Pinterest Metrics: How to Measure and What to do With Them

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

It’s officially 2020. Regardless of if you’re a “resolution person” or not, we’re going to help you out with one thing: Pinterest. If you don’t already have your Pinterest strategy at the top of your list of priorities this year, it’s time to take a second look.

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 media channel; 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 the Pinternet isn’t the hard part. Unlike other visual channels, Pinterest is less about posting timely content to stop followers mid-scroll, and more about curating content around what pinners are searching for. Posting cadence should also be top of mind on Pinterest — but 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. This begs the question, what types of photos and videos should you be posting?

To understand what type of content your audience wants most, staying on top of your pin performance and audience engagement is a must. Your 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.

The Numbers to Know

1. Link Clicks: The name of the game on Pinterest. Understanding the number of clicks on each of your pins provides you with insight into what type of content is converting pinners to your website and into real customers.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Break it Down by Boards and Pins

After you have a high level overview of the metrics that matter most on Pinterest, you can dig deeper into how each of your pins and boards are performing. With Pinterest’s built-in analytics tool, you can see your top pins and top boards at a glance. 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 moving forward.

Next Level Pinterest Insights

To maximize ROI and dig deeper into your brand’s performance on Pinterest, let us introduce you to Dash Hudson’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. DH Boards serves a whole different purpose than Pinterest Boards. Pinterest Boards are for organizing your content on your Pinterest profile. DH 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 Hudson 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 Hudson’s Pinterest tool, brands can easily understand what pins are driving each stage of engagement, and gather actionable insights to drive performance at each point of the process.

Once you have the Pinterest basics down and determine what you’re striving to achieve on the visual discovery channel, honing your strategy is the next step to success. To effectively craft a 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 Hudson’s Pinterest Analytics tool has the answers.

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