How To Increase Outbound Clicks On Pinterest

It’s a weird kind of heartbreak, logging into Pinterest, seeing your shiny new pin sitting there like a well-dressed mannequin… and realizing no one’s clicking it.

No traffic.
No sales.
Just vibes.

I’ve been there. I’ve crafted pins I was sure would be winners. Spent half an hour tweaking the gradient, testing fonts like I was designing the cover of Vogue. Hit publish. Waited.

Crickets.

At first, I thought maybe Pinterest just hated me. Or maybe the algorithm was broken. (It felt broken.) I even started wondering if this whole “Pinterest for business” thing was just a myth influencers made up to sell ebooks.

Spoiler: it’s not.
But also, you’re probably doing it wrong. And I say that with love, not judgment.

Let me explain how to increase outbound clicks on pinterest, like this:

By the way, if you want impressions and outbound clicks like this, I’m giving you everything I’ve done in the P.O.C. Playbook™, short for “Pin Outbound Clicks.”

Right now it’s $1 to pre-order. I’m wrapping up the final pieces of the P.O.C. Playbook™, so it’s up for pre-order while I finish it. You’ll get early access (and the lowest price) if you grab it now.

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The harsh truth: pretty pins don’t guarantee clicks

Somewhere along the way, we all got the same memo: Make it look good and they’ll click.

That’s a lie.

Pinterest is full of gorgeous graphics collecting digital dust. Why? Because Pinterest users don’t click based on beauty alone. They click because they want something. Fast. Clear. Useful.

Most pins don’t give them that.

They try to be artsy instead of obvious. Clever instead of clear. Cute instead of clickable.

And look, I get it. As entrepreneurs, creators, and designers, we love creating pins that feel on-brand. But if you want to drive traffic, if you want results, you need more than aesthetic. You need a marketing strategy.

Think about it like this: when someone is scrolling the Pinterest mobile app, your pin is competing with stock photos, listicles, and eye-catching infographics. That pin needs to stop the scroll. It needs to match what they’re searching for.

That means keyword research. That means relevant pin design. That means a bold headline and a clear call to action.

My wake-up call (and a little identity crisis)

The moment that changed everything for me wasn’t dramatic. It was 7:42 AM. My toddler had just dumped cereal on the floor. I was checking my Pinterest analytics while microwaving coffee that had gone cold again.

I had posted 37 pins that week. Thirty-seven.

Guess how many outbound clicks I got?

Three.

Three clicks. Not even a click per graphic.

I wanted to throw my phone into the sink. I had spent hours creating pins, writing blog posts, optimizing descriptions. I even tried using Pinterest ads. But nothing worked.

That’s when it hit me.

I wasn’t strategic, I was just busy.

Busy with content creation. Busy with social media. Busy checking email marketing dashboards and hoping the numbers would change.

But I wasn’t paying attention to the most important thing: the pin itself. The data was there, right in my Pinterest business account. It told the whole story.

So I changed my system. I stopped designing for me and started designing for the pinner.

Here’s what I learned (the hard way):

If your pins aren’t getting clicks, it’s usually not because your business is broken or Pinterest is dead. It’s because you’re missing the connection between what you think your audience wants… and what actually makes them click.

Let’s unpack it.

1. Your headline is trying to be clever instead of clear.

I used to write pin titles like I was writing poetry. “Master the Art of Visual Harmony”, sounds pretty, right? Too bad no one knew what the heck it meant. No one’s on Pinterest at 11 PM looking for metaphors.

They’re searching for answers. Quick, snappy, direct ones. Headlines need to make a promise and deliver a benefit in plain English.

Something like: “5 Canva Hacks to Make Your Pins Pop”, now that gets clicks.

Here’s my headline formula: [Number] + [Power Word] + [Keyword] + [Benefit]

2. You’re designing for yourself, not your target audience.

This one stung. I used to obsess over fonts and colors that fit my aesthetic. Creams, sage, muted everything.

And then I realized my audience couldn’t even read my pin on mobile because the font was too thin. Or the contrast was too low.

Your dream design might make you proud, but Pinterest isn’t your design portfolio. It’s a search engine. You have seconds to get someone’s attention. Accessibility and clarity always win.

3. You’re not building curiosity or urgency.

“Meal Plan Tips” is flat. “7 Lazy-Girl Meal Plans That Save You 10 Hours a Week” creates curiosity and promises a benefit.

People click when they feel they might miss out on something useful or time-saving. That’s how you pull them in. Strong verbs. Numbers. “This or that” headlines. Tension between what they have now and what they want? Gold.

4. You’re ignoring annotations.

Most people scroll Pinterest like zombies, half-distracted, barely reading. Adding simple annotations right on the pin image makes a difference.

Think: “Free Download,” “Click to Save,” “Editable Template Inside.” These little blurbs act like road signs telling users why they should pay attention.

When I started using annotations, my click rate doubled. It takes 5 seconds to add one. Do it.

5. You’re forgetting that Pinterest is not Instagram.

Pinterest isn’t about likes. It’s about outbound traffic. Treat every pin like a micro-landing page. One pin, one message, one clear CTA.

