The following Pinterest traffic case study was written by contributor Hannah Fleace, Content & Case Study Specialist.
“Before Pinterest, our cost to acquire a new client or member was way too high. There were times when we were essentially paying people to join the membership. It was insane.
Now, we are getting consistent leads using Pinterest. And we can definitely tell they are more qualified, nurtured, and primed for anything we launch.”
– Melissa Ramos, Nutritionist & HormoneHealth Coach
The Pinterest Traffic Case Study Client:
Melissa Ramos is a nutritionist and the founder of Sexy Food Therapy. Through her work, she has helped hundreds of women balance their hormones so they can feel sexy from the inside out.
The Problem: Melissa needed a better way to get consistent, inexpensive, and well-qualified leads.
Melissa and her team were looking for a less expensive way to generate qualified leads for her online membership, Sexy Lady Balls, and for her launches throughout the year.
She was spending $10,000 to $15,000 every month generating leads using Facebook ads and ad management.
But despite the five-figure price tag, the leads weren’t her ideal clients, and the results were hit or miss at best.
“We were completely reliant on Facebook ads, and it was a huge money pit,” Melissa said. “They were constantly changing, and what was working last month suddenly isn’t working the next month… It felt like I was spending all this money and time constantly in test mode.”
When conversions and membership retention couldn’t be improved and became stagnant, they knew the leads coming in weren’t her ideal clients. But turning Facebook ads off meant her business would stop growing immediately.
“It was scary,” she said.
Melissa had a Pinterest account and wanted to use it to send leads to her website and YouTube but wasn’t sure where to get started.
After a launch almost derailed and she spent nearly $75,000 in ad spend over the course of five months with little return, she knew things had to change. She was also planning to move cross-country with her husband and didn’t want her business to rely solely on Facebook ads.
“I was dumping money into ads,” Melissa said. “And, if it didn’t work, the money was just gone.”
(Pssssst…. You can 📌 pin this Pinterest Traffic Case Study for reference.)
The Solution: Hiring a Pinterest marketing pro with a command of keywords and optimization.
Melissa’s OBM (Online Business Manager) had met Pinterest Marketing Specialist Jana Osofsky through service provider networks. She knew Jana had a specialization in helping coaches, course creators, and service providers get client leads with Pinterest – so she made an introduction.
Upon completing an eye-opening consultation call, Melissa was ready to invest in Pinterest marketing – and she knew Jana was the right person to hire.
As part of her done-for-you VIP Pinterest set up package, the first thing Jana focused on was keyword optimization of Melissa’s account. This entailed:
- Getting very clear on who Melissa’s ideal client was.
- Conducting extensive keyword research to learn exactly what they were searching for around Melissa’s topics.
- Optimizing Melissa’s profile to feature the right keywords.
Because Pinterest is a search engine, her goal was to ensure Melissa’s content would be found by women who are searching on Pinterest for her topics.
Next up, Jana designed a monthly Pinterest growth and management workflow for the account. This included:
- Setting up and configuring Tailwind, a Pinterest scheduling software that allows users to automate and batch most of the ongoing pinning for an account.
- Designing Pin graphic templates (using Canva) that incorporate best practices on Pinterest – and are optimized to get attention and convert pinners to website visitors.
Once the custom set-up project was complete, Melissa opted to hire Jana’s team for ongoing monthly Pinterest management.
Jana explains: “Once the initial set up is complete, a VIP client has three great options.
1) I can train her to take over and manage her own account;
2) I can provide training to a member of her existing team; or
3) She can hire me and my management partner to keep growing the account.”
“Melissa’s decided to hire us to manage it,” Jana continued, “And I was thrilled to be able to continue to work with her!”
Jana introduced Melissa to her long-time collaborator, Marissa Wood of Blue Fairy Studios. Marissa would take the lead on managing the account moving forward, while Jana would continue to be responsible for designing and adding new pins and boards each month.
Through the monthly management workflow, Jana and Marissa used Pinterest best practices to add optimized pin images, research and integrate keywords as needed, and create custom boards every month.
Using Pinterest Analytics and Google Analytics, they tracked Melissa’s constant profile growth, sent monthly updates, and answered any questions Melissa and her team had. They also made recommendations for content creation and optimization, based on Pinterest trends.
“I love knowing that Jana and Marissa are working on my account and that they really care about the results coming in. You can hear when they give monthly updates that they are truly excited about improving our results, and that is huge,” said Melissa.
The Results: $75,000 saved, a 664% increase in website clicks, and consistent, qualified leads!
