Summary of “Leveraging Paid and Non-Paid Pinterest Traffic” – Simple Pin Podcast

Podcast Title: Simple Pin Podcast: Simple ways to boost your business using Pinterest
Host: Kate Ahl
Episode: Leveraging Paid and Non-Paid Pinterest Traffic
Release Date: February 5, 2025

Introduction

In the February 5, 2025 episode of the Simple Pin Podcast, host Kate Ahl delves into the dynamics of Pinterest marketing, specifically contrasting paid ads with organic traffic. Aimed at business owners and marketers, the episode provides actionable insights on when to utilize paid strategies versus organic methods to maximize traffic and conversions on Pinterest.

The Decline of Organic Pinterest Traffic

Kate begins by addressing a noticeable trend: the decline in organic Pinterest traffic since its peak between 2017 and 2021. She acknowledges concerns from content creators and businesses wondering how to regain lost traffic, posing the critical question:

“Should I run a Pinterest ad to get traffic?”
— Kate Ahl [04:30]

Kate advises against using Pinterest ads solely for driving traffic, emphasizing that organic Pinterest marketing remains a viable, albeit slower, growth strategy with pins having a longevity of over 13 months.

Ideal Candidates for Organic Pinterest Marketing

According to Kate, organic Pinterest marketing is suitable for a broad spectrum of users, including:

Content Creators and Bloggers: Individuals focusing on non-paid strategies.
Sellers of Physical and Digital Products: Businesses targeting both B2B and B2C markets.

However, she notes exceptions:

“Pinterest is a little bit tougher for local establishments like chiropractors or hairdressers.”
— Kate Ahl [09:45]

For local businesses, platforms like Instagram, Yelp, or Google Ads may offer more effective targeting.

Exception: Local Photographers can leverage Pinterest’s global audience through tailored organic strategies.

Who Should Utilize Paid Pinterest Ads

Kate outlines that paid Pinterest ads are ideal for those who are selling products or driving specific conversions. Key indicators include:

Clear Conversion Goals: Whether growing an email list or selling a product.
Measurable Outcomes: Ability to track leads and sales directly attributed to ads.

She provides a practical example:

“If I want to grow my email list through something that I give somebody for free, then I would run a Pinterest ad to this particular checklist with the hopes of getting a conversion to that.”
— Kate Ahl [12:15]

This approach forms a part of a broader email funnel, guiding leads from initial contact to final conversion.

Who Should Not Use Paid Pinterest Ads

Kate cautions against using Pinterest ads for:

Affiliate Marketing Income: Difficulty in tracking revenues due to variable traffic sources.
Ad-Supported Websites: Complex user experiences due to multiple ads can deter conversions.

She shares an insight from a Pinterest representative:

“We don't want to run Pinterest ads to your website if you have a bunch of ads. It's too confusing for the user.”
— Kate Ahl [18:40]

This underscores the importance of a streamlined user experience to ensure high conversion rates.

Integrating Organic and Paid Strategies

Kate emphasizes the synergy between organic and paid Pinterest strategies. By combining both, businesses can achieve scalable growth and increased revenue streams. She illustrates this with a client case study:

“When we pulled a report, we realized that they had over $28,000 in reported organic revenue and $61,000 in assisted revenue from customers engaging with both ads and organic pins.”
— Kate Ahl [22:10]

This demonstrates that leveraging both strategies not only enhances visibility but also significantly boosts sales.

Case Study: Successful Integration

Kate shares the success story of a client in the home design space:

Revenue: Over $412,000 with a 5x return on ad spend.
Organic Revenue: $28,000 not previously leveraged.
Assisted Revenue: $61,000 from combined ad and organic interactions.

After optimizing their Pinterest boards and content strategy, the client experienced amplified growth, underscoring the effectiveness of integrating paid and organic efforts.

Addressing Common Concerns

Addressing skepticism, Kate confronts the belief that paid ads cannibalize organic traffic:

“I have not done enough data and enough studies on that to know if that's true. That is not true in my experience.”
— Kate Ahl [27:50]

While acknowledging that experiences vary, she encourages listeners to experiment and analyze based on their unique business contexts.

Conclusion and Takeaways

Kate wraps up the episode by reaffirming the value of both organic and paid Pinterest strategies:

Organic Marketing: Offers long-term traffic with enduring pin performance.
Paid Ads: Drives immediate conversions and can be highly profitable when aligned with clear goals.

She encourages businesses to test and integrate both approaches to discover what works best for their specific needs.

For listeners seeking further support, Kate offers resources:

Pinterest Ads Management: Professional handling by her team.
Consultations: Guided setup and strategic advice.
Free Ads Checklist: Available at simplepinmedia.com ads.

Engage with Kate:

“Have you tried paid ads on Pinterest? What was your experience?”
— Kate Ahl [30:20]

She invites listeners to share their experiences via Instagram or YouTube comments, fostering a community of shared learning and growth.

