Pinterest Trends vs Google Trends: A Guide for Smart Marketing Choices

If you’ve ever scrambled to jump on a marketing trend only to find it’s already peaked, you’re not alone.

Trend timing can make or break your campaigns. Get in too early, and you risk betting on a fad that fizzles. Get in too late, and you’re just adding noise to an already crowded conversation.

That’s where trend analysis comes in.

Two of the most valuable tools for discovering trends before your competitors are Google Trends and Pinterest Trends. Both provide a window into what’s capturing attention, but they do it from different angles. When used together, they can become the backbone of a multifaceted SEO strategy that delivers more traffic and more sales.

In this guide, we’ll break down:

• How Google Trends works and when to use it.
• How Pinterest Trends offers a unique lens into ever-changing visual trends and early-stage ideas.
• Where keyword research tools like Keyword Tool fit in.
• How e-commerce and service businesses can use trend data to shape marketing strategy.
• And why pairing these tools is a smart move for a business SEO strategy.

Let’s dive in.

Article Summary

• Google Trends = What’s hot right now based on real search data.
• Pinterest Trends = What’s about to be hot, especially in visual-first industries.
• Pairing the two trends gives you a more complete picture of consumer interest, from inspiration to purchase.
• Keyword Tool bridges the gap by providing hard numbers on search volume and competition.
• E-commerce and service businesses alike can use trend data to boost campaigns, time ads, and capture demand early.

Understanding Google Trends

If you want to understand what people are really searching for, and when they’re searching for it, Google Trends is your starting point.

It’s a free tool from Google that shows how interest in a topic changes over time based on actual search activity. Unlike many keyword research tools, Google Trends doesn’t just give you a single static number for search volume; it shows the pattern of interest, which is just as important.

How Google Trends Works (and What the Numbers Mean)

When you type a search term or topic into Google Trends, you’ll see a graph with numbers from 0 to 100.

• 100 = the peak popularity of that term in the selected time frame and location.
• 50 = half as popular as the peak.
• 0 = not enough data to report.

This is a relative scale, not a raw count of searches. That’s why you’ll often want to pair Google Trends with another keyword tool (like KeywordTool.io or Semrush) to understand exact monthly search volume.

Official note from Google: The tool uses anonymized, aggregated search data and scales results so you can compare terms fairly across regions and time. You can read more about this in Google’s Trends methodology.

Key Features That Make Google Trends Powerful

1. Compare Search Terms Side by Side
Want to know whether “Pinterest marketing” or “Instagram marketing” is getting more interest right now? Add both terms and instantly see which one’s trending higher and how the gap changes by month or year.

2. Filter by Location, Time, and Category
Targeting a campaign for Canada? Running ads for a seasonal product? You can filter by country, state, or even city, as well as by date range (past hour to past 5 years) and category (like “Shopping” or “Business”).

3. Discover Related Topics and Related Queries
Scroll down in your results, and you’ll see Google Trends related topics and related queries—searches that often happen alongside your keyword. These are goldmines for content ideas, PPC targeting, and social media posts.

4. Spot Seasonal Patterns
Ever notice how “Valentine’s Day gifts” spike every February? With Google Trends, you can confirm exactly when interest starts climbing. This is especially useful for planning content calendars, stocking inventory, or timing shopping ads.

Why It’s a Must-Have for Marketing Strategy

Google Trends gives you trend data straight from the world’s largest search engine. That means you’re not guessing; you’re seeing real demand. For a beginner, here’s why that matters:

• Better timing: Launch campaigns when interest is rising, not falling.
• Smarter targeting: Use location filters to tailor campaigns for specific regions.
• Content planning: Create blog posts, videos, and social content around trending topics before competitors.
• Search intent insights: By comparing multiple terms, you can spot shifts in the language your audience uses—like a move from “cheap” to “affordable” or “AI tools” to “AI assistants.”

Example: Let’s say you’re promoting a fitness app. You notice that “home workouts” peaked during lockdown, but “gym workouts” has been climbing steadily since 2023. That tells you to adjust your business’s SEO strategy, ad messaging, and even product features to match current demand.

Pro Tip: If you’re brand new to Google Trends, start with the Beginner’s Guide from Google to familiarise yourself with the filters and data interpretation. Then, use it weekly as part of your multifaceted SEO strategy. It’s one of the simplest ways to keep your marketing aligned with what people actually want.

Keyword Research with KeywordTool.io

While Google Trends is great for spotting when interest in a topic is rising, it doesn’t tell you the actual search volume, competition level, or cost-per-click data you’d need to make budget and content decisions.

That’s where KeywordTool.io comes in. Unlike Google Trends, it pulls keyword suggestions from multiple search engines, including Google, YouTube, Bing, Amazon, and even Pinterest, so you can see exactly how people are searching across platforms.

Here’s how it complements Google Trends:

• Discover trending topics by pairing trend spikes from Google Trends with KeywordTool.io’s volume and competition metrics.
• Validate search terms before committing to SEO or PPC campaigns.
• Build a keyword list tailored to your target audience, factoring in both trending searches and long-term evergreen terms.

Example: If Google Trends shows a spike for “eco-friendly gift ideas,” KeywordTool.io might reveal that “sustainable Christmas gifts” gets 27,000 monthly searches and has moderate competition, while “zero waste gift wrap” has 5,000 monthly searches but low competition. Pair that insight with seasonal spike data, and you’ve got a campaign with the timing and targeting to deliver more traffic and sales.

