Can the most popular pins on Pinterest teach you how to improve your own marketing? They sure can!
In this blog, Katya Shakarian, Social Media Manager at Ignite Visibility, will discuss why Pinterest matters to marketers and how you can learn how to turn popular pins on Pinterest into clicks and conversions for your brand.
My Expert Opinion On Pinterest
Choosing a platform to focus on can be incredibly difficult. Between Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, X, LinkedIn, and Snapchat, there are so many to choose from, and everyone has a different opinion on the best one.
Personally, I think Pinterest is underrated by a lot of brands and businesses looking to make a splash in the online space. Once you learn how to become popular on Pinterest, you can harness that power and turn it into an undeniable fan base for your business.
If you haven’t already, I suggest that you look at the most popular pins on Pinterest for your industry to see what is working and what isn’t, and then develop a strategy that resembles those pins. Remember, people are going to this platform for information and inspiration, so don’t be afraid to give it to them!
What You’ll Learn:
- The Pinterest demographic breakdown
- Why Pinterest matters to marketers
- What makes a Pin popular
- How to find trending topics
- The most popular Pins by industry
Pinterest is an interesting platform. It’s a social media site that doesn’t quite feel as social as Facebook or Twitter.
It’s a photo-centric platform like Instagram, but without the sense that you’re competing for likes and followers and little pressure to showcase an idealized version of yourself.
But there’s no mistaking the fact that people love Pinterest! In fact, users report that the platform helps them learn new things and find new products. What’s more, Pinners are twice as likely to say that their time on the platform was time well spent.
While there’s often a lack of understanding when it comes to crafting a Pinterest strategy, it’s a more powerful marketing tool than you might imagine.
On the social side, people can “re-pin” (i.e., share) posts that they like. Remember this when you’re wondering how to go viral on Pinterest.
Later on in this article, we’ll look at examples of some of today’s most popular pins on Pinterest, but first, let’s look at a few things you should know about Pinterest as a marketing platform.
Demographic Breakdown
Though Pinterest might be considered an outlier compared to other social channels, a lot is happening on the platform.
However, that’s not necessarily true. According to Search Engine Journal, Pinterest is the seventh most popular social media platform after X, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
Women have made up the lion’s share of the user base since the platform came on the scene back in 2012. However, men are starting to sign up for accounts as well. In fact, about half of all new sign-ups come from men.
As of 2024, Pinterest’s audience is still predominantly female, with women users making up 76% of their global base. However, the male demographic has seen notable growth, particularly in markets like India and the UK.
Demographic breakdowns will vary based on category, so you’ll want to do some research yourself to determine how much of your audience is on Pinterest.
That said, no matter what category you fall under, make sure anything that you link to on Pinterest is mobile-friendly. Otherwise, you may compromise your SEO rankings, or worse, your reputation.
A Viable Marketplace – Shoppable Pins
With over 460 million monthly active users and more than 300 billion pins saved across its platform. Once you look at the numbers, there’s no denying that Pinterest is a critical part of product discovery for modern consumers.
In fact, 85% of Pinterest users have made a purchase based on a pin they saw while scrolling. That’s a lot of people that you could potentially be marketing to.
Pinterest even wants to make it easier for you to sell on their platform. They recently introduced the Shoppable Pins feature, which allows users to buy products directly from their feed.
And these pins are getting noticed! In 2023, the platform saw a 50% year-over-year increase in Shoppable Pins being saved to its users’ boards.
In 2024, they also introduced Pinterest’s first AI-driven personalization. This new feature uses AI to deliver personalized, branded shopping recommendations to users’ Pinterest Search and Home Feeds.
Its goal is to deliver more customized suggestions to users based on their previous preferences while also helping brands get more attention by putting them in front of consumers who may be interested in their product or service. This is particularly great news for those in the fashion and lifestyle spaces, which tend to get the most traffic on Pinterest.
Seasonality Matters
If you look at any of Pinterest’s data or reports, you’ll notice that a lot of the top trends are seasonal. In the summer, you’ll see things like strappy sandals and frozen cocktails on the rise. In the winter, things like Christmas crafts or snow day gear will take over the top spots.
The point is that brands that want to compete on Pinterest should make sure they’re keeping up with the latest seasons and trends in their space.
That said, a good portion of the platform’s shareable content is evergreen. In scrolling through some of the more popular posts, Pinterest is unique in that content keeps getting re-pinned if people still find it relevant.
What Makes a Pin Popular?
So, what makes popular pins on Pinterest? That answer is surprisingly complicated.
It has a lot to do with the new and improved Pinterest algorithm, which focuses on four main factors: Domain Quality, Pin Quality, Pinner Quality, and Topic Relevance.
Domain Quality
One of the things that makes Pinterest so awesome is that it’s part social media platform and part search engine. That’s why domain quality is considered before pushing out your pins.
To improve your chances of getting the word out, switch to a business account on Pinterest and claim your website. This will help to prove the authenticity of your website and give you access to valuable statistics.
Pin Quality
Don’t forget about keeping your Pin quality up! Aspects like high-quality images and eye-catching titles will improve your quality. Pinterest now allows carousels and short-form video Pins in addition to the traditional static Pins. Like many other social platforms, video Pins are quickly gaining popularity and emphasis.
If you use a static picture, make sure it stays within the recommended pixel size – 1000 x 1500. If you want to upload short-form video content, use text overlays for accessibility purposes.
