The holiday season has a way of sneaking up on us. One minute it’s back-to-school, and the next you’re hearing Christmas music in every store. For businesses, this stretch of the year can be the difference between a good quarter and a record-breaking one. And if you sell products online, Pinterest holiday marketing is one of the best tools you have to get in front of shoppers who are actively planning and ready to buy.
I’ve seen it work first-hand with clients. One of our shop owners went from just $19 in monthly sales to over $22,000 a month after we built a holiday-ready Pinterest ad strategy. Another client doubled their order volume in Q4 because we started their holiday campaigns early.
Pinterest isn’t about overnight wins—it’s about planting seeds that pay off big when it matters most.
Here are five ways you can optimize Pinterest for holiday sales.
1. Start Early
If you take away one thing from this post, let it be this: get your holiday content up on Pinterest early. Pinterest is not like Instagram or TikTok where a post goes viral in a day. Pins take time to circulate, build saves, and get traction in search.
Holiday searches on Pinterest begin climbing as early as September. By November, many shoppers have already made their gift lists and started buying. If you wait until December to pin, you’ve already missed the window.
Think of it like planting bulbs in your garden. The earlier you get them in the ground, the better your chances of seeing a beautiful bloom at the right time. On Pinterest, that means publishing holiday gift guides, décor ideas, and product pins in early fall so they’re established by peak shopping season.
2. Create Holiday-Focused Content
Holiday shopping is as much about inspiration as it is about buying. People come to Pinterest looking for ideas—what to give, how to decorate, and how to make the season special. This is your chance to connect your products to those searches.
You can create pins around:
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Gift guides like “Stocking Stuffers Under $25” or “Gifts for Cozy Home Lovers”
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Tutorials, such as styling a holiday mantel or wrapping gifts beautifully
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Lifestyle content tied to the holidays, like “What to Wear for Family Photos” if you sell clothing or accessories
The more you can weave your products naturally into holiday inspiration, the more likely someone will save or click. We worked with a client who sells handmade baskets, and by creating holiday gift guide pins, their boards started showing up for “Christmas gift ideas.” Those seasonal pins continued sending them traffic long after December.
Check out our blog post 10 Holiday Blog Post Ideas to Help You Sell
3. Use Holiday Keywords and Pinterest Trends
Pinterest is a search engine at its core, and that means keywords matter. If your pins don’t use the right phrases, they won’t show up when shoppers are searching.
This is where Pinterest Trends becomes your best friend. It shows you what people are already typing into the search bar and when those searches peak. For example, phrases like “Christmas table setting ideas” or “holiday teacher gifts” begin climbing months before the holidays actually arrive.
Update your boards, pin titles, and descriptions with these seasonal keywords. Go beyond general terms like “holiday gifts” and think about more specific phrases like “budget friendly stocking stuffers” or “matching Christmas pajamas.” The closer you get to the exact wording people are searching, the better chance you have of reaching them.
Take a look at our list of 100+ Pinterest Keywords for the Holidays
4. Run Pinterest Ads
Organic content is powerful, but it takes time. Ads give you a way to get your products in front of your audience right when they’re searching for them. And during the holidays, when shoppers are ready to buy, ads can be the difference between being seen and being overlooked.
Pinterest ads blend seamlessly into the feed, so they feel more like inspiration than a sales pitch. You can target shoppers by keywords, interests, demographics, or even retarget people who have visited your site.
One of our clients saw steady sales through the year, but when we layered in ads for their best sellers during Q4, their revenue doubled. Another business we worked with scaled their ad spend while focusing on holiday gift-related keywords, and they saw one of their strongest return-on-ad-spend numbers of the entire year.
If you don’t want to spend your season guessing, our Ad Management package can take this off your plate. We handle the creative, targeting, testing, and optimization so you can focus on fulfilling holiday orders while still capturing more sales.
5. Optimize Your Website and Offer Incentives
Getting traffic from Pinterest is only half the equation. Once shoppers land on your site, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to buy.
Check your site for:
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Mobile friendliness, since most Pinterest users browse on their phones
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Fast loading speed so you don’t lose impatient holiday shoppers
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Clear calls-to-action, like “Add to Cart” or “Shop the Collection”
Beyond the basics, holiday incentives can give shoppers the final nudge they need. Free shipping, limited-time discounts, or special bundles can all increase conversions. We’ve had clients create simple holiday gift sets or offer free shipping over a certain amount, and those small tweaks turned Pinterest traffic into meaningful revenue.
Pinterest is a long game, but the holidays are the perfect time to play it. By starting early, creating seasonal content, leaning into holiday keywords, running ads, and optimizing your website, you can turn inspiration seekers into buyers.
At PinHouss, we’ve helped businesses go from barely-there Pinterest sales to record-breaking months during the holidays. The strategy works, and we’d love to do the same for you. If you want to see what Pinterest can do for your holiday sales, reach out and let’s chat about ad management or custom strategy.
