How to Use Pinterest to Sell Digital Products (2026)
Pinterest works for digital products because people search it for ideas they plan to act on, and every Pin can link straight to your product page. Set up a free business account, claim your site, turn on Rich Pins, then publish keyword-led 2:3 Pins to a few focused boards for at least a month before you judge the results by outbound clicks and sales, not saves.
Key takeaways
- A Pinterest business account is free, and you can create a new one or convert a personal account. Business accounts are public.
- Claim your website (HTML tag, HTML file, DNS TXT record or Google Merchant Centre) and add Open Graph or Schema.org markup so your product pages become Rich Pins.
- Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels, for standard image ads; we use the same shape for organic Pins.
- The native scheduler lets you schedule a Pin up to 30 days ahead with up to ten Pins queued. Tailwind's Pin Scheduling plan is $17.99/mo billed annually or $29.99 monthly.
- Judge Pinterest on outbound clicks and sales. Its community guidelines ban repetitive, deceptive content made 'in an attempt to make money', so publish fewer, better Pins.
On this page 22
- TL;DR
- Why Pinterest suits digital products
- Step 1: Set up a business account
- Step 2: Claim your website
- Step 3: Turn on Rich Pins
- Step 4: Do keyword research
- Step 5: Structure your boards
- Step 6: Design Pins that get clicked
- Step 7: Link to the right page
- Step 8: Schedule consistently
- Step 9: Track what actually sells
- A worked funnel example (illustrative)
- What not to do
- A 30-day Pinterest plan
- Frequently asked questions
- Can you sell digital products on Pinterest?
- Do I need a Pinterest business account to sell digital products?
- What size should Pinterest Pins be for digital products?
- How long does Pinterest take to work for digital products?
- Is Tailwind worth it for a solo maker?
- Launch your product on ZeroRaised
- Sources
Short answer: Use Pinterest as a search engine that links to your store. Set up a free business account, claim your website, turn on Rich Pins, and publish keyword-led vertical Pins to a handful of focused boards that link straight to each product page. Give it at least 30 days, then judge it by outbound clicks and sales, not saves.
Every Pinterest feature, limit and quote below comes from Pinterest's own help, business and policy pages, and every price from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on 11 Nov 2026. The advice and worked examples are ours and are marked as such.
TL;DR#
- Pinterest is big and still growing. Its Q3 2026 results, released 29 October 2026, report an "All-time high of 661 million global monthly active users, an increase of 10%" (Pinterest Q3 2026 release).
- Setup costs nothing. "It's free to sign up for a Pinterest business account" (Pinterest Business).
- Claim your site and enable Rich Pins so Pins from your product pages sync title, price and availability (Rich Pins).
- Design vertical. Pinterest recommends "a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels" for standard image ads (creative best practices).
- Schedule for free first. The native scheduler holds up to ten Pins, up to 30 days ahead (schedule Pins).
- Measure outbound clicks, which Pinterest defines as actions "that lead them to a destination off Pinterest" (Pinterest Analytics).
Disclosure: ZeroRaised publishes this guide and is a launch site for bootstrapped products. We have no commercial relationship with Pinterest, Tailwind, Gumroad, Payhip, Lemon Squeezy or Etsy and earn nothing if you use them.
Why Pinterest suits digital products#
Most social feeds reward what is new today. Pinterest behaves more like a visual search engine: people type "notion budget template", "lightroom presets moody" or "kindergarten printable worksheets" and save ideas they plan to use. That intent lines up well with templates, printables, ebooks, courses, presets, icon packs, fonts and planners.
Every Pin also carries a link, and your product is already visual: a planner mockup or a before-and-after preset says more than a caption.
Our read: Pinterest is weaker for products that need a long explanation (developer tools, B2B SaaS) and strongest for products a buyer can understand from one image. If you are still choosing a store or format, our guide on how to sell digital products online covers platforms, pricing and delivery; this post is only about getting Pinterest traffic to the product page.
Step 1: Set up a business account#
Pinterest says there are two ways to get one: "Create a new business account" or "Convert a personal account into a business account" (get a business account). Two details matter for makers:
- "Business accounts are public on Pinterest, so if your personal account is set to private, it must be switched to public."
- "It's no longer possible to link a personal account to a business account." If you want to keep personal boards separate, create a fresh business account rather than converting.