Final Thoughts

This episode of the Simple Pin Podcast serves as a comprehensive guide for businesses navigating the complexities of Pinterest marketing. By delineating when to employ paid versus organic strategies and showcasing real-world success, Kate Ahl equips her audience with the knowledge to effectively harness Pinterest’s potential for business growth.

Transcript

Kate All (0:00)

Hey there. We are going to talk today about Pinterest ads and organic traffic or non paid traffic from Pinterest versus paid traffic. Try to say that five times fast. We're going to ask the question who should be using paid ads on Pinterest? Who shouldn't, what you should be using it for and how you can put the two together to get even more traffic. If you are listening to the Simple Pin podcast on your player, make sure you subscribe. If you are watching on YouTube. Welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here. Don't forget to like and subscribe if after listening to this episode you get super curious about Pinterest ads. We are here to support you in a couple of ways. One, you can hire us to manage your Pinterest ads for you. We just take it off your plate. We do everything. Or if you want to set it up yourself but you need a guide to walk you through, then hire us to consult with you for an hour and we will help you set it up correctly and then send you on your way. You can also come back and do another consult later to look at the results. Or you can get our free checklist below of how to set up your Pinterest ad. It is not exhaustive, I just want you to know it is a checklist. So if you're somewhat familiar with Pinterest ads and you want a guide to make sure you are checking all the boxes, grab this freebie below in the description and walk through setting up a Pinterest ad yourself. But remember, if you get stuck, we are here to help. You're listening to the Simple Pen podcast Pinterest for business advice that goes down smooth and easy. Here's your host, Kate All. So it is no mystery around the Pinterest universe that traffic from Pinterest has decreased over the years. In fact, we saw this huge high high high in 2017 through really 2021 just to see a long decrease into 2025. And some people who have only done organic Pinterest marketing non paid have asked themselves how do I get that traffic back? In fact, I think a lot of people are asking themselves those questions when it relates to to any platform out there. But one of the things they go to is should I run a Pinterest ad to get traffic? And I'm going to tell you why that is not a good idea. But if you want to run Pinterest ads to sell a product or drive a conversion, we're going to talk about how that might be a great idea. So let's start with that. Who is the ideal candidate for organic Pinterest marketing or what we would refer to as non paid bloggers or content creators, sellers of both physical and digital products. Business to business owners, meaning you are marketing to other business owners and business to consumer owners. Pretty much everybody out there can leverage non paid marketing on Pinterest. It is a slower growth over time, but a pin has a shelf life of over 13 months or longer. So when you start to invest in Pinterest, you will actually reap the results for years to come. The only time I say that Pinterest is not a good fit, meaning non paid marketing is not a good fit, are those who are in local establishments. Think chiropractors, hairdressers. It's a little harder to target people on Pinterest because it's such a global audience. I would say if you're really trying to market to your local market. So stick with Instagram, stick with Yelp or try to find Google Ads or Google Business. That's really a good fit for you. Pinterest is a little bit tougher. Now where there's that gray area is with photographers who are doing local photography. That is definitely a place where you can get in front of people on Pinterest through non paid marketing strategies. Okay, so then who is ideal for paid marketing on Pinterest for Pinterest ads? There is one key factor here that you need to put into this equation. You have to be selling something or driving a conversion. So here's an example. If I want to grow my email list through something that I give somebody for free. So let's say I want to target people who are interested in Pinterest ads with my free checklist that I just talked about a minute ago. Then I would run a Pinterest ad to this particular checklist with the hopes of getting a conversion to that. Now here's the key. That's just step one in my quote unquote funnel, right? I say quote unquote funnel because it's such a word that's thrown around. There is the Pinterest funnel, there is the buying funnel. So I'm going to say this is my email funnel and this is how I drive conversions downline to either our consults or people hiring us for Pinterest ads management. So I am looking to get a lead off of my Pinterest ad. I have a thing that I can actually measure, right? Or if I'm selling a particular product. If I have, I don't know, a skincare company And I have this amazing serum and I try to sell this serum to people. Then you're going to kind of back your funnel up into your Pinterest ad as opposed to your email where you would target on Pinterest for awareness, for conversion, for consideration. Those are like the three levels that you can do with Pinterest ads. So the person who needs to run Pinterest ads is somebody who's driving actually a conversion. So who are Pinterest ads not for? This is not for someone who is solely making money off of affiliate income or ad income. The dollars don't line up. They are better suited for non paid organic Pinterest marketing. Here's why it's not a good fit is that you never know who is coming to your website from Pinterest on any given day and you can't track it to make the same amount as your ad income. It's just too many variables. Right. And the same with affiliate income as well. It's a little bit tougher. Even though it looks like it's driving a conversion. Those are two ways that I would not use Pinterest ads. Too many variables, too out of control, too hard to really get data on. And also this was floating around probably like six months ago. A content creator had contacted Pinterest and there was, through this long conversation, this Pinterest rep had said something along the lines of, I wouldn't even recommend you use Pinterest