Pinterest Trends Tool: What is it, and How Do I Use it?

The Pinterest Trends tool is a free and simple resource for researching the latest search trends on Pinterest.

Let's take a look at what it is, how to use it, and how it can help you find new ways to market your creative business online.

See the day's top trending searches on the Pinterest Trends home page.

This tool shows you how popular a keyword is relative to other keywords on the Pinterest search engine. It will also show you how popular search terms were over the last year, so you'll know when people are interested in and pinning specific topics.

You can easily, "learn when people start searching for various topics and what content is popular on Pinterest." according to Pinterest's Trends tool help page.

You can also see the day's top searches for popular Pinterest categories like fashion and food.

When you check out the Pinterest Trends home page you'll immediately see what's trending on the platform today.

You can get a broad look at the hottest trending searches for the day along with trending searches within popular topics including fashion, food & drink, beauty, and home. Then you can dig into this powerful tool to get a closer look at specific seasonal trends and popular keywords relevant to your business.

How to Use the Pinterest Trends Tool

Choose the relevant country, and type the keyword you want to research into the search box.

To explore a specific topic, just choose the country you want to research and enter a term into the search bar. It's really that simple.

Get Country-Specific Data

You can research the top Pinterest trends for the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom. Just select the country you want to explore.

There will often be overlaps in searches that are popular in the three locations. However, every time I've compared the day's trending searches in each location, there have been some clear differences in trends in each country.

It's helpful to check the trends specific to the location where your customers live.

Example: Trending searches that vary by country

Below, you'll see a comparison of the trending searches in the United States vs. Canada leading up to Father's Day. Notice, in the U.S., there's a trending Father's Day-related keyword in Spanish. In Canada, there's a trending Father's Day-related keyword in French.

In the U.S., before Father's Day, a Spanish language search term related to the holiday was trending: "feliz dia del padre frases"

On the same day, in Canada, a French search term related to the holiday was trending: "fete des peres"

See a Year's Worth of Pinterest Search Trends

The Pinterest Trends tool provides a lot more data than a typical trend report.

It will show you when your customers are searching for a topic. Just type your keyword into the search box and hit enter. You'll see a helpful graph that shows the relative popularity of that keyword over the last twelve months.

If you know what your Pinterest audience is searching for and when, you can plan your work schedule, product development, and business promotion so you're ready with what your customers want when they want it.

If you know what your Pinterest audience is searching for and when, you can plan your work schedule, launch new products at the best time, and build top trends into your business promotion.

The Pinterest Trends tool lets you be ready to offer customers what they want when they want it.

Combine that information with retail trend predictions, and some Pinterest keyword research, and you'll have a good sense of the crafts that will sell well, backed by research.

People start searching Pinterest for Christmas present ideas in August!

You might not be thrilled about the thought of working on Christmas in July. But, while the peak time for Christmas gift-related searches is in November, you can see that Pinterest users are already starting to look for "Christmas present ideas" on Pinterest in August.

If your customers buy your products as gifts, Pinterest Trends makes it clear that summer really is the time to get working on online holiday shopping promotions. 

Compare Up to 4 Search Terms

The Pinterest Trends tool lets you add up to four different terms on a graph, so you can compare how popular each term is over time and relative to each other.

That information can help you decide where to focus your efforts.

You already know Christmas is a huge gift-giving season that's important to small business owners. If you compare the popularity of keywords for other gift-giving occasions to your "Christmas present ideas" results, you'll get a rough idea of how popular other holidays are compared with Christmas.

Compare a topic you know is popular with other topics to judge the relative popularity of the other topics. Here, we know Christmas gift-giving is popular (the blue line), so we've compared it with birthday (the green line) and Valentine's Day (the orange line) gift-related searches.

If you wanted to create a promotion tied to spring gift-giving, you could compare the popularity for different springtime gift-giving events from the past year to see which is most popular.

That information can help you decide what event has potential for the most sales, where you want to focus your efforts, and the best times to launch promotions.

Pinterest Trends shows that Mother's Day gift-related searches (the green line) are more popular than other gift-giving events in the spring.

Be aware of quirks in how people search.

You might notice I didn't use an apostrophe in searches for "mothers day gift" and "fathers day gift." It pains me to type those words without apostrophes, but that's how people - even grammar nerds - often search.

