Here’s our favourite Pinterest statistic of 2019: Pinterest users are twice as likely to say their time on the platform is well-spent.
Lately it feels like everyone’s doing a social media detox—from Ariana Grande to the 42 percent of Americans who took a break from Facebook in 2018.
But Pinterest doesn’t have the scandals or the congressional hearings. It bills itself as the platform where people reconnect with themselves, not shouting politicians (or relatives shouting about politicians). Pinterest is for you. And your ideal vision of a future self.
Incidentally, Pinterest is also the search engine where you find the things you need to buy in order to become that ideal self.
In other words, Pinterest users are planning for the future, which means they’re in discovery mode. And the numbers show that these folks engage with branded content because they actively appreciate it.
We’ve collected a list of 23 statistics about our favourite scrappy scrapbooking platform that is so inspiring you’ll want to tackle your Pinterest marketing strategy all over again.
Or at least start a board about it.
Pinterest user statistics
Pinterest has long battled a reputation as a little sister among the social media giants.
But actually it’s the fourth-most-popular social media platform in America. It outranks Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitter and WhatsApp.
So who, exactly, is using Pinterest?
1. 250 million people use Pinterest every month
That number (from September 2018) includes 77.4 million people in America. Which is over 5 million more than the year before.
In fact, according to eMarketer, Pinterest added more American users than Facebook and Twitter combined between 2017 and 2018.
Source: eMarketer
2. Pinterest reaches 83 percent of US women aged 25-54
According to Pew Research, only 41 percent of American women report using Pinterest. So what’s up with the other 42 percent? Where’s this exposure coming from?
Comscore doesn’t give further details on the methodology behind this number, but let’s take a wild guess: Google image search. Pinterest-based images dominate Google’s results.
When brands publish their content on the platform, they should be aware that there’s a good chance non-users will see those images, too.
3. 50 percent of new sign-ups in 2018 were men
Yes, Pinterest has always owned its appeal to women. It calls them “Deciders” because they control over 80 percent of household spending in the US.
Still, does the platform yearn for the male gaze? A little.
Back in 2016, only 40 percent of new users were men, and 25 percent of users overall were men. Now Pinterest proudly reports that 38 percent of American dads are Pinterest users, browsing DIY projects, home decor, the outdoors, etc.
Meanwhile, eMarketer predicts Pinterest will have a 30/70 gender split by 2022.
4. 80 percent of new sign-ups are from outside the US
As well, about half of existing users are not American. Looking at desktop traffic in late 2018, Pinterest’s top five countries are America, Brazil, India, Turkey and Russia.
For some best practices on convincing these users to follow your boards in particular, check out our post on how to gain more Pinterest followers.
5. 34 percent of Americans aged 18 to 49 use Pinterest
According to Pew Research, who conducted telephone polls in early 2018, the platform is most popular with people who are under 49.
Source: Statista
6. High-income and educated US households are twice as likely to use Pinterest as low-income and less educated US households
According to Pew Research, a rising tax bracket means a rising likelihood of Pinterest use. For instance, 39 percent of people in households worth $75,000 USD or more per year use Pinterest.
Likewise, people with some college education are twice as likely (40 percent of Americans) as high school graduates (18 percent of Americans) to use Pinterest.
Check out the full data set, here:
Source: Pew Research
Pinterest usage statistics
To engage with Pinterest’s users let’s look at how people actually use the platform.
One way of looking at it: rather than capturing the present moment or getting nostalgic over the past, Pinterest’s users are planning for the future.
Another way of looking at it: Pinterest is as much a search engine as a social media platform.
7. 75 percent increase in Pins in under two years
In early 2017, Pinterest reported that its users had pinned 100 billion images. By September 2018 that number jumped to 175 billion.
For context: 0.5 billion people have visited the Mall of America since it opened in 1992.
8. 80 percent of Pinterest users are on mobile
Pinners are continuing to use Pinterest on the go. That includes a 45 percent increase in mobile searches in 2017.
9. 85 percent of women users use Pinterest to plan “life moments”
This is according to a study Pinterest commissioned to better understand its American women users aged 25-54. Only 53 percent of those women said they use Facebook to plan these moments, and 44 percent use Instagram.
What are “life moments,” according to Pinterest? Big ones might include decorating a new home (43 percent), or going on vacation (50 percent). Small ones are more like meals (67 percent), gym routines, and party planning.
Just be aware: Pinterest users start planning twice as early as people who use other platforms.
Source: Pinterest
10. 98 percent of users go out and try the ideas they find on Pinterest
Compare that to the 71 percent average across social media platforms.
While Facebook trumpets its efforts to make feeds less passive and more engaging, Pinterest owns a natural bent towards inspiration (and motivation).
11. Visual searches on Pinterest have more than doubled in one year
Visual search is growing strong, and Pinterest is at the forefront. The platform’s Lens tool hosted 250 million visual searches in February 2017, and that number increased to 600 million in February 2018.