Ready for the Pinterest traffic case study results? … Within three months, clicks from Pinterest to Melissa’s website had doubled and month over month growth was at 76%.
↑ Link clicks in the first three months. ↑
The next month, clicks from Pinterest to her YouTube channel increased four times over, and Melissa’s Pinterest audience doubled.
↑ The audience (impressions) doubled in the first four months. ↑
Even when the numbers saw normal ups and downs, Marissa explained what could be causing the downs, and assured Melissa that her results would likely soon snowball.
And they did.
Nine months after the set up and optimization of Melissa’s profile, clicks from her Pinterest to her website had increased by 664%, and clicks from Pinterest to her YouTube account increased 567%:
↑ A nine-month view of link clicks from Pinterest – including a viral spike in April. ↑
Pinterest also became Melissa’s number one social referrer, accounting for 81.66% of web traffic from all social sites according to Google Analytics.
A recent analysis of lead generation strategies from year to year revealed this:
In 2019, Melissa paid around $75,000 over five months to get 16,132 leads through Facebook ads.
In that same five-month period in 2020 – having incorporated Pinterest marketing – Melissa spent zero dollars on ad spend and generated 8,644 free leads from Pinterest, saving $75,000.
And, one the best parts of this change? The leads generated with Pinterest were better quality leads.
“Before Pinterest, our cost to acquire a new client or member was way too high. There were times when we were essentially paying people to join the membership. It was insane.” Melissa said. “Now, we are getting consistent leads using Pinterest. And we can definitely tell they are more qualified, nurtured, and primed for anything we launch.”
Melissa’s team sites these figures to support this:
- They’ve seen an increase in conversion rates for her webinars
- There’s been a 3% decrease in churn from her membership program, and
- Email open rates had jumped from 12.4% to 15.2% – an enormous difference on an 80,000-person list.
“We’re so glad we invested in Pinterest marketing and hired Jana to get that strategy in place. She’s detail-oriented, reliable, and knowledgeable,” Melissa said. “She has shown us that, with a Pinterest marketing strategy, lead generation can be done without having to dump all of the profit back into ads for your business.”
Pinterest Traffic Case Study – Jana’s 2021 Update on Melissa’s Pinterest Results!
Well, dear readers… Jana checking in here. Hiiiii! 🙋🏻♀️ It’s summer of 2021, and Melissa is still seeing AHHH-MAZING results from her Pinterest marketing investment. To prepare to update you all, I took a look at some of her analytics. Here are some highlights / things I thought you’d find interesting…
1. In the most recent 90-day period, Melissa’s Pinterest pins generated 7,011 to her website.
Of note: While this 7k+ number is amazing and we are super happy with it… it’s not as high as some past quarters have been. One reason may be that, as the U.S. comes out of the global pandemic times (I think…!), people are getting out more. They are just generally spending less time online – including less time on Pinterest.
The lesson: there are always ups and downs with Pinterest marketing – based on times of the year, what’s going on in the world, your particular niche and audience, etc… and that’s okay! 🙂 It’s normal to see ups and downs in growth.
2. Looking at a more extended period, I noted that Melissa’s Pinterest pins sent her more than 28,000 website visits (outbound clicks) over the last (roughly) one year period! (See first screenshot below.)
And – BONUS! – Melissa’s Pinterest Manager (whom I partner with on her account) has been using Pinterest to send traffic to her Youtube channel, too.
Pinterest hasn’t sent Melissa’s Youtube channel as much love as it has sent her website. But this has still meant about 1,000 clicks from Pinterest to her Youtube. So, it’s sort of the “icing on the cake” of her ongoing great results. (See second screenshot below.)
A Last Note from Jana:
Here’s how you can get results like this for your coaching business – and be the next Pinterest traffic case study success story!
Would you love to get 600% more qualified coaching leads – for free? (And get more results like Melissa’s?)
If you’re an advanced coach, course creator, or service provider and you’re ready to use Pinterest marketing to:
✔️ diversify your traffic;
✔️ be less reliant on your ads; and
✔️ grow your list – with Pinterest,
…then you can book my VIP Done-for-you Pinterest Set up & Strategy service – here.
Or, if you’re newer, the very first step toward getting leads and clients using Pinterest is to set up your strategic profile.
You can learn my methods and get started with Pinterest marketing by enrolling in my e-course, Pinterest with Purpose. I’ve distilled my proprietary process (the same one I used to set up dozens of coaches, including Melissa) – into this course, so you can learn every step. (And you’ll have lifetime access to it!)
Ready? Let’s get *YOU* started with Pinterest marketing!
