Updated 5 November 2026. First published in 2017.
Does your business have a Pinterest marketing strategy? If not, you could be missing one of the best places to reach people who are actively planning what to buy next.
Pinterest now has 661 million monthly active users, and its audience is still growing. Here's how to make the most of it.
Post summary
Why Pinterest is different
Who uses Pinterest
How to build a Pinterest marketing strategy
What type of content to create
How to grow your audience
Pinterest marketing tools
Frequently asked questions
Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a social network
First things first. Pinterest isn't really a social network. People don't go there to chat, follow friends or collect likes. They go to search, save ideas and plan, whether that's a kitchen renovation, a wedding, a holiday or their next pair of trainers.
According to Pinterest Business, the number one reason people use Pinterest is to find new products and brands. And 96% of top searches are unbranded, so people are open to discovering a business they've never heard of.
That makes Pinterest a perfect platform if you want your audience to find and act on your content, rather than scroll past it. A good Pin can also keep bringing visitors to your website for far longer than a post on Facebook or Instagram, which drops out of feeds within days.
Who uses Pinterest
Pinterest reported 661 million monthly active users in the third quarter of 2026, up 10% on the year before. That includes 107 million in the USA and Canada and 161 million in Europe, where users grew by 7%.
Pinterest monthly active users by region
Millions of monthly active users, third quarter of 2025 and 2026
Q3 2025 Q3 2026
Source: Pinterest third quarter 2026 results, 29 October 2026.
The rest of the world has the most users. However, the money is in North America. In the third quarter of 2026, Pinterest earned an average of $8.38 per user in the USA and Canada, compared with $1.21 in Europe and $0.23 in the rest of the world. The USA and Canada brought in $894 million of Pinterest’s $1.17 billion revenue, around three quarters of the total, from about a sixth of its users.
Pinterest revenue per user by region
Average revenue per user in US dollars, third quarter of 2026
USA and Canada Europe Rest of world
Global average $1.80. Source: Pinterest third quarter 2026 results, 29 October 2026.
The audience is also younger than many people think. Pinterest says Gen Z now makes up half of its global users and is its fastest-growing audience. Women still make up the majority, at around 70% of UK adult users. However, Pinterest is no longer only a platform for women, and men make up a growing share.
For businesses selling to the USA and Europe, that's more than 260 million people a month, many of them actively looking for ideas and products.
How to build a Pinterest marketing strategy
Before you start pinning, take time to understand Pinterest's features and how they can improve your brand's presence.
1. Set up a business account and claim your website
A Pinterest business account is free, and you can convert an existing personal account. It unlocks analytics, audience insights, ads and shopping features. Once it's set up, claim your website, so Pinterest can verify your brand and show you analytics for every Pin that links to your site.
2. Set clear goals
Decide what you want Pinterest to do for your business. That could be brand awareness, website traffic, leads or online sales. Your goal shapes everything else, from the content you create to the numbers you track. Add UTM tags to your Pin links so you can see Pinterest traffic and sales in Google Analytics.
3. Learn from your competitors
Check out the competition and see how they're branding themselves. You don't have to learn only from your own mistakes or triumphs. You can learn from others, and pick up ideas for the keywords to use in your own Pins.
4. Research your keywords
Pinterest works like a search engine, so keywords matter. Short, simple keywords that are popular with your target audience help people who don't follow you find your Pins.
Start typing a topic into the Pinterest search bar and look at the suggestions it gives. The free Pinterest Trends tool shows what people are searching for and which topics are rising.
Use your keywords in natural language in these places.
Your profile name and bio
Board titles and descriptions
Pin titles and descriptions, ideally in the first 50 to 60 characters
Alt text and image file names
5. Plan your boards
Give each board a clear theme and a keyword-rich title that matches what people search for. Board titles can even appear in Google results. Start with a few focused boards, then add seasonal or campaign boards as you grow.
6. Post consistently and plan ahead
Consistency matters more than volume. Pinning regularly, a few times a week or daily, works better than uploading dozens of Pins at once and then going quiet.
People plan early on Pinterest, so publish seasonal content well ahead of time. Sprout Social recommends at least 45 days before the event. Pinterest's annual Pinterest Predicts report is also useful for planning the year ahead.
What type of content to create
A successful Pinterest marketing strategy needs engaging, high-quality content published regularly. The question is which content suits your brand's identity, while still standing out from your competitors.
Mix up your content types for a more versatile Pinterest presence.
Standard image Pins. Use vertical images in a 2:3 ratio, such as 1,000 by 1,500 pixels. See our social media image sizes guide for more.
