#185 – Pinterest Growth Case Studies: What Can I Expect?

Today we are going to be talking about how much Pinterest growth is reasonable to expect. We’ll be diving into some SPM client case studies across different niches to give you an idea of typical growth patterns and rates.

If you’re new to Pinterest marketing, being curious about growth is common before you invest in the platform. You want to know how quickly you can grow.

We have a great episode about how Pinterest marketing is different than Facebook marketing. If you’re coming to Pinterest from Facebook, I highly recommend you listen to that episode to get an idea of the differences between the two.

If you’re more seasoned on Pinterest, you might have questions about different seasons of growth.

Regardless of where you’re at the Simple Pin Pinterest Planner is for you. It’s over 20 pages of stat tracking, monthly trends, checklists, and more.

Pinterest Growth Expectations

Different Growth and Goals

In one of our previous episodes, I covered one of our most commonly asked questions: “When is the right time to hire a Pinterest management company?”

This question is often asked in our discovery calls, where one of my team members or I talk to potential clients before they hire us to work for them.

The second most popular question we get during these calls is:

How much growth can I expect on Pinterest?

Answering this question has been a struggle for me over the years, ever since I started growing SPM. There are so many different factors. Over time, the thing I realized was that there is no “one size fits all” answer to that question.

Growth and goals are different for each and every Pinterest account.

Diving Into The Numbers

One of the best things I did was to hire Layne Booth as our data analyst.

She’s been on the podcast before to talk about Pinterest ROI. Each month she analyzes all our client data — examining impressions, repins/saves, and clicks. The purpose of this exercise is to understand average growth rates.

In the beginning, we looked at SPM client numbers as a whole. We landed somewhere between 6-9% in our growth rates. We used Pinterest-led sessions (or traffic to your website) as the key metric, since traffic is what we can monetize on.

We’re conservative when it comes to communicating growth expectations to potential clients. So our standard response to the growth question was 1-3% in our discovery calls. That growth rate represents how many sessions an account can expect to grow, month over month, from using the Pinterest platform.

In “phase 2” of our analytics exploration, what we started to realize is that there were certain account factors that changed the patterns of growth.

For example, a food blogger account would grow super fast during the high season for food on Pinterest (typically August to February) but travel accounts and product seller accounts would look different. It was hard to nail it down when an account would grow by 30% one month and then have a -15% growth rate the next month.

As we talk about this, I want to focus on the fact that you really have to dig into your Pinterest analytics. How much do you want to grow on Pinterest if you’re new, or how much have you grown since you started?

Ten Factors that Affect Pinterest Growth

We’re going to talk about the factors that need to be considered as you try to answer the growth question.

1. How often do you create new content or images?

2. How long have you been pinning and are you super consistent? 

3. Do you have share buttons on your website? 

4. Does your audience use Pinterest? 

5. Do you have an email list that knows you’re on Pinterest? 

6. Is your market saturated, (for example: how to build a blog) or are you leading the pack in your small niche? 

7. What keywords are you targeting? Who is the person you are targeting? 

8. What do your analytics (Google and Pinterest) tell you about your pinning habits? Who is interacting with your pins? 

9. How much of your own content are you pinning? How much content are you pinning from others? 

10. Have you changed up your strategy at all? Have you A/B tested your images? 


All of these factors are why there isn’t a cut and dry answer to the question of growth. It’s just not that simple.

Case Studies: Five Pinterest Management Clients in Different Niches

To really show you the variability of growth, I’m going to share 5 client examples with you.

It’s important to remember that we’re talking exclusively about session growth here, not Pinterest followers, monthly viewers, or impressions on Pinterest. How quickly did they grow in 3 months, 6 months, and one year?

Client #1: First up is a blogger in the food and travel niche. This account is very location-specific. In the first three months, this account grew by 143% in sessions. In six months, they grew by 475%. And in one year, their average growth in sessions was 234%.

They post new content once or twice per week and create great Pinterest images. We pin 15 times per day for this client and they have social share buttons on their website. Their great content is what Pinterest loves most.

Client #2: This client’s site covers a range of topics: parenting, education, home decor, crafts, and DIY. We think of it as a holistic lifestyle blog. In the first three months on Pinterest, this account grew by 35%. But at the six-month mark, they were down to -23%. At one year, they bounced back to 38% growth.

They create one new piece of content per week, along with 2-5 images for each piece of new content. They have more followers on Facebook than Pinterest. We pin 30 pins per day for them because they have so much content to pull from. They have share buttons and tell their audience that they’re on Pinterest.

Client #3: This is a custom product account. When Pinterest users want something, they really want it. You never know if they’ll wait around for a custom product, so we were unsure of what results to expect in this case.

We built this profile from scratch and have created images for them on an ongoing basis. In the first three months, they grew by 2,171%. At 6 months, they were at 2,300%. By one year, they were at 1,700% growth.

That is crazy growth for a very new account!

We pin 10 times per day and they have a follow button on their site (but not a share button). They don’t tell their audience to follow them on Pinterest. We create two images per piece of content or product.

Client #4: This client is a fashion/lifestyle blogger. In the first three months on Pinterest, they grew by 1,400%. By six months, their growth was at 400%. After a year, they reached 710% growth.

They create content once every week to two weeks. They have a large following on Instagram. We pin 10 times per day, seven pins of their content and three of other people’s content. They don’t have share buttons on their website. They have told their Instagram followers to follow them on Pinterest a few times.

Client #5: A product seller who’s actually been on the podcast before to chat about selling physical products using Pinterest. Kirsten (Julep Tile) grew 15% in the first three months. By the six month mark, she was down to -7%. At the year mark, she was at 47% growth and has doubled her sales.

Doubling those sales is definitely the biggest win.

She posts 1-2 times per month and we create images for her (2-3 per post or product). Pinterest is her main social channel. We pin 10 times per day. She has share buttons on her site and great images.

This account benefitted from taking advantage of our image creation services. Making pinnable images was something she didn’t have the time to devote to.

Invest In Your Pinterest Growth

I know I said at the beginning of this podcast that our clients experience an average growth of 6% in Pinterest-led sessions. I am very cautious with most numbers, including my own. I never want to disappoint anyone by giving them high expectations.

It can sometimes be more freeing to not know numbers. When I share these numbers, I feel protective of you, the listener, because the numbers are influenced by so many different factors.

If you invest in great images, consistent pinning, and a sound keyword research strategy, you can continue to grow in these percentages.

In the end, you’ll need to decide if the investment in Pinterest marketing is worth it to you. Is Pinterest your place? Are your people there?

Pinterest is not a quick win. The main metric that means the most to us clicks because that leads to sales and so much more.

Don’t chase anyone else’s success. Know who you’re targeting and create great content for your person.

I’d love it if you’d a comment with your growth rates and numbers. We love to learn more about different niches and what your experiences are on Pinterest.

For Further Listening/Reading:

• Need to Know Pinterest Metrics
• Pinterest Marketing for Personal Finance Bloggers: A Case Study
• Why I Will Never Give You Get Traffic Fast Strategies