Fill in the profile like a storefront: your brand or maker name, a one-line description of what you sell using the words buyers search for ("Notion templates for freelancers", not "productivity enthusiast"), and your shop or website URL.
Step 2: Claim your website#
Claiming ties your domain to your profile. Pinterest says "There are four ways you can claim a website. You can connect with Google Merchant Centre, add an HTML tag, HTML file or TXT record to your website" (claim your website). For the TXT route, it notes you "may need to wait up to 72 hours for the changes to take effect."
The catch for makers on hosted stores: "you must own the domain, subdomain or subpath, and you need to be able to edit the source code." You cannot claim gumroad.com itself. If your products live on a marketplace, the cleanest setup is a simple site on your own domain with one page per product, each linking to checkout. Also note that "A website can only be claimed by one Pinterest account."
What you get: Pinterest says claiming "gives you insight into how often your content is shared on Pinterest", and Pins saved from your site show your profile picture and a follow option.
Step 3: Turn on Rich Pins#
"Rich Pins are Pins that sync information automatically from your site" (Rich Pins). There are three types:
| Rich Pin type | What Pinterest says it shows | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Product | "the most up-to-date pricing, availability and product information" | Templates, presets, printables with a price |
| Article | "the headline or title, the description and the author" | Blog posts, free guides, lead magnets |
| Recipe | Title, serving size, cook time, ratings, ingredients | Recipe ebooks |
To enable them, add Open Graph or Schema.org markup "between the <head> </head> section of your HTML code". Pinterest says all content from pages with the correct meta tags "will appear as rich Pins when you create a new Pin", and syncing can take up to 24 hours. For product Rich Pins, Pinterest will only show product information "if you've met our merchant guidelines and if the product is in stock", so make sure your markup marks a digital download as in stock.
Step 4: Do keyword research#
Pinterest is search-led, so pick words before you design anything.
- Start in the search bar. Type your product category ("budget spreadsheet", "wedding planner printable") and note the suggestions that appear. These are phrases people actually search.
- Use Pinterest Trends. Pinterest suggests you "use Pinterest Trends to help you create content based on what people want to try next" (Pinterest Business). Check trends.pinterest.com to see when interest in your category rises and falls through the year. Our read: get Pins live before the curve starts climbing, not on the peak.
- Build a keyword sheet. One row per product, with 1 main phrase and 3 to 5 variants. Example for a freelancer invoice template: "freelance invoice template", "invoice template google sheets", "small business invoice", "freelancer tools", "how to invoice clients".
- Use the words everywhere. Board name, board description, Pin title, Pin description and the product page title.
Our read: specific phrases beat broad ones. "ADHD weekly planner printable" has fewer searchers than "planner" but far less competition and a clearer buyer.
Step 5: Structure your boards#
Keep boards few, focused and named like search phrases.
| Board | Contents | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your main product category (e.g. "Notion Templates for Freelancers") | Your product Pins plus a few useful Pins from others | Main keyword hub |
| One board per sub-niche (e.g. "Client Invoice Templates") | Product Pins for that sub-niche | Matches long-tail searches |
| A how-to board (e.g. "Freelance Business Tips") | Article Pins from your blog or free guides | Catches people earlier in the problem |
| Your shop board ("Shop: [Brand] Templates") | Every product Pin | One place to browse everything |
Five to eight boards are plenty to start. Write a two-sentence description for each that includes the main keyword naturally.
Step 6: Design Pins that get clicked#
Pinterest's creative guidance for standard image ads is a useful baseline for organic Pins too: "We recommend using a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels", in ".PNG or .JPEG", with titles "Up to 100 characters" and descriptions "Up to 800 characters". It also warns that "Larger aspect ratios may get cut off in people's feeds" (creative best practices).
A Pin template that works for most digital products (ours):
- Top third: a short text overlay naming the outcome ("Plan your whole month in 10 minutes").
- Middle: a clean mockup of the product (a laptop or tablet frame for Notion and Sheets templates, a flat lay for printables, a before-and-after split for presets).
- Bottom: the format and a cue ("Notion template, instant download").
- Brand: your name or URL, small.
Make three to five different Pin designs per product, each with a different headline angle (outcome, audience, feature, price), rather than one design reposted many times. A free design tool such as Canva or Figma with a 1000 x 1500 frame is enough; build one master template and swap text and mockups.
