Some top Pinterest influencers say they still earn more money on Instagram, where they have vastly fewer followers

Some top Pinterest influencers make more money on Instagram where they have much smaller followings, they told Business Insider.
We spoke to three influencers with a combined 15 million followers Keiko Lynn, Erica Chan Coffman, and Jan Halvarson on how they make money from the social platform.
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Keiko Lynn, a personal style and lifestyle blogger, is one of Pinterest's biggest stars and gets more than a million monthly viewers on the platform.

But advertisers care more about reaching her fans on Instagram and her blog, KeikoLynn.com, than the board-based social platform.

"It's usually a secondary ask from brands," Lynn told Business Insider. "I think it's underutilized because I have such a huge amount of eyes on my Pinterest."

When marketers do request sponsored pins, it's often part of a larger package deal, Lynn said. A typical sponsorship package includes one Instagram post, two to three frames on Instagram Stories, a blog post, and a dedicated pin on Pinterest.

Lynn, who's represented by the social influencer marketing agency Digital Brands Architects (DBA), is not alone in struggling to sell Pinterest as a standalone channel.

Pinterest influencers Erica Chan Coffman and Jan Halvarson, who each have millions of followers, said the platform has best served their businesses indirectly through traffic referrals.

"Soon after Pinterest launched, it quickly became obvious that it was the top driver of traffic to my blog," said Coffman, executive editor at HonestlyWTF . Coffman, who has 6.2 million followers on Pinterest, includes sponsored pins in contracts with large brands.

But she says most of her direct income comes from Instagram and her blog. Even though she has nearly 50 times more followers on Pinterest than Instagram, Coffman is able to charge more for Instagram posts and Stories.

"I make most of my income from blog posts and brand partnerships on my blog," she said. "Social media is definitely secondary. The fact that I can keep my traffic numbers high thanks to a lot of traffic drivers like Pinterest is hugely beneficial for my overall business strategy."

Read the full breakdown of how much money these influencers charge for sponsored pins on Business Insider Prime.

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Some top Pinterest influencers say they still earn more money on Instagram, where they have vastly fewer followers

Read the full breakdown of how much money these influencers charge for sponsored pins on Business Insider Prime.

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