Discover expert tips from Kate Ahl on driving Pinterest traffic in 2025! Learn actionable strategies to grow your audience, boost engagement, and achieve success with this powerful platform.
IE 423: Driving Traffic from Pinterest: Strategies for Success in 2025 with Kate Ahl
Kate Ahl’s business is Simple Pin Media, a Pinterest marketing agency. She has a podcast called Simple Pin Podcast and has over 400 podcasts.
She has been in business for 11 years and is a Pinterest expert, historian, and Pinterest predictor of the future. They primarily work with content creators and e-commerce business owners. That is where they see Pinterest going in 2025 – product sellers matched with content.
She teaches people how to do this on their podcast but also serves clients. Jenny teaches people that they need their own products and services because they cannot simply rely on ad revenue and other monetization things.
What trends are currently driving the most traffic from Pinterest, and how do you see these trends shaping the platform’s future?
Quarter 4 is always a high-traffic time on Pinterest for every market. Primarily, they do see it serving anyone in the food space, decor, and clothing categories because we are shifting from fall to winter.
All industries are experiencing a higher traffic time and a high awareness time as well. Product sellers are seeing Pinterest pushing gift guides and adding new features.
Kate sees that 2025 will be good if you have a product. The top five Pinterest categories are food, DIY, home decor, weddings, and fashion. Makeup and beauty are high also. Travel, education components, and parenting are all high-traffic areas.
Over the last 5-6 years, traffic has decreased everywhere and Pinterest is no exception. In 2020, Pinterest experienced a big boom (during the pandemic). There was a decrease in traffic in 2022.
You also saw Pinterest shifting its model. People began to question if Pinterest was a valid tool. What came out of that is Pinterest saying they are a valid tool but they changed to product-specific focus.
With that, every time you have a shift in seasons, that focus will shift as well. In 2025, we will see “new year, new you.” budgeting, fitness, and other things. It is important to figure out where Pinterest is going and have your own product or service.
What are the most effective strategies in 2025 for driving traffic from Pinterest? Are there any new techniques or tools that have emerged?
One thing great about Pinterest is that it remains consistent. Kate teaches the same things today as she did two years ago. You have to use keywords, images, and a good call to action. They are still the same but you have to get smarter in how you are doing it.
If you are trying to market to your target audience, the first thing you do is figure out what your keywords are. Pinterest trends are getting better and better all the time. It targets by country, when people are searching, etc. If you are not using that tool to find not only ideas but also keywords that you will use, you are missing out.
We saw people get lazy with images. They would slap something in Canva, call it good, cross their fingers, and try for the best.
You want to go into data. You want to look at what has worked. She had someone notice that they had a pin take off and she wanted to replicate it. Kate advised her to look at the keywords she used and the image she used. She needs to take that and do it again.
It doesn’t mean it will be a success but you will have a template to work from. They see bloggers working hard on keywords and content but then just throwing something on Pinterest. You need to choose your pin copy intentionally. Does it have a keyword in it? Does it have a call to action on it?
You need to eliminate the noise. Get new templates. Get a refresh. Think about your audience very intentionally. What are they searching for that you can use to get in front of them?
Go search for the keywords. Do you see yourself ranking on Pinterest? We don’t have a lot of great tools out there, like SEO tools, but some are emerging.
The best you have is Pinterest itself. Go in and see what comes up when you type certain things in. A lot of people miss Calls to Action on any social media platform. Think about what action you want them to take. How are they supposed to engage with you?
Look at your images and figure out which ones they are going to react to. Everybody uses stock images. How about using AI tools that are being offered and using an image that you can put some description into that becomes ours and we can see ourselves in it.
Jenny watched a client do this. The image was mind-blowing because it was exactly what they had been talking about. By using a description, the image was good.
Two types of people approach Pinterest: high intent and low intent. The high intent is to look for something exactly. Low intent might be looking for something else or something similar and find it.
You have to figure out where you can hit people on both high and low intent. What questions are people asking?
You can start by creating short-form content. It doesn’t have to be a crazy-long blog post but something that warms them up to you and shows them you are the person to help them.
Target the keywords that people are using. Create your AI image and then look to compare it to what is out there. People choose an image and then wonder why their pin isn’t working. When they go and look, it is because everyone is using a similar image. You can stand out from the rest.
You have the advantage of AI and can get a little bit different. Play around with the different things to jog the traffic.
Pinterest is a hard needle to move. It is a cold source of traffic. You have to add it to your bucket of all the other social media, such as YouTube, Google, etc. You want those on your side because it drives traffic long term. Instagram is a different type of audience.
Everyone is going to feel like they are not doing a whole lot but if you keep your eye on the prize and keep testing and tweaking these things, over the long haul, those things will start getting picked up.
Content creators automatically assume that people know what their problem is and they call it by what it is. You have to find the qualifying questions to identify their problem. When people read those questions, they can recognize themself and will click to learn more.
People on Pinterest are primed to read. They may not be daily users, maybe only 2-3 times a week, but when they are on Pinterest, their sessions are much longer.
They want to be in a positive environment that is supportive of them. Pinterest is big on saying they are not like the rest. They are a positive platform that helps support people. They are committed to making this a better experience for them.
More people are going to Pinterest to have their problems solved. We are going to Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms and we are mindlessly scrolling. Everything is flying by at a rapid pace.
When you go into Pinterest, you are doing research, asking questions, and looking for answers for the thing you are trying to solve.