Step 7: Link to the right page#
Every Pin should link to the single page where the buyer can act: the product page on Gumroad, Payhip, Lemon Squeezy, Etsy or your own site. Never link to your homepage and make people hunt. Current fees on the vendors' own pages:
| Store | Fee (checked 11 Nov 2026) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Gumroad | 10% + $0.50 per transaction for profile or direct-link sales; 30% for sales found through its Discover marketplace; no monthly fee | A Pin linking to your product page is a direct link (Gumroad pricing) |
| Payhip | Free: $0/mo + 5%. Plus: $29/mo + 2%. Pro: $99/mo, no transaction fee | PayPal and Stripe still charge their standard rates (Payhip pricing) |
| Lemon Squeezy | 5% + 50¢ per transaction, no monthly charge | "Some payments may be subject to additional fees" (Lemon Squeezy pricing) |
| Etsy | Check Etsy's fees page before you list | Etsy's fees page refused our fetch today, so we have not quoted it |
Our read: Pinterest should be one channel among several, not your whole plan. Our ranking of free marketing channels for bootstrapped makers shows where it fits next to search, communities and newsletters.
Step 8: Schedule consistently#
Pinterest's own scheduler is free: "You can schedule a Pin up to 30 days in advance", and "you can have up to ten Pins scheduled for the future" (schedule Pins). Ten queued Pins covers one Pin every three days for a month, which is a reasonable start for a single product.
When that limit bites, Tailwind is the Pinterest-specific option. Its Pin Scheduling and Creation plan is $17.99/mo billed annually or $29.99/mo billed monthly, with "300 Tailwind credits/mo included", and "scheduling a Pin uses 1 credit". It says "You can schedule Pins as far in advance as you like" and you can "Start free" with no card (Tailwind pricing).
Our read: stay on the native scheduler until you have three or more products with proven Pins. Spending $18 to $30 a month to schedule Pins nobody clicks is the most common early waste.
Step 9: Track what actually sells#
Pinterest Analytics reports outbound clicks: "The number of times people perform actions that lead them to a destination off Pinterest." Note that "Outbound clicks are measured starting from the date the link is added" (Pinterest Analytics).
Set up tracking in three layers:
- UTM tags on every Pin link (
utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=product-name) so your store or web analytics shows which product page Pinterest feeds. - Pinterest Analytics for outbound clicks per Pin, so you know which design and headline earns the click.
- Conversion tracking if you run ads later. Pinterest's Conversions API "provides more insight into Pinterest's conversion impact across channels" and "passes the same events that you would normally receive through the Pinterest tag" (Pinterest Conversions API). For purely organic pinning on a hosted store, UTMs are usually enough.
A worked funnel example (illustrative)#
These numbers are hypothetical, chosen to show the arithmetic, not a forecast or a Pinterest benchmark.
A maker sells a $12 freelancer invoice template on Gumroad and links Pins directly to the product page.
| Step | Illustrative number |
|---|---|
| Pin impressions in a month | 20,000 |
| Outbound clicks (assume 1%) | 200 |
| Product page conversion (assume 3%) | 6 sales |
| Gross revenue | 6 x $12 = $72 |
| Gumroad fee (10% + $0.50 = $1.70 per sale) | 6 x $1.70 = $10.20 |
| Net before tax | $61.80 |
The lesson: if outbound clicks are healthy but sales are near zero, fix the product page (mockups, price, preview), not the Pins. If impressions are high but clicks are low, test new headlines and images. If impressions are low, revisit keywords and boards.
What not to do#
Pinterest's community guidelines are blunt about spam. Quoting the Spam section (community guidelines):
- "Don't create or save content that is repetitive, deceptive, or irrelevant in an attempt to make money."
- "Don't link to websites that are unsafe, deceptive, untrustworthy, unoriginal, or that facilitate or encourage spam."
- "Don't use automation that hasn't been explicitly approved by Pinterest."
- It also flags "Links that exhibit excessive or deceptive redirection".
The page says updated guidelines take effect 12 November 2026, so reread it before you scale up. In practice (ours):
- Do not pin the same image to ten boards on the same day.
- Do not hide the real destination behind link shorteners or chains of redirects.
- Do not use bots or unapproved auto-pinners; stick to the native scheduler or approved partners.
