A few years ago, Pinterest took on a challenge that honestly sounded impossible: how do you put people’s well-being first and still deliver results for advertisers? Most platforms choose one or the other. Pinterest decided to do both.

Bill Ready, Pinterest’s CEO, summed it up perfectly:

“On Pinterest, you don’t have to choose between your upper funnel or lower funnel goals. You can have it all.”

And you can really feel this mission on the platform. Pinterest banned weight-loss ads, built tools that give you mental health resources when you might not be feeling your best, and in 2023, made all accounts for teens under 16 private by default. At first, people said it would push young users away. Instead, it’s one of the reasons they’re joining in bigger numbers.

For me, this is the biggest takeaway: Pinterest has shown that growth doesn’t have to come at the cost of safety. While other platforms push doomscrolling, anxiety, and even misinformation, Pinterest has chosen another path. And that’s what makes it such a great space for us as users, creators, and business owners.

Pinterest as a Decision-Making Engine

One of my favorite things about Pinterest is how different it feels from regular social media. It’s not about endless scrolling or comparing yourself to strangers.

“Pinterest was designed to be a decision-making engine. It moves people from discovery into action.” – Bill Ready, Pinterest CEO.

You arrive to Pinterest with an idea, and you leave with a plan.

Think about it. You don’t open Pinterest to waste time. You open it when you’re trying to figure out what to make for dinner, how to paint your living room, or what to wear to an event. And most of the time, you actually find what you’re looking for.

Malik Ducard, Pinterest’s Chief Content Officer, explained it like this:

“The Internet has given us infinite options, then social media feeds of other people telling us what we should be doing, and algorithmic loops showing us more of the same. All that information has left consumers burnt out… Call it decision fatigue or analysis paralysis- it’s real.”

Pinterest fixes that. It helps the audience to make confident choices without the overwhelm. And for marketers, that means our content reaches people who are ready to take action, not just casually browsing.

The DNA of an Image: How Pinterest Understands Us Better

Pinterest has been working on image recognition for more than a decade, and now their AI is so advanced it can map what they call the “DNA of an image.”

What does that mean? It means Pinterest doesn’t just see a dress: Pinterest sees the fabric, the color, the cut, the style, the vibe. It can figure out how that dress connects with other items, and whether it matches a user’s personal taste.

And here’s what I love: every time we save a Pin, create a board, or make a collage, we’re teaching Pinterest more about what we love. And in return, Pinterest gets better at surfacing ideas that actually make sense for us.

It’s like a cycle of inspiration –our curation makes Pinterest smarter, and Pinterest helps us dream bigger.

Visual Search and the Joy of Discovery

Shopping is visual. Most of the time, we don’t have the right words to describe what we’re looking for -we just know it when we see it. That’s why Pinterest’s Visual Search is such a big deal.

Dana Cho, VP of Design at Pinterest, shared that “39% of Gen Z prefer to start their searches on Pinterest instead of a search engine.” And it makes sense. Let me share the example she gave.

“Let’s say this outfit grabs Jade’s attention. She loves this overall vibe and wants to see more of it, so she searches the image. With Visual Search, Jade doesn’t need to have the right words to start looking for what she wants because AI helps her decode her taste. Today, it looks like she’s feeling stereopunk. With that in mind, Jade starts wandering until she sees this jacket and goes deeper. Other platforms let you search for. More jackets. Pinterest lets you get more specific and pivot in new directions along the way. Jade can refine her search based on the fabric, occasion, Pattern, or in this case, by color, until finally she decides to buy this bag.”

That’s the joy of Pinterest. It’s not just search -it’s what Dana calls “structured wandering.” You start with one Pin, and before you know it, you’ve discovered a whole new style or product that feels like it was meant for you.

For businesses, this is where it gets exciting. Every Pin is a signal of intent. If your catalog is on Pinterest, your products can be part of someone’s discovery journey.