You can also explore the different types of Pins, like Story Pins, Idea Pins, and Shoppable Pins, to help you reach new audiences. Don’t forget to use keywords in your Pin name and description to increase visibility!
Pinner Quality
Like other sites, Pinterest also values the creators’ quality. They want people who will be on their site often and value your pinning consistently and your engagement. If people are engaging with your content, it will increase the amount of attention you receive.
Pin Relevance
Another aspect of the Pinterest algorithm is the relevance of your pins. Use keyword research to find what your audience is searching for and incorporate those keywords into your descriptions.
You should also optimize your account by adding keywords to your bio, user name, and board names.
How to Find (Relevant) Trending Posts
Once you have a Pinterest business account, finding trending Pins is pretty easy!
After your account is set up, you can look at audience insights, which break down your followers and Pinterest users in general.
What’s nice about this is that you can check out what’s trending at any given moment and click on the categories that apply to your brand.
This means you don’t have to work recipes into your content strategy. You’ll get actual, usable information that is relevant to both your audience and your brand!
Travel
Now that you have some background information on Pinterest and how it works, let’s dive into the most popular pins on Pinterest and how you can use them as inspiration for your brand.
Travel Pins usually do really well on Pinterest because who doesn’t love to daydream about beautiful vacations?!
Some things that make these travel pins the most popular on Pinterest are their high-quality images, text overlays, and engagement.
Health and Wellness
Health and wellness is another popular topic for Pinterest users.
If you’re in the food/beverage/fitness/wellness business, social media can be a pretty crowded space. You’ll need to make sure that your posts are visually appealing and that they’re useful to your audience.
Some of the best on Pinterest right now include:
These pins all use high-quality images and keywords in their titles and descriptions to improve their searchability.
Hobbies and Interests
Hobbies like crafting, painting, gardening, and so on have been the cornerstone of Pinterest since the platform launched in 2012.
These popular Pins include easy-to-read lists with keywords in their descriptions.
Food
As you might have gathered from the “popular posts” section above, food remains one of the top categories on Pinterest.
While trends come and go—think back to the bacon craze from a few years back or the former elderberry obsession—many of the platform’s popular food posts happen to be recipes people just, well, like.
Here are a few really popular food Pins:
It’s this simple: If you want to gain followers on Pinterest, post a mouth-watering recipe that nobody has posted yet. Often, these food posts aren’t particularly trendy—many are perennial faves like a killer cake recipe or slow cooker recipes that do the heavy lifting while you’re at work.
Add a great visual (remember: sell the sizzle, not the steak), and you’re likely to make some friends.
Of course, not every brand can post recipes. If your brand doesn’t have any connection to food, you’ll either need to find a creative way to make that connection or focus on posting content that better aligns with your brand.
Home
Did you know that 85% of Pinterest users consult the platform? So, if you’re a business focused on home decor, renovation, or real estate, you might want to check this out!
Fashion and Beauty
Fashion pins have been a staple of this social site since the beginning and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon! Here are some of the most popular pins on Pinterest in the fashion category.
Most of the popular Pins are a mix of one clothing item and how-to style-type posts with strong keyword-optimized headlines and descriptions. Most of them include shoppable links, too!
Motivational Quotes & Tips
Motivational quotes are a big piece of the Pinterest pie, and while they might not be a core part of your business model, they’re a great way to showcase text-based content on a visual platform.
Let’s say you’ve written a blog post that covers negotiation tips for millennials. In this case, you might pull some quotes from your article and design them using a tool like Adobe Spark or Canva. Top it off with a caption that leads into your post to attract more traffic to the main event.
Motivational quotes and tips are also a good way for businesses that wouldn’t traditionally shine on Pinterest to get a piece of the action.
Take B2B brands, for example. They may not have flashy or trendy products to show off, but they can put together how-to infographics or quotes and build a Pinterest channel solely on word-driven Pins, rather than images.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a concept that is trending across most social media platforms and Pinterest is no exception!
Some of the most popular Pins on Pinterest include shoppable links, keyword-optimized descriptions, clear images, and lots of engagement!
Mental Health
Looking for tips on how to improve your mental health, mental health tattoos, or mental health awareness ideas? Pinterest has got you covered!
How to Create a Popular Pinterest Pin
Are you feeling inspired yet? Here are seven ways to make a popular Pinterest pin for your business.
- Use high-quality images that people will want to look at again and again.
- Leverage current trends to improve the likelihood of ending up in that top trends list.
- Optimize your Pin’s titles and descriptions for SEO using strong and organic keywords.
- Use engaging CTAs so that your audience knows what to do next.
- Incorporate your branding so that your audience will be able to easily spot your content during their scroll.
- Keep your content useful! No one wants to be spammed with irrelevant information, even on Pinterest.
- Leverage rich pins and video pins to diversify your content and easily connect your Pinterest board to your website.
- Collaborate with influencers and other brands to increase your reach.
One of the biggest pieces of the Pinterest puzzle is maintaining consistency and optimizing your Pins for mobile use. The algorithm will love you and your audience will thank you!
Make the Most of Your Pinterest Board with Ignite Visibility
Do you want to make a splash in the world of Pinterest? The social media experts at Ignite Visibility are ready to help!
We’ve helped hundreds of brands and businesses across the country develop social media strategies that work. We can help you:
- Optimize your content for SEO
- Market your Amazon storefront
- Increase your conversion rates
- And more!
Are you ready to harness the power of Pinterest?
Request a free proposal today!
