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Pinterest Pivot Update: Growth in a New Niche, Seasonal Challenges, and CTR Surprises 😵‍💫

This is a newsletter I sent to my subscribers last week. I publish the newsletters on my website; however, I edit out some information from the public versions.

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Time to see how my Pinterest niche pivot is doing!

I published my very first post in the new niche on June 16th – that’s about 3 months ago now (feels both like yesterday and forever, you know?)

In that time, I’ve cranked out 320 posts and created almost 900 pins – the newest posts haven’t been pinned yet.

And honestly? The results are pretty encouraging 🤩 But let me break down the actual numbers for you…

I turned this whole Pinterest update (well, except the Journey Status Update, which is private for my subscribers 🤗) into a video. You can actually see me talking – or just listen while you’re doing other stuff:

⏰ Timing is Everything: My Seasonal Content Decision

Right now, it’s Halloween season, and my old niche pins that are relevant are slowly taking off.

But I made a strategic decision: I’m not doing any Halloween content in the new niche. Instead, I’m focusing entirely on the next season, which is absolutely huge, and the RPMs are excellent. The more pins for it, the better! 🤤

And here’s what’s happening with the growth:

👉 The Good News #1: The whole new niche part of my Pinterest account is definitely growing.

☝☝☝ I left out some details from my original newsletter. If you’d like to receive these updates in your Inbox in unedited form, sign up:

👉 The Good News #2: The seasonal subniche in the new niche part of my Pinterest account is also growing.

☝☝☝ I left out some details from my original newsletter. If you’d like to receive these updates in your Inbox in unedited form, sign up:

👉 The Reality Check: My whole account is currently stagnating after going down.

Those glorious 10 million monthly views I used to brag about?

Gone. 😭

But it’s Ok… This is a part of the transition to the new niche: The new pins are slowly picking up while the old pins age and stop showing in the Pinterest feed

🔍 The CTR Reality Check

Another reality check: For those 900 new pins, my average outbound CTR is only *.**% and it varies from *.**% to *.**%.

☝☝☝ I left out some details from my original newsletter. If you’d like to receive these updates in your Inbox in unedited form, sign up:

It’s not a lot and I would definitely like to improve it…

Which brings me to my next experiment: trying a completely new AI image generation platform to see if better visuals can bump up those numbers.

💰 The Visual Upgrade: Is Better Worth More?

With all this volume I’m pushing out, I’ve had to get smart about my image creation process.

I usually rely on MidJourney for beautiful, realistic images, but MJ doesn’t have an API 🤷‍♀️ So I cannot plug it into my custom software that does all the heavy lifting.

But for this high-volume project, I need that automation. The volume is just too crazy to do manually.

Currently, I’m using Runware to create my pin images, but I want to try Ideogram.

Here’s why I’m considering the switch:

Runware: 

✅ Much more affordable

✅ Fast batch generation speed

✅ Decent quality for volume projects

❌ Images can look too “plastic” and unnatural

Ideogram: 

✅ Better image quality and realism

✅ Wider range of artistic styles

❌ Higher cost per image

❌ Slower batch generation times

It’s basically a trade-off between cost efficiency and visual quality.

With those CTR numbers staring me in the face, quality might just win this battle. I’m hoping better images might help bring up that bottom 0.3% CTR 🤞

📊 The Bottom Line

So here’s where we are: three months in, the pivot is clearly working, but it’s not all smooth sailing.

Growth in the new niche looks promising, the overall account is still flat, and CTR is the next big challenge I need to solve.

My hope is that by upgrading visuals, I can lift that bottom *.**% CTR and really scale the growth.

🔮 What’s Next

In the next newsletter, which my subscribers have received already 😉, I’ll show you exactly how I use PinnerAnalytics, a tool for better Pinterest analytics, to identify new topics to work on.

Here’s the thing about Pinterest – they only keep your detailed analytics for 6 months. After that? Poof, it’s gone. But PinnerAnalytics saves all your data forever and reveals insights Pinterest won’t show you.

It’s my secret weapon for finding content gaps in my new niche – and it might just be the key to getting those 10 mln monthly views back up 😋

🤔 I’m Curious…

Are you dealing with seasonal content challenges too? How do you balance creating for current trends vs. planning ahead? Hit reply and let me know.

Talk soon, Nadya

P.S. That *.**% to *.**% CTR range with a *.**% average is honestly frustrating. Pinterest feels like such a guessing game – you think you’ve cracked the code, then half your pins flop while others randomly take off. Here’s hoping better images can at least get me consistently above *.**%.

This is a newsletter I sent to my subscribers last week. I publish the newsletters on my website; however, I edit out some information from the public versions.

If you’d like to receive these updates in your Inbox in unedited form, sign up for my newsletter: