Pinterest Metrics: An Experts Guide

It might not be a new channel, but trust us, it will be one to watch.

With over 250 million users, and an increasing number of brands investing in it, Pinterest is a channel you don’t want to let pass you by. Pinterest isn’t your typical social network; think of it as a curated search engine. Users are going to Pinterest when they’re planning their next vacation, meal prepping for the week ahead, or designing their dream home. This means that brands need to think about curating visuals that will feed the visual search engine and be discovered by their target audiences.

Getting content onto Pinterest isn’t the hard part. Unlike other visual channels, Pinterest marketing is less about posting timely content to stop followers mid-scroll, and more about curating content around what pinners are searching for. While posting cadence should also be top of mind on Pinterest, it’s a whole different ball game compared to other visual channels. By posting cadence, we don’t mean once a day at an optimal engagement time—we mean multiple times a day, every day. Building up your content is what Pinterest is all about. That is why it is so important to be on top of your performance and metrics from the beginning, so you can know exactly what your audience is looking for.

‍

‍

To understand what type of content your audience wants most, staying on top of your pin performance and audience engagement is a must. A simple Pinterest Business account gives you the basic insights you need when you’re starting out to get your brand up and running. Your Business Account is equipped with a Pinterest Analytics tool that provides a high level overview of your brand’s performance to get a pulse on what’s working and what’s not.

1. Total Audience: This measures the total number of people with unique Pinterest accounts who viewed your pin. This metric is helpful because data can sometimes be skewed by the same people going back and viewing a pin multiple times.
2. Engaged Audience: This is the audience that is actually engaging with your pin, not just viewing. This metric shows you exactly where people are engaging with your pins and how. (More on that at #11)
3. Demographics: Have you ever wondered who your audience is? Then this metric is perfect for you. Find out insights on age, gender and even the devices your audience is using to view your pins.
4. Followers Driven: One of the simplest metrics, Followers Driven tracks how many people followed you after viewing a specific pin. This really informs you how popular specific content is.
5. Affinity: This metric refers to how much an audience is interested in a specific topic in comparison to the broader Pinterest audience. This really helps to know exactly why people are on your pins and how you can continue to create content they love.
6. Outbound Clicks (or Link Clicks): The name of the game on Pinterest. Understanding the number of times Pinterest users click on each of your pins provides you with insight into what type of content is converting pinners to your website and into real customers.
7. Impressions: Indicates how many times users laid eyes on your pin. Unlike other visual channels, your impressions don’t peak the day your pin goes live. Your pins age like fine wine, generating more impressions over time. This also means that it takes time to measure the impact of your pins and to understand what’s working and what’s not.
8. Pin Clicks (or Closeups): Tells you how many users are tapping on your pin, meaning that they either want to see it up close and personal, or view the description. This metric provides insight into which of your pins are capturing attention.
9. Saves: The number of pinners that are saving your pin to one of their own boards. This provides insight into which of your pins are resonating most with your target audience and inspiring their projects and purchases.
10. Top Converting Pins: This metric can be found in the Conversions section of your analytics, and it gives you the ability to measure your top pins based on different conversion goals like impressions, page visits, add to cart and more.
11. Engagement: On Pinterest, engagement is measured by link clicks+comments+close ups+saves/impressions. Similar to other channels, it provides insight into which pins evoke audience action. The biggest difference? Clicks, comments, closeups, and saves each provide a different value to your brand’s performance on Pinterest and are at a different point of a pinner’s journey. Comments and closeups indicate what type of content resonates the most with pinners, while clicks and saves are more closely tied to conversions.
12. Page Visits: This specific metric measures how many times users visited your website through Pinterest. Perfect for those who tie their website conversions to their Pinterest performance.
13. Top Boards: Top boards shows you all of the top performing boards that either you created yourself, or that your pins are a part of. Seeing how audiences are using your content can really serve as some great inspiration. 
14. Other Pins: This metric is a way to keep an eye on pins that others are making surrounding your website, brand or content.

Break it Down by Boards and Pins

After you have a high level overview of the Pinterest metrics that matter most, you can dig deeper into how each of your pins and boards are performing. You can quickly filter by date, or see which of your pins generated the most impressions over the last 30 days. This allows you to attribute any changes in performance to specific pins and boards, and understand what’s working and what’s not to optimize your strategy for curating popular pins moving forward.

To maximize ROI and dig deeper into your brand’s performance on Pinterest, let us introduce you to Dash Social's Pinterest Analytics tool. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the revenue and conversion driving opportunities on Pinterest are endless. To optimize your pins, you need to get granular when it comes to your brand’s performance on Pinterest. With our Pinterest Analytics feature, you can do just that.

1. Dash Social Boards serve a whole different purpose than Pinterest Boards. Pinterest Boards are for organizing your content on your Pinterest profile. Dash Social Boards enable brands to break content out into unique pillars to measure how specific styles of content perform with your audience. Brands can identify visual trends, measure specific campaigns, and create benchmarks for your unique content pillars.
2. Scheduler is a key tool for brands to get as much content into the Pinternet as possible. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, anything you know about posting cadence on other visual channels doesn’t apply to Pinterest. With Pinterest serving as a curated search engine, the ultimate goal is for your brand to show up in as many searches as possible. So it’s a no-brainer that pumping an abundance of content into Pinterest is necessary to capture attention. With this in mind, we created a scheduling and publishing tool to help you maintain a constant flow of pins to feed the engine. Seamlessly bulk schedule up to 10 pins at a time through the Dash Social Scheduler. With Pinterest Auto-Publish, set it and forget it.
3. Pinterest Insights keeps tabs on your pins, engagement, and audience behavior all in one place. With Dash Social's Pinterest tool, brands can easily understand what pins are resonating with your audience, and gather actionable insights to drive performance and inspire calls to action at each point of the process.

Once you have the measurement of Pinterest metrics down, and determine what you’re striving to achieve on the visual discovery channel, honing your Pinterest strategy is the next step to success. To effectively craft a marketing strategy that will generate real results for your brand, you need to understand which types of pins and boards are performing with your target audience. Pinterest’s built-in analytics tool provides a starting point for you to gain a high level understanding of your brand’s performance, but to dive deeper into the specific styles of pins that are engaging users, Dash Social's Pinterest Analytics tool has the answers.

‍

Are Pinterest metrics accurate?

Just like any tracking or analytics software for social media channels, you have to leave some room for error, and Pinterest Analytics is no different. The best way to avoid inaccurate data is to not put all your eggs into one basket by using multiple tracking softwares to gather your various metrics.

What is the most important metric on Pinterest?

This is entirely dependent on what your brand’s Pinterest goals are. While some brands may specifically look at engagement and top converting pins to measure success, others may really value the information that comes from demographics or engaged audience. A great place to start is page views. Knowing how many people are viewing your page can help you inform your strategy moving forward. Additionally, utilizing Google Analytics is a great way to measure the number of clicks to your website or e-commerce platform.

How do I find Pinterest stats?

It’s easy. Login to your Pinterest business account, click on Created below your profile name. Click on any pin to view its individual stats, and select see more to even more metrics for the selected pin. Repeat this process on any of your other pins you're curious about.