Simple Pin Podcast Episode Summary

Episode: Are you falling into this Pinterest marketing trap?
Host: Kate Ahl
Date: September 24, 2025

Overview

In this episode, host Kate Ahl tackles the growing frustration around declining Pinterest traffic and widespread claims that the platform is “dead.” She challenges listeners to stop chasing quick-fix “$1 tasks” and, instead, focus on data-driven, high-value activities that truly move the needle in Pinterest marketing. Kate delivers actionable steps for evaluating your Pinterest performance, cutting through social media noise, and making strategic decisions grounded in business goals—rather than emotion.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Pinterest Frustration & “Trap”

Many marketers and business owners are concerned about falling Pinterest traffic, blaming everything from algorithm changes and technology glitches to AI content and proclaiming that Pinterest’s best days are over.
Kate acknowledges the frustration, but urges listeners not to fall into the “hamster wheel” of trying random, low-value fixes:
“Are you falling into the trap of this hamster wheel of different things that you can try, or are you really looking at the things that matter?” — Kate (01:22)

$1 Tasks vs. $10 Tasks

Drawing from a conference talk, Kate introduces the $1 Task vs. $10 Task framework:
- $1 Tasks: Quick wins that feel productive but don’t generate lasting results (e.g., deleting pins, joining numerous group boards, pinning more per day).
- $10 Tasks: High-effort, high-reward strategies that have a bigger business impact (e.g., content aligned with trends, updating boards, strategic planning).
  “We are drawn sometimes to these $1 tasks because they feel like quick wins... and then there's these other things... they cost more, but deliver more value long term.” — Kate (04:09)
Example: Implementing Pinterest trends yielded a 119% traffic growth for a client (July–August), showing what focusing on higher-value tasks can do.

Evaluating Your Relationship with Pinterest

Kate cautions against emotional decisions—encouraging a reality check first:
1. Is Pinterest Still Worth It?
  - Sit with your data, not your emotions.
  - Reflect: Is Pinterest a significant part of your marketing pie?
  - Align your use of Pinterest with your business goals (sales, email list, website traffic, brand awareness).
“Is Pinterest aligning with the business goals that you have? Do you believe that the people you are trying to serve still exist on that platform?” — Kate (16:29)
1. Platform Mastery Over Multitasking
  - Avoid spreading yourself thin across too many channels at once.
  - Kate references Joe Pulizzi’s advice: Focus on fewer core marketing channels, master one at a time.
“Mastering one at a time, that has been very, very strategic here at Simple Pin Media.” — Kate (20:41)

Step-by-Step: Data Deep Dive

Emotions Lie, Data Tells the Truth
- Use analytics tools: Kate likes Google Analytics, Pinterest Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity.
- Select your time window (3, 6, or 12 months).
- Stick to one analytics platform for initial analysis, then cross-check if needed.
- Track core metrics: Saves, Outbound Clicks, Impressions (Kate’s top three).
“Saves… is always important… it tells me that the person was interested, but that they're going to check on it later.” — Kate (28:26)
- Identify your top 10 traffic-driving pins.
- Look for outliers or oddities and ask:
  - Does your business have natural ups and downs (seasonality)?
  - Were there platform algorithm changes?
  - Any technical glitches or tracking issues?
  - Did you change your content or strategy?
  - External factors (AI, new competitors, economic shifts)?
“Trying to super sleuth an algorithm update quickly becomes a $1 task.” — Kate (36:31)

Making Data-Driven Decisions

After gathering and contextualizing data, draw conclusions:
- Is Pinterest delivering the results that justify continued effort?
- Do you need to adjust or pivot your Pinterest strategy?
- Is it time to pause or shift focus from Pinterest—based on evidence, not frustration?
“Don’t do it out of frustration. Do it out of… you’ve looked at the data, you’ve looked at the numbers, and you know you’re okay with letting it go.” — Kate (25:55)

How to Move Forward (and Avoid the Trap)