Visual Discovery on Pinterest

If Google is where people search for what they want right now, Pinterest is where they dream about what they’ll want next.

Pinterest calls itself a visual discovery platform, and it works very differently from traditional search engines. Instead of typing in a query to find an immediate answer, Pinterest users browse, pin, and save ideas for future projects, purchases, and plans. This makes it a goldmine for discovering trends early, sometimes months before they show up in Google search.

And the best way to tap into this early-stage intent? Pinterest Trends.

How Pinterest Trends Works

Pinterest Trends is a free tool that shows the popularity of specific keywords and topics on the platform over time. Like Google Trends, it gives you a visual graph of interest, but there are some key differences:

• Pinterest data reflects what people are planning, not necessarily buying today.
• Searches are often tied to seasonal events, life milestones, or aesthetic preferences (what Pinterest calls ever-changing visual trends).
• It’s fueled by billions of pins, saves, and searches from a highly engaged audience — over 480 million monthly active users worldwide.

The tool lets you:

• Track keyword popularity over the past 12 months.
• See trending searches in your region or globally.
• Explore related topics and other trends gaining momentum.
• Spot the artwork vibe, including the colors, textures, and styles currently resonating with your audience.

Use Pinterest Trends to plan your campaigns 30–90 days ahead for seasonal spikes. Learn more in their official business guide.

Why Pinterest Trends Is a Marketer’s Secret Weapon

Pinterest users are planners. They search for “fall wedding ideas” in summer, “Christmas gift wrap” in October, and “home office setup” long before January’s New Year’s resolutions kick in. This means you can position your products or services in front of your target audience before they even start comparing options on other platforms.

This is especially valuable for:

• E-commerce brands in fashion, beauty, food, home decor, DIY, or gifts.
• Service businesses like event planners, interior designers, and wellness coaches.
• Content creators looking to align blog and video topics with emerging visual trends.

Example: If you run an online store selling kitchenware, Pinterest might show “Japandi style kitchens” trending upward in March. By the time competitors notice in June, you could already have pins, blog content, and shopping ads driving more traffic from this search term.

Pinterest as a Visual SEO Channel

Think of your Pinterest profile as a digital art gallery for your brand. Your boards and pins can be optimized just like blog content:

• Use relevant keywords in pin titles and descriptions.
• Include high-quality vertical images that match current visual trends.
• Link every pin back to your website or online store to drive referral traffic.

Unlike social posts on Instagram or Facebook, pins have a long shelf life. Pinterest’s algorithm can keep surfacing them for months or even years if they remain relevant. Because Pinterest acts like both a search engine and a social platform, it offers insights into not only what people are saving but also why.

Official resource: Pinterest has a dedicated creative best practices guide to help you design pins that get saved, clicked, and acted on.

Pro Tip: If you’re using Pinterest Trends, pair it with Google Trends to validate the timing of your campaigns. Pinterest may show a trend that is starting to gain traction, while Google can tell you when broader search interest is peaking, helping you plan content, ads, and inventory for maximum impact.

Shopping Ads and E-commerce

For e-commerce, trend data is more than a nice-to-have; it’s a direct path to more traffic and sales.

Google Shopping Ads let you place products directly in front of users actively searching for them. Pairing Google Trends insights with Shopping Ads targeting means you can align your ad spend with peak demand.

Pinterest also offers shopping ads and a free product feed integration, turning your pins into shoppable assets. Since Pinterest’s audience is in “planning mode,” your ads meet them while they’re still open to discovering products, not just when they’ve already decided what to buy.

Pro tip: Use trend data from both platforms to stock inventory strategically, schedule promotions, and create ad creative that reflects trending searches. This is how you play the e-commerce game at an advanced level.

Service Businesses and Social Media Marketing

If you think trend data is only for product sellers, think again. Service businesses can also use it.

Imagine you’re a wedding planner. Pinterest might show a spike in “intimate elopement ideas,” while Google Trends reveals rising interest in “small wedding venues near me.” You could create blog posts, social media content, and ads targeting both, capturing leads before your competitors even notice the shift.

For social media campaigns, aligning your content calendar with what’s trending can help your posts gain traction faster, especially on platforms like Pinterest, where the algorithm rewards relevance and timeliness.

Slow Ranking and SEO Strategies

Here’s the reality:

If your site is new, Google’s algorithm can be slow to move you up the rankings. Competing against established sites with high domain authority is a long game.

That’s why tapping into Pinterest’s discovery-first ecosystem is a smart move. Pins can gain traction quickly, sending referral traffic while your SEO builds momentum.

Meanwhile, keep investing in a multifaceted SEO strategy that includes:

• Keyword research for both Google and Pinterest.
• Link building to improve Google rankings.
• Ongoing content creation targeting both long-term evergreen topics and timely trends.

The beauty of this approach is that you’re not waiting around for rankings; you’re actively driving traffic and building brand visibility across multiple channels.

Your Next Step

Using Pinterest Trends vs Google Trends isn’t an either/or choice; it’s a digital marketing approach that works best in combination.

When you align your content, ads, and offers with trending topics from both search and social discovery, you create an inclusive platform presence, meeting your target audience wherever they are in the buying journey.

If you’re ready to turn insights into results, we can help.

Book your free strategy call with SEO Sherpa, and we’ll show you exactly how to integrate trend analysis into your business’s SEO strategy, so you can stop guessing, start anticipating, and gain traction in ways your competitors can’t match.