catalog you need to go one step deeper
in this relationship with Pinterest to
connect the feed because this is where
the money is. And here's why. When
someone searches and they see a product
that is yours, it has the right cost. It
has the right link. If you have
inventory, it's still there. If you
don't have inventory, it goes away. So,
this product feed, this relationship
that you and Pinterest now have together
in this shopping feed allows all of your
inventory to be updated every 24 hours,
which is such a huge solution to what I
was talking about earlier. When someone
saves a pen and it doesn't have a link,
but I really want to buy it, missed
opportunity. This allows you to no
longer have missed opportunities on the
platform. It literally removes a lot of
the friction where I can just click to
buy your cute little ceramic mug. I can
see the price and I can go straight to
checkout. I have just done a whole
podcast on shopping features. I'm going
to link that below too. One really,
really important piece is that product
feed and verified merchant are two
different things. The most important, if
you do nothing else as a product seller,
please, please, please connect your
product catalog. Just do it. If you want
to take it to the next level and get
verified merchant, I have it on my
account. I have a cute little like red
check mark and it says verified
merchant. I have a few extra features
with that. It is can be a little clunky
to get approved for that. I've heard hit
or miss from people having an easy time
to not a good time. There's a lot of
things that go into that. So, I'm going
to link to that podcast I just did. You
can go look into that and see if
verified merchant is the next right step
after you've connected your shopping
catalog. Pinterest ads. I love Pinterest
ads. I know for a lot of people, I don't
know, they have mixed signals from
people about them, so they just don't
know, right? Here's what I would say. Do
all the things that I've just suggested
like make sure you are set up, right?
And then dive into Pinterest ads maybe
on your best performing organic pins.
You can use a lot of Pinterest
targeting, retargeting options. You can
reach people based on interest,
keywords, demographic. They are very
robust. Now, I want to just say to you
that if you are looking to scale faster
with your products on Pinterest, this is
where the money is. Don't be scared of
Pinterest ads. And yes, they are nothing
like Facebook ads or meta ads, but
they're equally as awesome. They just
take a little bit more time. We got this
question, and I want to address this
before I wrap up, and this is what I
talked about in the beginning. Well,
some of our clients and some of the
queries we get through customer service
have been saying they feel tired of
Pinterest because it's not bringing in
sales, but they've only been trying for
a couple of months. So, there are
benefits on Pinterest besides immediate
revenue. One of our clients just left
recently. We're so sad about it. She's
so happy with all the work that we're
doing and her traffic is actually up,
but she hasn't made sales yet. So,
Pinterest, as it might remind you, takes
6 9 12 months to really see good forward
movement. If you are seeing traffic go
up and you're seeing increased
engagement in just a couple months,
that's a good thing. That's what you
want. If you want it a little bit
faster, I suggest you dial that toggle
of Pinterest ads to up your game and to
target them even cleaner, clearer,
better, faster. And the fact that your
traffic might already be up is a great
indicator that there is a appetite for
your product. Pinterest is never ever
ever going to explode overnight. But if
you do stay consistent, you'll start to
see traffic pretty quickly, but you
might not see sales right away. But some
of our clients are getting 30 to 40% of
their website traffic from Pinterest
now. And this can be really high
converting. Some people have been doing
Pinterest ads with us for 2 years
because they just keep performing so
great, they don't want to turn it off.
So don't sleep on Pinterest. I know your
future customers, they're already there.
They're searching for exactly what you
have to sell. You just need to show up,
okay? All right. I am going to link
below in the show notes all the things
that I talked about, but we want to be a
helpful resource for you. So, please, if
you're on YouTube, ask questions below.
We would love to help you. Make sure you
like and subscribe as well. I'm going to
be doing a little different kind of
formula in 2026 for how we structure
podcast and YouTube. I'll be doing more
tutorials, more deep dives like what I
talked about here in the middle of the
episode with pins and some examples
because we realize people need that. If
you're listening in the podcast, thank
you so much. Go ahead and hit follow if
you're on Apple, subscribe if you're on
Spotify or any other platform so you
don't miss an episode. as well. Note,
for those who are podcast listeners, I'm
going to be doing short mini episodes in
2026 of some thoughts I have week by
week about where Pinterest is at, where
it's going, how it affects creators and
e-commerce business owners. So, make
sure you're subscribed over there as
well. All righty. Thanks so much for
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