Curation is Power: Why Your Content Shapes Pinterest’s Future

Here’s something a lot of people don’t realize: Pinterest doesn’t scrape the web like Google. The content you see on Pinterest exists because someone -like a brand or a creator- uploaded it.

That’s why inclusivity is such a big deal. Pinterest has features that let you filter results by body type, hair pattern, and skin tone. But if the content isn’t there, the feature can only go so far.

For example, when you search for diamond rings, most of the results still show white hands. When you search for mid-size or curvy fashion, there are fewer results compared to “standard” sizes. That’s not just Pinterest’s problem -it’s also on us, as creators and brands, to share more inclusive content.

The truth is, Pinterest becomes more powerful when we all contribute.

So my question to you is: what’s stopping you from putting your content on Pinterest? Every Pin you upload makes the platform more valuable, not just for your audience, but for the entire community.

Trends That Last (And Why They Matter)

Chasing trends on other platforms can feel like a hamster wheel. They pop up, go viral, and vanish in days. Pinterest is different. As Andrea Mallard, Pinterest’s CMO, explained: “Trends on Pinterest are more durable and actionable than anywhere else. In fact, they last nearly twice as long.”

That’s huge. It gives you twice the time to create content around a trend and actually see results from it.

And Pinterest has made this even easier with their revamped Trends tool. Now you can filter trends by age, time, and place, see what’s been hot over the last 90 days, and even get seasonal predictions. They’ve also launched Shopping Trends, which shows you what people are saving and clicking before they buy.

For marketers, this is gold. Instead of guessing what your audience might want, you can see exactly what they’re planning and align your content with it.

Smarter Advertising With Pinterest Performance+

Pinterest has also leveled up its advertising game. For years, it was great at inspiration and awareness, but now it’s proven it can drive performance too.

Matt Madrigal, Pinterest’s CTO, shared that “Pinterest Performance Plus campaigns outperformed traditional campaigns in nearly 80% of A/B tests, with more than a 20% CPA reduction for catalog sales.”

What makes Performance Plus so powerful is automation. It crops and resizes your product images, creates ad variations, and automatically pushes the ones performing best. You can also target both new and existing customers in the same campaign, and even use ROAS bidding to make sure you’re paying the right price for each conversion.

The best part? It saves you time. Campaign setup is faster, and the AI handles the heavy lifting while you stay in control of strategy.

At Fresh Pins Creators, we can support this. We have had great campaigns with Performance+ settings. We have never tried the background generation, as our differential as an agency is our creativity, but for retargeting the campaigns have been giving us faster and better results.

A Platform That Feels Like a Best Friend

If you’ve ever said “Pinterest just gets me,” you’re not alone. It’s one of the most common things users say. The recommendation engine doesn’t trap you in an echo chamber. It expands your horizons, introducing you to new products, brands, and ideas that feel like they were picked just for you.

It’s less like an algorithm and more like a stylish friend who always has the best suggestions. But remember: Pinterest can only reflect the content we upload. If we want it to feel more inclusive, diverse, and inspiring, we need to be part of that change.

Winning With Gen Z and the Next Generation

Gen Z now makes up more than half of Pinterest’s audience, and they’re also the most engaged. Why? Because Pinterest is a space where they can explore who they want to be.

On other platforms, young people often feel like everyone else is telling them what to do, how to look, or who to be. On Pinterest, it’s the opposite. They get to explore identities, aesthetics, and futures in a positive way.

If your brand wants to connect with this generation, Pinterest is where they’re shopping, saving, and planning for their lives.

Why Brands and Creators Can’t Ignore Pinterest Anymore

Pinterest is not just another social platform. It’s a long-term growth engine. Content here doesn’t vanish after 24 hours -it builds over time. A Pin you post today can still drive traffic and sales months or even years later.

With over half a billion people using Pinterest, and with tools like Visual Search, inclusive filters, Trends, and Performance Plus, the platform has never been stronger.

Pinterest isn’t just where ideas grow. It’s where your brand can grow too.