Before reacting to discouraging headlines, “doom and gloom,” or trending marketing hacks:
- Revisit your goals and data.
- Ask the “oddities” questions.
- Decide what the next right step is for your unique business context.
- Remember: this framework is applicable to other channels (email, Instagram, etc.) too.
“Before you follow those 10 tips… look at the numbers and cross compare it with your goals.” — Kate (48:20)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Time Value:
“I'm pretty defensive of people and their business time. It's precious and when you waste it, you can't get it back.” — Kate (03:10)
On Platform Fatigue:
“Welcome to the Internet. The rest of us do too. [on wishing for past traffic]. It's not there anymore.” — Kate (14:27)
On Emotional Traps:
“Emotions will lie to you, but data tells the truth.” — Kate (26:18)
On Strategic Clarity:
“The main thing I want to leave you with is: while the noise is happening… before you decide that it's not worth it for you, I want you to look at the numbers and… your goals… then make a really good decision.” — Kate (48:21)

Timestamps for Key Segments

00:00–04:09: Introduction to the Pinterest “trap,” why traffic is down, $1 vs. $10 tasks
04:10–12:35: Marketing time value, trend-harnessing case study, choosing strategic tasks
12:36–21:30: Evaluating if Pinterest is still worth it, aligning with business goals, mastering fewer channels
21:31–28:26: Setting your Pinterest marketing strategy, the importance of letting go of what’s not working
28:27–38:12: Doing a data deep dive: metrics, tools, process, and spotting oddities
38:13–45:10: Making data-driven decisions, defining next steps based on results, handling seasonality and platform shifts
45:11–End: Summing up, universal application of the method, parting advice on making confident marketing decisions

Final Takeaways

Don’t get swept up in panic or short-term fixes; invest your energy in what most aligns with your goals and makes a measurable difference.
Regularly review and analyze your metrics using a consistent, objective framework.
Be willing to adjust your Pinterest (or any platform) strategy—or even pause—when the data and your business needs signal it’s time.
Remember: what works for others may not apply to your business; let real numbers guide your next move.

Connect with the show:
For questions or feedback, email hello@simplepinmedia.com
For $50 off a Pinterest strategy call, check the episode description for your listener code.

Transcript

A (0:00)