Searching "mother's day gift" vs. "mothers day gift" will yield very different results on the Pinterest Trends tool. Just be aware of little quirks like that when you're doing your research.

The results are quite different when you look up "mother's" (the purple line) vs. "mothers" (the blue line).

Get Suggestions for Related Keywords

1. Autocomplete suggestions in the search bar

Start typing a keyword into the search box, and suggested terms will pop up. These suggested terms are helpful in a couple of ways.

The number of available keywords in Pinterest Tools is currently somewhat limited. I assume it will grow over time to include more long-tail keywords. For now, you need use the autocomplete suggestions to search.

If your keyword isn't suggested, it's not currently in the Pinterest Tools database.

Start typing in the search bar, and autocomplete will suggest several popular, related terms from the Pinterest Trends tool database.

Autocomplete suggestions can help you find alternative keywords and new opportunities.

Your customers might use different terms than you would use. Suggestions in the search box will show you the language your customers use to look for the items you want to promote.

Also, your target audience might be searching for something slightly different but related to the keyword you're researching. Keyword phrase suggestions in the search box might reveal a need you weren't aware of but could easily meet.

2. Related terms below the searches over time graph

Under the searches over time graph, you'll see related terms. These terms are Pinterest search terms that are closely related to the keyword on your graph. The related terms can help you find more keywords and related new ideas.

The "Related Terms" section gives you more ideas for keywords related to the topic you're researching.

If you have more than one keyword on your graph, you'll see related terms for all of those searches. Plus, the Pinterest Trends tool kindly color codes the related terms.

If your original term is represented by a green line on the graph, its related terms will be color coded with green. If your second original keyword is shown on a blue line on the graph, its related terms will be color coded with blue.

You can see related terms for all of the results on your graph. Each result is color-coded to make the information easy to read.

See Popular Pins

Just below the related terms, you'll see a few Pinterest pins that are currently popular for the term(s) you're exploring.

Click on them to go to a Pinterest search for that keyword. From there, you can explore what's already popular on Pinterest for that topic to decide whether you could create something that would fit and compete with those pins.

A few pins that are popular for each word or phrase you've researched are shown. Click on the pins to see more popular pins for that keyword.

Be Aware of Irregularities

You may find some irregularities in your results. For a variety of reasons, something may be hot one year and completely unloved the next year. You need to think while you're researching trends and avoid just following the graphs uncritically.

2020 is a perfect example.

2020 has been one giant anomaly, and it is reflected in Pinterest search trends. People have searched quite differently in this time period compared with previous years.

Be aware of trends that may be particularly high or low for a specific reason. They might not reflect long term patterns over years, but they also might point to emerging opportunities.

Pinterest search trend irregularity example - "fathers day crafts" 2019 vs. 2020

The next two images show the difference in the relative popularity of Father's Day crafts on Pinterest in 2019 compared with 2020.

In June 2020, people were staying home to social distance. Shopping posed challenges, and many people had more free time or were trying to keep kids busy. As a result, interest in handmade ideas for Father's Day was high compared with the previous year.

In the graph below, the orange peak in the middle shows the popularity of "fathers day crafts" searches in 2019, a fairly typical year. The green peak on the right - "christmas crafts" searches for 2019 - gives you a point of comparison.

"fathers day crafts" searches for 2019 (in orange)

The popularity of the search term "fathers day crafts" in 2019 is shown in orange.

Ahh, 2020...

In the next graph, the green peak on the right shows the popularity of "fathers day crafts" searches in 2020, an extremely irregular year. Use the blue peak on the left - the same 2019 "christmas crafts" search data from the previous graph - to help compare the search volume of a term such as "fathers day crafts" in 2019 vs. 2020.

"fathers day crafts" searches for 2020 (in green)

The popularity of the search term "fathers day crafts" in 2020 is shown in green.

Just be aware that the graphs don't always tell the whole story. You also need to know your niche and your customers, so you can think critically about what might be driving the search trends you're seeing with the Pinterest Trends tool.

Plan Your Online Marketing with the Pinterest Trends Tool

If your customers are on Pinterest and you market your business online using this platform, the Pinterest Trends tool is the best way for owners of small businesses to find out what customers are looking for and when they are looking for it.

It's easy to use and full of practical information that can help you make smart choices about how to plan your Pinterest marketing efforts and allocate your time throughout the year to best meet your customers needs.