Video Pins. Short videos work well, especially with younger audiences. You can repurpose Instagram Reels, TikToks and YouTube Shorts.
Product Pins. Upload your product catalogue to create shoppable Pins showing price and availability.
How-to and guide Pins. Step-by-step content suits Pinterest's planning mindset.
Pins for your blog posts. Create several Pins for each article, with different images and headlines, so you reach different people.
To stand out in a sea of beautiful images, your Pins need to be noticeable, recognisable and visual enough to get your message across. Add a short headline to the image, use strong contrast and show products in real settings rather than on plain backgrounds. Even text-based content, such as articles and quotes, needs a strong image.
If you don't think your brand is a typical Pinterest brand, adapt your plan and tell a more visual story. It's an ideal way to raise awareness of your brand and what inspires it, not just your products.
For example, digital marketing has no products to photograph, so at Blu Mint we place a heavy emphasis on colour to stand out against boards full of beautiful images and products. Our guide to getting your Instagram colour palette right works just as well for Pinterest.
How to grow your audience
The next step is reaching more people. A bigger audience means a bigger chance of being noticed by the people you want to reach. Use one, or preferably all, of these methods.
Connect your other channels. Share your Pins on other social media, add a Pinterest save button to your website and link to your Pinterest profile in your emails, so people can move easily between your website and Pinterest.
Use keywords everywhere. Keywords help people who don't follow you find your Pins in search, and even your profile name helps you get found.
Collaborate on group boards. When you share a board with other businesses or creators, everyone who follows one contributor sees the Pins, so all of you benefit from each other's followers.
Save other people's content carefully. Saving relevant Pins from others keeps your boards fresh. Think about your goals, your brand and what will appeal to your target audience.
Learn from your best Pins. Check which Pins get the most saves and clicks, and create more in the same style and topic.
Pinterest marketing tools
Pinterest has built-in features to help you get the most from your strategy. Most are only available with a business account.
| Tool | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pinterest Analytics | Shows impressions, saves, outbound clicks and who your audience is. | Seeing what works |
| Pinterest Trends | Shows what people search for, and which topics are rising. | Keywords and planning |
| Rich Pins | Pulls details such as article titles or product prices from your website automatically. | Blogs and online shops |
| Catalogues | Turns your product feed into shoppable Pins with price and availability. | Ecommerce |
| Pinterest tag | Tracks visits and sales on your website, and lets you retarget visitors with ads. | Measuring sales |
| Pinterest ads | Promotes image, video and shopping Pins to the audiences you choose. | Faster reach |
Rich Pins
Rich Pins add more context to a Pin by showing extra information from the page behind it, such as an article's title or a product's price. Once you add the right tags to your website, the details update automatically, so your Pins never show out-of-date information.
Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest Analytics is a vital part of your strategy. You can measure your account's growth, see who you're attracting, find out which content gets saved and track how many people visit your website. Check it at least once a week, and use what you learn to adjust your Pinterest marketing strategy.
Scheduling
Business accounts can schedule Pins in advance from inside Pinterest. Tools such as Canva, Hootsuite and Sprout Social also let you design and schedule Pins alongside your other social media.
Pinterest ads
Organic Pins take time to build. Ads put your Pins in front of the right people straight away, from image and video ads to shopping ads built from your catalogue. Because people on Pinterest are already planning and shopping, Pinterest says its weekly users are more likely than people on other platforms to find ads relevant.
Final thoughts
Pinterest offers a mix of search, inspiration and shopping that few other platforms can match. That alone is reason enough to start your Pinterest marketing. Done well, it can help your business reach new audiences in the USA and Europe and send them straight to your website.
Need help with Pinterest?
We help businesses across the USA and Europe grow on Pinterest, from organic strategy to paid campaigns. Take a look at our Pinterest advertising services, or get in touch.
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Yes, especially for businesses with visual products or ideas, such as fashion, home, food, travel, beauty and ecommerce. People use Pinterest to find new products and brands, and most searches are unbranded, so new businesses can be discovered.
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Aim for consistency rather than volume. Posting a few times a week, or daily, works better than uploading lots of Pins at once and then stopping. Publish seasonal content at least 45 days ahead.
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Use a vertical 2:3 ratio, such as 1,000 by 1,500 pixels. Vertical Pins take up more space in the feed and look best on mobile.
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Yes, if you're using Pinterest for marketing. A business account is free and gives you analytics, ads, Rich Pins, catalogues and audience insights, none of which are available on a personal account.