New Pinterest Analytics - what are they good for?

This week, Pinterest rolled out a brand new analytics tool designed for SMB’s. This is a welcome step, showing that Pinterest are becoming more and more focused on providing support for their SMB eco-system and we can look forward to continued improvements. It also hints at the fact that they’re revving up to roll out more paid for promotion (currently only available in the US) to boost the number of advertisers on their platform.

So, what are the new analytics good for?

They contains loads of useful numbers that can be used to benchmark and optimize your Pinterest presence such as reach, engagement, website pins, repins, CTR’s etc.

The numbers are useful – for example you can see which images from your website are getting the most pins, and how much traffic they’re driving back to your site. You then use this knowledge to create more of the content is driving traffic and less of the content like that which is not.

But the real gold in them there tools goes beyond just the numbers, and is found in the brand new audience tab. Everyone in business knows that understanding your audience is crucial so any additional insights into who they are what they like is valuable for optimal marketing. And the insights that Pinterest delivers not just insights for the sake of it, but insights that are actionable.

For example:

Look at the top broad interests of your followers –your followers have other interests, and it follows that other people who share those interests, may also want of follow you. Think about how you can create content that has crossovers between those interests and your products.

The analytics also include “Boards with a lot of your Pins”. This gives insight into who your superfans are, and from there you can find your superfans who have a lot of followers. A superfan influencer – bingo! Reach out to them. Give them some love. Flick them something for free, tell them you love their work, and encourage them to keep on pinning (preferably your stuff).

Also take a look at other businesses your followers follow. Use it to find your competitors and then perve on, I mean admire, their work. Not all of them will be competitors, so look around for inspiration and ideas and you may even stumble upon a complementary business for a perfect partnership.

Lastly - Look at the age, gender and categories of boards users are following and create a Facebook target audience that you can use for a Facebook advertising campaign. This data is likely to be different from Facebooks own data, so it gives you a new,  highly targeted audience to test out and see if it converts to sales.

The new analytics are a nice step forward and I'm excited about what's next from the company as they continue to court advertisers.