Social media marketers have known what the best and worst times to post to Pinterest were for a while now. But rarely do they answer the more pressing question of – how often should I pin? That may be the more pertinent question. How often should you pin on Pinterest?
Note: Pin scheduler Traffic Wonker has sadly gone out of business, but owner and CEO Andy Fling has given me permission to share his useful Pinterest research and other information on my site. I jumped at the chance as Andy is the smartest guy I know when it comes to Pinterest!
However, no one was stepping up to the plate to answer another big question…
“How many Pinterest pins per day should I post?”
I wanted to know too, so I decided to answer the question myself. The TrafficWonker staff and I conducted an in-depth study testing a variety of markets, times, and number of pins, to discover what it takes to attract the greatest number of repins per day.
If you’re an experienced Pinterest marketer the results of our study may surprise you.
Note: This research was conducted several years ago when Pinterest was allowing numerous pins per day to be posted. So, the advice on how many pins per day you should post has changed quite drastically. But it’s still a good idea to test for yourself what IS working and what ISN’T. The current wisdom is saying that 5 to 15 is how many Pinterest pins per day is the optimal amount. But you should test it for yourself because your mileage may vary.
What The Experts Say is How Often Should You Pin on Pinterest
Many Pinterest marketers recommend publishing anywhere from 10 to 100 pins per day. However, their recommendations are generally based on a hunch rather than a data-driven study.
Three Tests
Since we do have data on the best times to pin to Pinterest (2-4PM EST and 8PM-1AM EST) I used this best practice as a starting point. Then I decided on three tests.
36 pins per day (Every 10 Minutes During Pinterest Peak Hours)
72 pins per day (Every 10 Minutes from 12Noon-12Mid)
108 pins per day (Every 10 Minutes – 6AM-12Mid)
For the 36 pin test, I followed the best times to pin data nearly to the letter, pinning from 2-4PM EST and 8PM-12PM EST with 10 minutes between pins.
For the 72 pin test, I needed to expand the time frame because I didn’t feel posting pins more frequently than every 10 minutes was advisable. I posted pins every 10 minutes from 12Noon-12MID EST.
For our 108 pin test, I expanded the time frame further, posting pins from 6AM-12MID EST. I gave this test the best chance to succeed by expanding into east coast morning hours, rather than into the hours following 12MID EST. I posted pins every 10 minutes.
Categories Tested
I tested with multiple accounts and a variety of interests, including:
Home Decor
Recipes
Pets
Arts & Crafts
Electronics Projects
Education
Social Media Marketing
The Results
After two months of watching the stats what I expected from the beginning is now overwhelmingly backed by science.
36 pins per day (50% less than 72 pins) was 57% less effective than scheduling 72 pins per day.
72 pins per day with a ten-minute interval between pins is the most effective in terms of attracting repins.
108 pins per day (50% more than 72 pins) was 10% less effective than scheduling 72 pins per day.
By the end of the 36 pins per day test, I was sure of two things; 1) It was far less effective than publishing 72 pins per day, and 2) I was ready to end this test. Pinterest rewards activity on the site, and I was concerned that a number of my boards might drop from their #1 position in Pinterest board search.
Going into the 108 pins per day test I had my suspicions about how things might go, and our study proved them correct. Pinning more than 72 pins per day isn’t more productive. Hopefully this will answer the pressing question of how often should I pin.
Here’s what I think is going on…
Pinterest tells us that there’s no limit to the number of pins you can post per day. However, if you’re pinning 108 pins per day and spacing them 10 minutes apart, many of those pins will be posted during hours of the day when most people aren’t visiting Pinterest.
Is Repins the Only Thing That Counts?
Nope. Daily clicks matter too because they result in sales. However, I don’t feel that daily clicks should be a primary focus in Pinterest marketing. Instead, your focus should be on repins and the long haul. Repins build “points of entry” to your site. Striving for maximum repins per day will eventually build thousands of “points of entry.” Hang in there. You’ll soon have all the clicks you’ve ever wanted.
Check out what the stats say about how many Pinterest pins per day should I pin?
The following chart shows what has been happening with my music education site, MakingMusicFun.net, since I started posting pins with TrafficWonker in 2015. Pinterest referral traffic has gone from 53K visitors per year to 191K visitors per year for this site alone.
The most compelling fact is that for the last year my MakingMusicFun.net Pinterest account has been declining slightly, but Pinterest referral traffic overall is way up. What’s driving all this traffic are the “points of entry” that I built by posting an average of 72 pins per day over the last three years.
If you’re familiar with some of the popular Pinterest pin schedulers you know that scheduling even 10-20 pins per day is time-consuming. The idea of scheduling 72 pins per day in a never-ending cycle is enough to make people crazy. That’s why you need a good pin scheduler.
by Andy Fling
Founder and CEO of TrafficWonker.com
Other posts from Andy you might enjoy:
Become Number One in Pinterest Board Search
How to get 10M Impressions per Month
How Many Pinterest Boards is Too Many?
Hi Adrian.
These are very interesting results… thank you. I’m concerned about posting such high pin volumes given much of the reading I’ve done suggests that pinning in excess of 50 times a day might get your account suspended.
What’s your take on this?
Thanks.
Hi Paul,
I’m inclined to agree with you. This was written a couple of years ago before Pinterest tightened up on the number of pins per day. These days, I wouldn’t go higher than about 25-30 pins per day, but I thought Andy’s research was pretty interesting anyway.
How do you pin 72 times a day though? That seems like alot of content that you would devote all your work week into creating.
That’s true. This was written a couple of years ago when there wasn’t so much emphasis on fresh pins and not pinning as frequently.
Hello Adrian
I am very new to Pinterest, I have just registered 11 days ago. How many pins are safe per day? I am asking this question because I did not get a proper solution from anyone. Can I do 20 pins a day, if my account goes 2 months old? Kindly please let me know
Thanks:)
Yes, but for a new account, I’d probably go 12 to 18 pins per day.
Great post, does this still work in 2021, anyone?
Yes, you’re right. This was written back in the day. You definitely could not get away with pinning 72 pins per day these days. But I thought Andy’s research notes were interesting enough to keep the post active. I generally do between 5 and 15 pins per day, but I haven’t done any official research on it. How many are you doing?
You should update the content, as well as compare it with previous years. so, new readers will get exact data about pinning and board management, etc. Appreciate your effort!
I am new to Pinterest and I post twice a day. Once I posted 5 posts with links in a day and my account got blocked by Pinterest as they considered it a spam. I don’t know what I did wrong. Can anyone please guide me?
That really isn’t enough to get marked as spam. It may have been something else you’d done. Maybe the links were problematic? I also got marked as spam because I’d shared too many of other people’s posts from Facebook. You should be able to get it reinstated.