Meanwhile, 60 percent of millennials are on board with a tool that can answer the question, “What kind of shoes are those?”
Source: eMarketer
Pinterest for business statistics
Pinterest is for shoppers. Whether your product is an exfoliating mask or an app, your Pinterest strategy is crucial to your sales funnel.
How can we state so boldly that Pinners are ready to buy? Look at these numbers:
12. 59 percent of millennials have discovered products on Pinterest
That puts the platform on par with Instagram, as far as product discovery goes. That’s even more impressive, given that Instagram has four times as many users as Pinterest.
Source: Kleiner Perkins 2018 Internet Trends/Curalate Consumer Survey
13. 90 percent of weekly users use Pinterest to make purchase decisions
Pinterest users are evaluating options and looking for inspiration.
Whether they purchase online or offline, immediately or later, Pinterest boards are less and less a moodboard, and more and more a shopping list.
14. 55 percent of Pinners are looking specifically for products
That’s more than 4 times as many as on other platforms. Pinterest users are active and engaged: they’re not just sculpting a carefully-curated personal brand (and occasionally making an impulse-purchase from a particularly effective feed ad). They’re executing on real-world plans.
Source: Statista
15. 97 percent of Pinterest searches are unbranded
Pinterest serves 2 billion searches every month, which makes for 1.94 billion unbranded searches. Pinterest users have intention, but they’re still open-minded.
In other words, they’re in discovery mode: the ideal time to be introduced to, or reminded of, your brand.
16. 51 percent of women have been exposed to new brands on Pinterest
Yes, search is huge on Pinterest, but brand exposure also happens with organic content and a cornucopia of paid ad options.
There are a lot of ways to get your content in front of new eyes.
17. 78 percent of users say content from brands on Pinterest is useful
People appreciate ads on Pinterest. Your brand isn’t competing with content from your audience’s friends and family. Your brand’s content is what people are here to check out.
If Facebook ads are the door-to-door salesperson ringing the doorbell in the middle of a Saturday barbeque, Pinterest ads are the salesperson in the boutique who tells you that those pumps also come in highlighter yellow.
If you want help perfecting your posts, here is our handy list of Pinterest tools for business. (Pro tip: a Pinterest scheduler especially is crucial to keeping your Pins consistent and high-quality.)
18. Pinterest drives 33 percent more traffic than Facebook, proportionately
With all this talk of intangibles like exposure and sentiment, the next question is obvious: do Pinterest’s audiences take action?
Yes. They click through to shopping sites more than Facebook, Snapchat or Twitter users.
Source: Pinterest
19. Pinterest users spend 29 percent more while shopping than non-users
This is according to some Oracle Data Cloud surveys that looked at retail, consumer-packaged goods and automotive categories.
They also found that Pinterest users are 39 percent more likely to be active retail shoppers to begin with, as compared to people who don’t use Pinterest.
Pinterest advertising statistics
Here’s one subjective opinion: Pinterest’s ad offerings are among the most gracefully integrated of all social media platforms.
But this is a Pinterest stats article, so here are four objective facts:
20. Pinterest averages a $4.30 gross return for every $1 spent on ads
In terms of ROI, that’s $2 in profit for every advertising dollar, according to a 2017 study by Analytic Partners.
Apparently Pinterest outperformed all other measured marketing channels for the five retailers the study tracked. The study also found that the retailers could scale their Pinterest budget to 5 percent of their overall digital marketing budget without losing ROI.
21. Pins that feature life moments experience a 22 percent life in sales
And a 10x lift in awareness, according to Pinterest’s internal analysis in May 2018.
The platform encourages advertisers to keep content seasonal and aspirational for peak engagement.
Pinterest also noted that landing pages that match the pin (for an aesthetically consistent customer journey) experience an extra 13 percent sales lift.
(On a similar note, let’s never forget that 2014 Curalate study that found Pins without faces are repinned 23 times as much as images with faces.)
22. Pinterest is forecast to grow ad revenue by 40 percent in 2019
The company is privately held, so we don’t know for sure. (That said, it filed for an IPO in February 2019, so more data is forthcoming.)
CNBC quoted anonymous sources that said Pinterest would hit $1 billion in ad revenue in 2018, while eMarketer says the company won’t hit that mark until 2020.
Source: eMarketer
23. Pinterest ad revenue per user is lower than other social networks, but growing
Currently, Pinterest’s average advertising revenue per user is estimated to increase from $7 to $10 in 2019, placing it more on par with Snapchat ($7.81) than the likes of Facebook ($95.71 per US user) or Instagram ($69.18 per US user).
Source: eMarketer
What does this mean for marketers? Basically it comes down to potential.
The platform is still in the early stages of monetizing its user base. And as that user base keeps growing, Pinterest keeps rolling out new ad tools (like promoted video at max width, which is now available to all advertisers).
This means that for advertisers the playing field is wide open.
