Most Pinterest creators have a fuzzy list of “competitors” — the 3 or 4 big accounts they admire. The real competition is different: it’s the 12-25 accounts that appear next to your pins in your SERPs, every day. Finding them by hand takes hours. Auto-discovery does it in 30 seconds.

Your real Pinterest competitors are the accounts Pinterest already groups you with. This tutorial shows you how to surface them automatically, what to copy, and what to ignore.

Why “competitor lists” built by hand are wrong

When creators name their competitors, they typically pick:

  • The big aspirational accounts in the niche (often 100× their size — irrelevant)
  • The 2-3 friends they DM about Pinterest (sample size = 3)
  • Whoever shows up first when they search a single keyword (one data point)

None of these reflect the actual SERP overlap — the accounts that fight you for the same impressions every day. Without that data, your “competitive research” is just admiring people.

How auto-discovered competitors work

The Profile Analyzer runs four passes on your account:

  1. 1

    1. Extract your keyword footprint

    Pulls your last 200 pins, parses titles + descriptions + alt text, surfaces the 20-30 keywords you’ve been pinning against the hardest.

  2. 2

    2. Pull the live SERP for each

    For your top 20 keywords, queries the live Pinterest SERP and records the top 50 pins + their creators.

  3. 3

    3. Score creators by SERP overlap

    An account appearing in 18 of your top 20 SERPs is a way stronger signal than one appearing in 2. The Analyzer ranks creators by “overlap score.”

  4. 4

    4. Filter for size relevance

    Drops accounts > 20× your follower count (irrelevant) and accounts < 1/5 your size (you’re not the same league). Returns the 12-25 accounts in your real cohort.

12-25

auto-discovered competitors in your real cohort, vs. the 3-4 you'd name by hand

The 4 things to do once you have the list

1. Find their best pins

Sort each competitor’s pins by save count. Their top 10 reveal what works in your cohort right now. Not what worked in 2022 — what’s working today, on accounts your size. Copy the angle, not the pin.

2. Steal their keyword footprint

Every competitor pin has a title and description. Aggregate the keywords across their last 50 pins — you’ll see 5-8 keywords you should be targeting but aren’t. Add them to your queue. See our keyword research guide for the workflow.

3. Identify board gaps

If 8 of your 12 competitors have a board called “Winter Capsule Wardrobe” and you don’t, that’s a topical gap Pinterest’s graph is telling you to fill. Create the board, fill it with 20+ pins over 2 weeks.

4. Watch their cadence

Check how often they publish fresh pins. Match the median, don’t out-publish — the Pinterest algorithm rewards consistency more than volume.

“I assumed my competitors were Country Living and Apartment Therapy. PinTool showed me they were 18 bloggers I’d never heard of with 5K-30K followers — my actual league. That list rewired how I picked keywords.”
— Eva, who doubled her reach in 30 days

3 traps when reading the list

Trap 1: copying pin templates verbatim

Pinterest’s algorithm rewards novelty in the first 48 hours. If 12 competitors use the same Canva template, copying it makes you the 13th identical pin. Differentiate visually.

Trap 2: chasing the biggest competitor

The Analyzer filters out the >20× accounts on purpose. If you do see a big account in your list, it’s probably because Pinterest is showing it on a few of your keywords — not because you can beat it head-to-head. Focus on the 12-25 mid-tier competitors.

Trap 3: treating the list as static

Your competitive cohort shifts every 1-2 months as your keyword footprint evolves. Re-run the Analyzer monthly. New keywords = new competitors = new copy targets.

Running the Analyzer in 30 seconds

  1. 1

    Sign up free

    Create a PinTool account — no card required. Free plan includes 1 Profile Analyzer scan per day.

  2. 2

    Paste your Pinterest username

    From your dashboard, go to Profile Analyzer. Paste your handle (or any public Pinterest username). Hit Scan.

  3. 3

    Read the 5 tabs

    Keyword footprint, top boards, competitor cohort, audit score (out of 100), and 5-action plan. The competitor cohort is tab 3.

  4. 4

    Export the competitor list

    CSV export with each competitor’s handle, follower count, overlap score, and link to their profile. Open in a spreadsheet, work through one a day.

Frequently asked questions

How is auto-discovery different from a manual competitor list?

A manual list is based on who you think you compete with. Auto-discovery is based on who Pinterest’s SERP actually places you next to. The overlap between the two lists is usually small — most creators are surprised by the auto-discovered set.

Do I need to be following these accounts?

No. Auto-discovery is SERP-based, not graph-based. The Analyzer surfaces creators ranking on the same keywords as you regardless of who follows whom.

How often should I re-run the Analyzer?

Monthly. Your keyword footprint shifts as you publish new pins, and so does your competitive cohort. A quarterly minimum, monthly for active creators.

Can I analyze a competitor’s account directly?

Yes. The Analyzer works on any public Pinterest profile, not just your own. Useful for reverse-engineering an account you admire — paste their handle and you’ll see their keyword footprint and their auto-discovered competitors.

What’s the audit score for?

It’s a 0-100 score on 5 dimensions: board diversity, board descriptions, external link coverage, keyword richness, profile completeness. Useful as a quarterly baseline. See our 27-item SEO checklist for the underlying items.

Where to go from here

Or run your first scan now: free Profile Analyzer, no card.