How do I make my bookshelves look pretty? How do I come up with a Thanksgiving dinner menu that is gluten-free and Vegan?
Understanding the actual problem rather than simply putting in keywords will help people feel a connection to you. People have gotten away from a personal brand strategy where we put our voice into things. We started to rely just on keywords to go after traffic instead of answering a question or having a connection to people.
Don’t look at this as a page view. Look at this as a person because that is what it is. People are what you need for your business. We never know when our matches are going to align with the person who is searching and what impact that will have.
Pinterest has gotten so smart that it is able to align it for us. It knows your habits and understands who you are more than it ever has in the past.
What role does Pinterest SEO play in 2025, and how can creators ensure their content is discoverable?
You want to stay away from keyword “stuffing” and create copy that the audience identifies with.
The places you want to put copy are your pin copy, pin title, and pin description, board name, and board description. You want to use natural-sounding sentences. You want to leverage trends and Pinterest.
We all feel squeezed with time. You can use AI tools to be more efficient and faster. Stay away from hashtags. Stay away from using any type of emoji.
Train ChatGPT to write a description using certain keywords. You can tell it not to use hashtags or emojis and ask it to sound like you are sending a text to a friend. That is an efficient way to get your voice out without using a lot of time.
Take what is written and cross-reference it on Pinterest. You might have picked a keyword but go to Pinterest and see if that is what people are searching for.
An example of this is “vegan plant-based.” Those are two different search terms. You have to figure out if you are going to target plant-based or vegan.
What are the key metrics to monitor for tracking the success of Pinterest traffic strategies in 2025?
The number one thing to track on Pinterest is the amount of “saves.” Saves are the number one metric. It is the thing that gives you an indicator of what people are interested in. You know they are either going to click later or it tells you what people are searching for. It can go up or down every month.
Pinterest wants to shorten this time frame but the traditional thought is that it takes 3-6 months to decide on something, depending on your niche.
Outbound clicks are the second layer. You want to look at what people are clicking on to get to your website. The third metric, and a looser tool, is impressions. Sometimes, you can get a huge amount of impressions right away but not a lot of saves.
How can businesses effectively monetize the traffic they receive from Pinterest? Has Pinterest introduced any new features to support this?
Kate thinks Pinterest is trying to shorten the time for e-commerce. They are making money off of selling their own products.
When it comes to getting people to buy your products, make sure you are a verified merchant. Make sure you have uploaded your catalog. Those are going to help your product get seen even more than if your catalog isn’t connected.
You want to do this for digital and physical products. For content, avoid the ad affiliate stuff. Get your own digital product, even if you don’t have a Shopify store. Services and consulting are also products.
If you are business to business versus business to consumer, that revenue stream looks drastically different. Your numbers are going to look different and you cannot compare and contrast to someone who is business to consumer.
Business to business may have a more difficult time selling and might need to go a different route than Pinterest. If you are going to try to figure out if you are making money, you have to get super smart with the data and figure out if people are going from Pinterest to your landing page and making a purchase.
Business to consumer is the same but it will be much easier to make a sale, especially if you are selling something in the top five categories. What are you going to track? What are you going to sell?
Optimizing your funnel is important. You have to tweak and look at things in your funnel. How long are people on your landing page? Is your product listing up to date? Is it easy for them to know what to purchase?
If you have a physical product, your reviews are huge. That is going to tell the story if people like your product. Getting a four or five-star review, feedback, and social proof is huge for a Pinterest reader because they are cold to you.
If you sell this amazing soap that gets rid of acne, put before and after pictures. Having social proof gives you the lift to make more money. This also works for a digital product. Give me those testimonials, video or written, that show how great your product is.
It is important to know where your audience is. Sometimes, you have to test out a platform for a bit. If you don’t have millennials and your target audience is aged 50+, don’t waste your time on TikTok, unless you are talking about books. Books seem to do well on TikTok.
Be smart. Don’t be on all of the platforms. If you are in the top five categories (food, DIY, home decor, weddings, and fashion), get on Pinterest, test it, and do the things that have been talked about here with your copy.
You also need to make sure you have your own product or service. Your business is going to drown if you continue to rely on ads, affiliates, and sponsored content alone.
When you look at the environment and the addition of AI, it is hard to see who is creating content. With Pinterest, you go directly to the website of the person posting.
You are not getting AI results; you are getting real people when you are searching for either a product or content. That is great news.
Pinterest has a great feature, “Audience Insights,” that is super helpful. After you have been using Pinterest for 3-6 months, you can see who your audience is. This is a great tool.
It is often a surprise to creators to see that their audience is young Gen-X or elder millennials. You have to realize that you might be targeting a different kind of person than you think you are.
Data does tell the story. It feels intimidating to track. You don’t want it to be overwhelming. It needs to tell the true story.
Kate began asking people how they tracked data and figuring out how she was going to do it. She doesn’t track every single pin but she can get a general indication of what is working and not working.
She does this for other platforms too. She wants to see who is signing up for her email list. That is why she uses Pinterest, not necessarily to sell a service.
She wants them on her email list. Once they are on the list, you can continue to engage them and tell them all about the products and services you offer. This is where your income comes from.
Key Word Guide
This guide is your quick start guide to Pinterest keywords. It includes current trending keywords for all seasons in 10+ categories like travel, finance, food, beauty, and more (and non-seasonal ideas!) Click here to get your Key Word Guide
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