There has been a lot of discussion lately about Pinterest traffic trending downward and what this could possibly mean. Some have talked about algorithm changes, others have talked about tech issues, and then some are declaring Pinterest dead due to AI slop. Along with this is every theory under the sun to remedy this solution for your business. I get it. I stand with you in the frustration, but I want to ask you today if you're falling into the trap I of this hamster wheel of different things that you can try or if you're really looking at the things that matter. Also how you stand back and take a look at your Pinterest traffic to evaluate what's working and not working. I am Kate Ahl welcome to the Simple Pin Podcast. If you are looking to talk through some of these Pinterest marketing issues with someone, then I highly suggest booking a strategy call with our team. I don't know about you, but I like to ask questions when people teach and share about what I should do with my marketing because I need that feedback. I want to make sure I fully understand the concepts as well as implement them. If that's you, we are offering 50 off a strategy call to help you get started and ready for the next quarter. There's a code down below with 50% off at checkout as well as the link. I want to dive into some of those marketing issues today. I want to talk about how we get caught into this trap of just looking at the wrong thing. So I recently recorded an Instagram video after hearing suggestions that people should take if their traffic was down. Now. It was everything under the sun that I have heard over the last 11 years. Some things actually I might have said out loud. What are they thinking? Why would they tell somebody to do this? And admittedly I get pretty defensive of people and their business time. It's precious and when you waste it, you can't get it back. This five minute reel, which Instagram was very clear to tell me was not going to get shown to more people than my followers, was fine for me to record because I felt like I had a message to share and you can go watch it. I'll link it down below in the show notes. But what came to me was this talk that I remember hearing at a conference and I cannot remember the speaker's name. If for some reason you're watching this video and you are that speaker, you are more than welcome to comment down below. But they were sharing on the value of tasks. You have things that are a $1 task and things that are a $10 task. When it comes to your marketing, there are different value points on all of those tasks. There are some things that will get you more value and there's some things that just really won't get you a lot of value. Now, we are drawn sometimes to these $1 tasks because they feel like quick wins. This can be things such as deleting pins, or it can be such things as joining a hundred group boards, or it can be pinning more than have per day. And those are quick, easy wins. And I often define those as $1 tasks. And then there's these other things that you can do that revolve around content, that revolve around following trends, that revolve around updating your boards, that revolve around doing a little bit more, but they cost more, especially within our time, but they deliver more value long term. And in this video, I share that one of the steps that we took for one of our clients was harness this power of trends and implement it in these different places. And as a result, our client from July and August experienced 119% growth in traffic. Now, results are not typical, right? You know, the weight loss videos, I'm going to put that in an asterisk down at the bottom. These are not typical, but these tasks that we did were high value tasks that got us more, more in return than if we were to invest in the little tasks, the little things. So I can't define what the $1 and the $10 tasks are for you. That is something you need to determine for yourself. But one of the lenses that I put on this is, is the information coming from someone whose job it is to figure out how to gamify systems, which is completely appropriate. There are lots of people that do great, that love it. That is their whole marketing. They love to gamify, which I think is fabulous, right? But then there are those people that actually can't operate in a world of gamify because they're doing so many other things that they have to find the right tasks at the right time that are going to contribute to the growth of their business. They don't have time to always gamify. So with that, I want people to think through in this episode, this is what I'm gonna go through, is how you evaluate your traffic, your Pinterest traffic, how you look at it and determine. This is what I would like to accomplish with Pinterest. And then this is what I'm going to do to focus on getting to that goal. Social media marketing is so hard. It moves all the time and we want really, really clear answers. But oftentimes it doesn't have clear answers to give. But I do believe that you can get to a way of really focusing in on your stats and your data to give you the 10 tasks you need to do instead of the $1 tasks. Do you with me? Like, does this make sense? Okay, number one is the reality check. This is when you want to ask yourself when you are in this state of frustration and you are ingesting all this information. And by the way, let me pause and, and stop here because I didn't say this in the beginning, but I think it is really important. If you are new to Pinterest marketing, less than a year old, you are casting the widest net. You are trying to bring all the things in, figure out all the points of data, anything, any. You are looking for any feedback the platform is going to give you. If you have been on Pinterest a year or longer, you have a lot of things that come into that. I've heard people tell me stories of. I want my 2017, 2018, 2019 traffic back. Welcome to the Internet. The rest of us do too. It's not there anymore. And so I want to talk a little bit to this camp, even those who started in 2020, 21, 22. If you're one plus year more of Pinterest marketing, these are some strategies that you can use to really figure out where you do your data deep dive so that you can evaluate and benchmark and make really great decisions. Again, the $10 decision in your business, not a $1 decision. Okay, so the first step is the reality check. Is Pinterest worth it to you before you even dive into the stats? It is a sit in front of the computer, sit in front of your dashboards and ask yourself, is this still worth it to me? Don't let your emotions drive that analysis. The frustration will be there. I understand. But