- Do not promise outcomes the product cannot deliver.
A 30-day Pinterest plan#
| Days | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Create or convert to a business account, write a keyword-led profile, claim your site, add Open Graph or Schema.org markup for Rich Pins |
| 4 to 7 | Build a keyword sheet for each product, create 5 to 8 boards with keyword descriptions, add UTM links |
| 8 to 12 | Design 3 to 5 Pin variations per product from one 1000 x 1500 template; write titles and descriptions |
| 13 to 14 | Queue ten Pins in the native scheduler, spread across boards and products |
| 15 to 21 | Publish one or two Pins by hand every few days on top of the queue; pin a few useful Pins from others to each board |
| 22 to 28 | Check outbound clicks per Pin; make new variations of the top two designs; refill the queue |
| 29 to 30 | Review: clicks per Pin, sales per product page via UTMs. Decide whether to scale up, fix product pages or try Tailwind |
Frequently asked questions#
Can you sell digital products on Pinterest?#
Yes, in the sense that Pinterest sends buyers to your store. You publish Pins that link to your product page on Gumroad, Payhip, Lemon Squeezy, Etsy or your own site, and the sale happens there. Claiming your website and enabling Rich Pins makes those Pins show synced product information.
Do I need a Pinterest business account to sell digital products?#
You should use one. Pinterest says it is free to sign up for a business account, and features such as scheduling standard Pins, website claiming and analytics sit in business tools. You can convert a personal account, but business accounts are public.
What size should Pinterest Pins be for digital products?#
Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels, for standard image ads, in PNG or JPEG, and warns that larger aspect ratios may get cut off in feeds. We use the same vertical 2:3 shape for organic Pins.
How long does Pinterest take to work for digital products?#
Pinterest publishes no timeline. Our read: plan on at least 30 days of consistent pinning before judging a product, and look at outbound clicks per Pin and sales per product page rather than impressions or saves.
Is Tailwind worth it for a solo maker?#
Only once the native scheduler gets in the way. Pinterest lets you schedule a Pin up to 30 days ahead with up to ten queued. Tailwind's Pin Scheduling and Creation plan is $17.99/mo billed annually or $29.99 monthly, includes 300 credits a month, and scheduling a Pin uses one credit.
Launch your product on ZeroRaised#
Pinterest brings slow, compounding traffic; a launch brings a spike. Run through our product launch checklist for bootstrapped makers, then submit your product to ZeroRaised for free. For more distribution guides for products built without investors, join the ZeroRaised newsletter.
Sources#
- Pinterest Q3 2026 results press release (SEC filing), last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Business: getting started, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Help: get a business account, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Help: claim your website, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Help: Rich Pins, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Business: creative best practices, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Help: schedule Pins, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Help: Pinterest Analytics, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Business: Conversions API, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest community guidelines, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Pinterest Trends, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Tailwind pricing, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Gumroad pricing, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Payhip pricing, last checked 11 Nov 2026
- Lemon Squeezy pricing, last checked 11 Nov 2026
Frequently asked questions
Can you sell digital products on Pinterest?
Yes, in the sense that Pinterest sends buyers to your store. You publish Pins that link to your product page on Gumroad, Payhip, Lemon Squeezy, Etsy or your own site, and the sale happens there. Claiming your website and enabling Rich Pins makes those Pins show synced product information.
Do I need a Pinterest business account to sell digital products?
You should use one. Pinterest says it is free to sign up for a business account, and features such as scheduling standard Pins, website claiming and analytics sit in business tools. You can convert a personal account, but business accounts are public.
What size should Pinterest Pins be for digital products?
Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels, for standard image ads, in PNG or JPEG, and warns that larger aspect ratios may get cut off in feeds. We use the same vertical 2:3 shape for organic Pins.
How long does Pinterest take to work for digital products?
Pinterest publishes no timeline. Our read: plan on at least 30 days of consistent pinning before judging a product, and look at outbound clicks per Pin and sales per product page rather than impressions or saves.
Is Tailwind worth it for a solo maker?
Only once the native scheduler gets in the way. Pinterest lets you schedule a Pin up to 30 days ahead with up to ten queued. Tailwind's Pin Scheduling and Creation plan is $17.99/mo billed annually or $29.99 monthly, includes 300 credits a month, and scheduling a Pin uses one credit.