Ready to track your Pinterest analytics? Great! Scrap what you use for on Facebook and Twitter and monitor these six metrics instead.
Let me explain. Pinterest is much more a search engine than a social media channel. As such, standard social benchmarks do little to track how your business is benefitting from Pinterest.
Take a moment to whisper these two words: Google Analytics. Get this to permeate your thinking.
As a visual search engine, your Pinterest analytics report should be patterned more like a Google Analytics report than your Facebook one.
Made this mind switch? OK, good. Then let’s dive into following six metrics. (Editor’s note: Agorapulse does not support Pinterest just yet. It’s on our product roadmap, however. In the meantime, we want to provide tips to set up social media managers for Pinterest success.)
1. Pinterest referrals to your website
If you regularly update your website with relevant content and striking visuals, you should notice visitors, both new and returning, on your site from Pinterest.
Not surprisingly, I use Google Analytics to track this activity. First, I track how many visitors I received each month from Pinterest. Then I compare the number of those visitors against visitors from all other social channels that sent folks to my site.
I suggest you monitor this monthly. You may soon see Pinterest eclipse your other (“real”) social channels in terms of referral traffic. Or not. Either way, it’s healthy to see how your Pinterest efforts lead to your home base.
2. Pinterest shares from your website
Now let’s think about this motion in reverse. How many visitors on your Website decide to create a pin from what they see on your blog, e-commerce shop, or photo galleries?
That is to say: How well does your Website content encourage people to show it off on Pinterest?
Related: Pinterest 101: What Every Smart Social Media Manager Needs to Know
You can gather this data from the “Activity from yourdomain.com” tab in your Pinterest analytics. Just click on “original pins.”
Your business’ Pinterest success not only depends on the content of your Pinterest boards but also depends a great deal on the quality of the content on your Website and blog. If the numbers in “original pins” is lower than anticipated, it’s time to take a good look at what’s being posted on your site.
3. Boards with the most repinned pins
If people took the time to pin (or repin) your blog’s content, you should know who they are—especially if their pins are getting great exposure on Pinterest. You’ll find these potential influencers and evangelists in the impressions section of the “Activity from yourdomain.com” tab.
Take a peek at which boards are producing significant impressions and clickthroughs for your pins. If these pinners consistently appear on this section of your monthly report, it’s time to at least say hello to these folks.
If you’re reporting to a team or client about Pinterest success, be sure to mention any influential boards that your pins have appeared on. (For example, if the above example was from a client, I’d tell her that her IFTTT recipes for the Pinterest article have been pinned to a variety of well-respected boards.)
4. Best in search
Keeping in mind that Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social channel, you’ll want to know which of your pins do well in Pinterest’s guided search.
The All-time sections of “Your Pinterest profile” and “Activity from yourdomain.com” show you which repins and Website pins get the best search results.
Each month, take a look at the top 10 pins. What about them do you think gets them to rank so well in search? The title? Description? Topic? Once you see consistent trends, determine how to apply these search-friendly ideas to future pins.
5. Demographics of your Pinterest posse
Check out the demographics section of the “Your Pinterest profile” tab to see where your audience resides.
If you’re a U.S. company and your demographics look a bit like this, the lion’s share of your audience is U.S. based. But a healthy amount of followers are in Australia and the U.K. With this knowledge, consider scheduling select pins to better greet these pinners.
See how your geographic spread changes over time. This information might encourage you to create pins differently.
6. Followers of your Pinterest account
If you’re responsible for running a report for someone with limited knowledge of social media, that recipient probably expects to see how many followers you have on Pinterest.
And this goes back to what I was saying about Pinterest not being a social media channel.
Pinners don’t go on to Pinterest to make friends. They go on to get ideas and inspiration. If inspiration is your game, your pins might rank well in search and get repinned and clicked through. If you’re lucky, a user will follow boards that these pins are connected to.
But inspiring a Pinterest user to say, “yes, I’ll follow you so that all your pins will pop into my newsfeed” is not all that common. Pinterest knows this. That’s why it doesn’t include follower counts in its monthly analytics.
* * *
Sign up now for a FREE demo.