is Pinterest aligning with the business goals that you have? Do you believe that the people you are trying to serve still exist on that platform? Do you believe that over time that is still going to drive an exceptional amount of traffic to your business? And when I say exceptional, I mean probably more than the other, right? In comparison to the whole pie chart that you have of marketing in your business, is this a significant piece of the pie or is it tiny and maybe you could let it go? Who knows, right? I'm assuming if you're listening to this podcast, you are going to see Pinterest as a bigger piece of the pie. Okay, then think about your strategy for Pinterest. Does it align with your business goals? Are you using it to make sales? Are you using it to grow your email list? Are you using it to drive traffic to your website? Do you still see alignment there? Then you can even benchmark that with your original goals. Maybe your original goal was brand awareness and now it is email list growth. Are you treating Pinterest as a nice to have? Like, it's sure I'm going to throw it into the marketing bucket that I have. Or is it a core marketing channel for you that you do want to invest in? I would argue that less is more here. If you are looking at your whole pie chart of marketing and you're like, I want TikTok, I want Facebook, I want Instagram, I want SEO and I want LinkedIn and none of those you feel like you've really mastered, that's going to be really tough to keep all of those as a core marketing channel. I've had Joe Polizzi on this podcast before. He has Content Inc. And he always shares that less platforms are way better for your business than being in all the places. And I would agree. And mastering one at a time, that has been very, very strategic here at Simplepen Media. When I started, my core marketing channel was my website and was my email list and then third was Facebook. Fourth was actually Pinterest. At the time I only focused on those. And then once Facebook was really up and running, I focused more on Pinterest and then that was up and running. And then later I focused on Instagram and then actually later I pulled back Facebook. I let go of a Facebook group of 20,000 people. It was not serving where our business was at at the time. I've had people ask me to buy this Facebook group. I've had people hound me for it. Nope, it is one you can't sell because that's against terms of service. But the biggest reason is is that it wasn't a part of our core marketing anymore. It was a nice to have. It felt really good to say that we had a Facebook group with 20,000 people in it, but it wasn't serving the purpose that we had with our company anymore. So I made the decision to turn it off so that I could focus on other areas of my business, which at the time we switched to YouTube. So making decisions in your business when it comes to your core marketing channels will change over time. And if you're listening to this, and this is jogging some ideas for you where you say, you know What? I think that I need to let go of Pinterest for a little bit. That is fine. You can take a break from it until you come back. But I would give you this tiny, tiny bit of caution is that don't do it out of frustration. Do it out of. You've looked at the data, you've looked at the numbers, and you know you're okay with letting it go. We're gonna talk about that in just a second. So as you're listening or as you're watching, maybe that's something you can take a mental note of. If you're walking or driving, just think about it like, okay, what is my goal in 2025? Going into Q4 for Pinterest as it fits into my marketing? Have that in your frame of reference. Now let's do the data deep dive. Emotions will lie to you, but data tells the truth. And we've talked about that a couple times before on this podcast with guests that I've have, that I have had. I am a, a little bit of a go with my gut, like, oh, I think this is really good. Let's just, you know, keep doing it. But data is non emotional. So once I get into the numbers, it actually tells me the truth. So a couple things. Whatever analytics you use, I use Google Analytics, I use Pinterest analytics, and I use Microsoft Clarity. And I actually am going to do a podcast upcoming on Microsoft Clarity because I really like it. It's a free tool. I'm not an affiliate for it. I really, I love it because it helps me see the numbers in a better way. And I find, I don't know if this is you at all, but I find actually as I get into the numbers, I tend to like, glaze over and I'm like, I don't even know what I'm looking at anymore. So Microsoft Clarity really helps me not do that. Okay, you want to choose your window of time. Three, six months, one year. What time frame matters to you? Then you want to pick one analytics platform. Are we going to go with Pinterest Analytics? Are we going to go with GA4? You want to choose one and the. You can cross compare them, you can benchmark them against each other, but I like sticking with one because then it allows you to just follow those numbers, right? And then you want to document them. I, we here at Simplepen just use simple Google sheets. I know there are people that can probably whip up something with AI and pulling in stats all the time. Those people are mega smart. And I'm not that person, I need to look at them, I need to put them into a spreadsheet. And my basic metrics for Pinterest are saves, which is an engagement indicator. It's something that Pinterest has said is always important. I find saves really, really great because not only does it share it, tell me that the person was interested in it, but that they're going to check on it later. Right. They're going to come back and revisit it and then you want to identify from there. Actually, I'm going to back up a little bit. Saves is important, but also outbound clicks is really important to me and impressions is definitely a reach indicator. I do like to look at that. So saves, outbound clicks and impressions are my top three. If you have another metric that's really important to you, then I highly suggest you go look at that well as well, then you can identify your top 10 traffic driving pins. Okay, that was a lot. So I'm going to take a break here. Okay, not too long of a break. All right, now that we have these points of data, right. I want you to look for any outliers, right? Like maybe when you're tracking saves, you see a pin that has a ton of saves on it or you see a pin that has a ton of outbound clicks. And note when I say ton of this is benchmarked in comparison to the rest of your traffic. This is not my traffic. This is not other people's traffic. This