I used to cram three blog post titles into a carousel-style pin. It looked cute, but no one knew where to click or what to expect.

When I simplified to one focus per pin, everything changed. It’s not about flexing how much content you have, it’s about giving just enough to make them click for more.

6. Your description is either empty… or keyword soup.

Your pin description isn’t just a box to fill. It’s your chance to show up in Pinterest search. But stuffing it with hashtags and buzzwords doesn’t help.

Write like a human. Use the words your audience is searching for. Describe what they’ll get. Add a strong call to action.

Example: “Learn how to design clickable Pinterest pins with my step-by-step method. Perfect for bloggers, freelancers, and digital creators. Get the free checklist now.”

7. You’re linking to weak or irrelevant pages.

Nothing kills momentum like clicking on a promising pin and landing on a page that has nothing to do with the pin.

If your pin says “Free Canva Templates,” don’t send them to your homepage. Send them to the actual templates.

Every extra click is a chance for them to bounce. Be specific. Be generous. Be intentional. Your landing page matters as much as the pin that got them there.

8. Your branding is too strong or too invisible.

Hot take: you don’t need to slap your logo on every pin, but you also don’t want people to forget where the content came from.

Find that balance. Use consistent fonts, colors, or a subtle handle so when people see one of your pins, they know it’s you.

This is how you build brand awareness without feeling like an ad. Pinterest isn’t about hard selling. It’s about trust over time.

9. You’re chasing trends instead of building a system.

One week you’re trying Pin templates. Next week, you’re playing with Tailwind. Then Pinterest SEO. But nothing sticks because there’s no system.

I did this too. I bounced between tools, strategies, and guesswork. What finally worked was simplifying everything down into a repeatable pin creation system.

Same format. Clear CTA. Same checklist. No more chaos, just consistency that compounds.

10. You’re giving up too soon.

Pinterest isn’t fast. It’s not TikTok. You won’t go viral overnight. But you will see results if you keep showing up with optimized pins that solve real problems.

I’ve had pins take 60 days to start driving traffic, and now they bring in clicks daily. Set your expectations accordingly. Use analytics to guide you, not discourage you. Pinterest rewards patience and quality.

The bottom line? Your pins aren’t broken, they’re just misaligned.

Once you understand what your audience actually wants, and package that into clear, helpful, click-worthy pins? You’ll stop shouting into the void.

And you’ll start seeing real traffic, engagement, and conversions, without spending another cent on ads.

What I did next (and what you can do too)

I stopped designing pins like a perfectionist with a color obsession and started thinking like a tired mom on a phone with 3 seconds of attention.

Seriously. I ditched the “aesthetic vibe” pressure and focused on three things: clarity, contrast, and curiosity.

I tested messy. I tested clean. I tried long vertical pins that looked like mini blog posts, and short punchy ones that screamed for attention.

I even threw in a few that looked like glorified infographics with way too much text.

Then I tracked everything.

Which ones got saved. Which ones sent people to my site. Which ones made someone hit “reply” to my email and say, “I found you on Pinterest!”

The loudest lesson?

Simple, obvious, almost-too-boring pins were the ones bringing in traffic. Not the ones I spent an hour tweaking the gradient on.

That was humbling, and wildly freeing.

And guess what? The “boring” pins, the ones I made fast with simple messaging and clean design, were the top performers. Pinterest SEO doesn’t reward fluff. It rewards relevance.

I also stopped treating Pinterest like a hobby and started treating it like a business. I linked every pin to a focused blog post or optimized URL with a strong call to action. I treated every click like money.

Affiliate marketing? It started converting.
Email address signups? Finally happening.
Mailing list growth? Yes, please.

All because I ditched the guesswork and leaned into strategy over spamming.

So what now?

If your Pinterest account feels like a tumbleweed town with zero clicks and zero purpose, don’t go rage-deleting everything just yet.

Here’s what I’d do, and what I actually did:

Audit your pins like a detective who’s sick of being ghosted. Ask:

• Is this speaking to my people, my actual target audience?
• Does this pin show up for the right search terms? (Hint: keyword research is not optional.)
• Is the landing page behind the pin even set up to convert, or is it a mess?
• Does the image stop the scroll? Is it punchy or just pretty?
• Is there a clear CTA in the description and on the pin? (Don’t make people guess what to do next.)

This is how you turn dead pins into working pins. Pins that get clicks. Pins that get saved. Pins that drive blog traffic and build your mailing list on autopilot.

If you’re staring at your dashboard wondering where the heck to start, I got you.

I took everything I learned (the hard, messy, unglamorous way) and built it into the P.O.C. Playbook™, short for “Pin Outbound Clicks.”

It’s the step-by-step system I wish I had when I was churning out graphics that looked nice but did nothing.

It’s $1 to pre-order. The price is going up soon.

→ [Grab the P.O.C. Playbook for $1]

In 2025, you don’t need another app, another algorithm, or another crash course you never finish.

You need a repeatable way to turn content into traffic, and traffic into income.

Pinterest isn’t dead. But lazy pins are.

Now go fix yours.