if you have a lot of ads on your site. It was very confusing, hence why I'm saying it. And you're like, why does this sound so confusing? Because it was confusing. This was a Pinterest ads rep who was essentially saying, you don't want to run ads to your website if you have a bunch of ads. You don't want to run Pinterest ads to your website if you have a bunch of ads. Like it's too confusing for the user. You're trying to drive them towards one conversion. And if they get to your website, they have a pop up for your email, they have a pop up for your video, they hit the jump to recipe button and your whole site moves all over the place because there's all these different ads. Now what you have is another negative consumer experience and chances are they're going to click away. So you've lost that money that you've invested in your Pinterest ad. And so what Pinterest is saying is that's not a good user experience and we don't even want to approve that ad because we know it's not going to work for you. So we're actually putting in the gates that say, don't waste your money. It's not worth it. So this was taken to be misunderstood as Pinterest didn't want anybody to use organic traffic to drive traffic to their website, which it was not. It was solely in this whole thing of we want to create a good user experience for those who are running Pinterest ads. Plus we want to make sure that your conversion is pretty high. So that being said, Pinterest will say, do not run Pinterest ads to your website. If you have a bunch of ads and you're trying to get ad income, it's just not a good idea. I feel like sometimes that's not a good, a good enough answer for people. And I know there's people who have done the math. In fact, I was talking to somebody the other day and they said they were sketching out the math and it just doesn't work. So that being said, all the questions that I get, should I run paid ads on Pinterest for traffic? The answer is no. Okay, well, here's the sweet spot. So now we've qualified those who are ready to run Pinterest ads are they're selling a product or driving a conversion. And those who are not going to do paid ads are those who are doing affiliate marketing and ads on their website. Okay, so we are going to take this person who is selling products driving a conversion, and we are going to marry them with organic traffic. So the best way to illustrate this is I'm going to tell you a story. So one of our ads clients, we've been working them for over a year, working with them for over a year. And in that year, we have maintained a 5x on return on ad spend with over $412,000 in revenue. They have been crushing it. They have a great product, they have a great funnel, we have great campaigns. It is set up really, really well. So when we pulled a report from Inside Conversion Insights, and this is ins. Inside Pinterest, when you are a product seller and you set up all those details for your catalog and all of that, you can get access to Conversion Insights. And over the last 90 days, we realized that they had over 28,000 reported in organic revenue that they weren't even leveraging at all, meaning. Well, in addition, they also had 61,000 in what's called assisted revenue. This is from checkouts of customers who ended up buying after they engaged with both an ad and an organic pin. So just $61,000 alone in revenue when those two work together. Now, if your brain is like slightly fraying at this point, here's a way to just distill it. We're running ads only, but we surface this really awesome thing that says, oh my gosh, we are making money off of these people that we are not targeting with ads. And we're making money off these people that we are targeting with both an ad and organic traffic. But they weren't really doing a whole lot with their non paid organic traffic. They needed some updates to their boards, they needed a content strategy. There was really a gap there that if we filled it, this organic revenue assisted revenue could grow and amplify the overall amount that they were making. They have a product, it's a really good product in the home design space and their Pinterest audience is ideal for them. In fact, they started with us and then their agency convinced them that Pinterest sucks and so they left. And then they came back because they realized Pinterest was so good for them because they were getting organic traffic. If you have a product on Pinterest and if you are driving a conversion and you have not leveraged paid ads on Pinterest, I would highly encourage you to get curious about it in 2025. How can you marry the two together to create scalable growth? And there's those skeptics who will tell me, Kate, when I run a Pinterest ad, all of my organic traffic goes away. I have not done enough data and enough studies on that to know if that's true. That is not true in my experience. But I also. One experience doesn't dictate broad strokes for everybody. It doesn't make it true for everybody. But here's what I will tell you. This person who is spending money and then also leveraging organic is hitting the jackpot. They are making more than they are spending and that is the goal. So it is worth you testing out and seeing if that's true for you. Seeing if you can actually get more from Pinterest in a quicker way than you could with organic traffic. Again, if you've been inspired, click the link below to book a call with our team to either have a set up Pinterest ads for you or to do a consult for you so that you can set it up on your own. And we can guide you through the process and give you our tips and strategies along the way. That's a one hour call with our ads director. She's amazing. She's going to give you a lot of tips. Or our free ads checklist that you can find below just by going to simplepinmedia.com ads. You can grab it real quick, read through it, see if it piques your curiosity. Okay, I'm super curious. You can either DM me on Instagram or you can comment on YouTube. Have you tried paid ads on Pinterest? Have you tried Pinterest ads? What was your experience? What was your takeaways? And before you give me your experience, when did you do it? Because ads have changed so much in 2024 that I think if you had tried paid ads in 2020, 2021, it's a drastically different experience right now. Alrighty. Thanks so much for following along. Don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe on your podcast. Apparently.