is really something that feels like an outlier. And I want you to ask some of these questions. And these are questions we ask when we are looking at our clients information and we're wondering why something is up or why something is down. Does your business have natural ups and downs? That is seasonality. Okay, were there any Pinterest algorithm updates? Now I want to pause here and say there is always going to be speculation about when there is an algorithm update, who has it affected. There are literally algorithm updates all the time on every platform. So some people might have been impacted by these, some people might not have. So I don't want you to hold too tightly to this because I think real quickly trying to super sleuth an algorithm Update quickly becomes a $1 task. And now you've spent a whole hour reading through Facebook groups, reading emails to try to figure out was there an algorithm update. Okay, so I'm just a little bit of caution there. And then we have technical glitches. Did I have any website issues? Do I have any broken links? Have I had any tracking problems? Has There been anything interesting when it comes to Pinterest tracking problems? In fact, we had a GA4 issue this summer with Pinterest. We where in June, suddenly traffic was not tracking on Pinterest and it was moved towards like direct. But we couldn't see it in the Pinterest traffic area. And all of a sudden it looked like overnight there was no Pinterest traffic. So we have to evaluate whether or not some of our stats have that playing into it. The other thing you want to consider is did you do anything different when it comes to your pinning? Had you changed anything? Did you pin like some seasonal stuff that you don't normally pin? Did you change up your images? Did you change up different keywords? Maybe you just like did it accidental. These are what we call content changes. And then there is some external factors like AI, like economic changes, maybe there's new competitors. So factoring in seasonality, platform, tech, content and external is really, really important. As you do what we call the oddities audit. What contributed to all these things happening? Okay, and the next step is coming to a verdict. Now we make our data driven decisions. Now we take and we look all this information and we go, okay, what did this reveal? Was there up, down or steady? Did any of these trends align with our business goals? And whatever we have done before or not done before, was the effort worth the result? I realized that this podcast is getting a little bit into the weeds and I want to be really cognizant of it because as you're listening, I want to give you those high level things that help you set aside time. And I think that's really where I'm going with this, is that I want you to first take and evaluate $10 task, $1 task. And then I want you to evaluate looking at all the different like stats that you want to track right after you've set your goal. I missed that in there. Setting your Pinterest goal, like, why am I still using it? What is my strategy? What is my philosophy in using this platform? And why then going into the data to help guide you, to give you information about what's working and what's not working and then taking into consideration the oddities so that it's not like you're just looking through a lens of well, this is normal Pinterest time and these are the stats and the numbers that we should have. But like maybe you changed up your branding, maybe you changed up your website, who. There could be a lot of different things. And then you get to that point of making conclusions and you come to these outcomes of Pinterest is still worth it. Okay, what are the things that I do need to do next? Because all of this information up until now tells me Pinterest is still worth it. Or maybe your other outcome is Pinterest needs adjustment. I need to modify some of my strategy. I need to leverage Pinterest trends, I need to leverage weekly insights. Or three, Pinterest isn't worth it right now. So asking yourself, how do we pivot? How do we take a step back? Or how do we take a break? I've heard of a lot of people who in the past have taken a break, and Pinterest traffic has worked for them. Hasn't been the best. Right. But it's still working in the background. And it is okay to say Pinterest isn't working for my business. Or maybe you're a seasonal business and you know, you have to put the majority of your effort into Pinterest only during one quarter or you might find that your resources might be spent elsewhere, better spent elsewhere. So I want you to think through those things. I gave you a lot today, and I hope I didn't confuse anybody. I felt like in my brain, too, while I was talking, I was going through some of these things. And it's very hard to teach sometimes in a podcast because I'm talking to a microphone and you're listening on the other end. But there's a lot of things that we could dialogue about that we could talk about. But I really think the main thing I want to leave you with is while the noise is happening and while you feel yourself getting worked up, or you read an email or you read a Facebook post about the doom and gloom or. Or about what you should do Next. Or about 10 tips. Before you follow those 10 tips, before you decide that it's not worth it for you, I want you to look at the numbers and I want you to cross compare it with what your goals are. And when you do that, you make a really good decision where you can stand back and say, this was the best decision for my business, or when it comes to Pinterest marketing. And I would argue you could overlay this on a ton of different things. You could do it when it comes to email marketing, you could do it when it comes to Instagram, you could do it with a lot of different things. Know your numbers, ask the oddities question, and then determine what the next right step is for you. Don't Forget we're offering $50 off a strategy call. You can get the code below in the description and I'd love to hear from you. If you are on YouTube, let me know in the comments. Like how are you working through when you hit this point of frustration with Pinterest? When you hear a lot of rumblings about things being down or things not working, what do you do? What is your go to? And if you're listening in your podcast app, you can email us. Hello simplepennmedia.com we read every single email. Again, that's hello@simplepath pin media.com we want to know what things you're working through because we want to help support you and guide you on every step in your Pinterest marketing journey. All righty. Thanks so much for listening and watching.