Book people love a good story. One that is filled with twists and turns. Interpreting Pinterest analytics is much like watching a drama unfold. Ups and downs. Peaks and valleys.
With a little bit of training, Pinterest users can read the receptibility of their content within a few days of posting. Analytics allow pinners to see how many people have seen their pins and if the viewers found the content to be engaging.
Now, during this awful pandemic, the fact that isolated Pinterest marketers can analyze and strategize measurable visibility plans for their content at all is down-right exhilarating.
For me, as a Pinterest specialist, analyzing analytics is where the real fun begins. I love the challenge of creating content and watching it register over time. I keep a running ledger of each account’s progress, fully intending to come out strong in the end.
A pinner can get as involved in the analytic analysis process as they like. Deep dives or shallow wades. Either way, there is tremendous information to be gained using Pinterest Analytics.
Pinterest has its own lexicon when it comes to analytics. The primary terms marketers need to understand are Impressions, Close-Ups, Saves, and Click-Throughs.
A quick summary of each is listed below:
• Impressions: The number of people who have seen your content during a prescribed amount of time.
• Close-Ups: The number of times a Pinterest user accessed your content to closely consider the pin graphics, title, and descriptions.
• Saves: The number of times your content has been saved onto another pinner’s platform.
• Click-throughs: The Pinterest user found the content engaging enough to access the pinner’s website. From here, the pinner’s website should inform the Pinterest user what to do next – buy, read, subscribe, or engage.
Think about analytics terms as if the Pinterest user were a shopper at a bookstore. Opening the door to the store is synonymous to posting their need or desire in the Pinterest search bar. An impression is the act of searching through the wide array of titles to eventually find your book. A close-up is when the shopper picks your book off the shelf to study the cover. A save is when the potential buyer reads the flap copy and flips through some pages. A click-through is the decision that they want to know more. Bingo!
Author Lisa Rose and I have been diligently working on a pre-pub campaign for her adorable book A Zombie Vacation, illustrated by Ángeles Ruiz (Behrman House), released on Sept. 1.
Together, we have created all kinds of promotional content to raise visibility for her fatigued little zombie.
We discovered that video pins brought us the highest return. Last week her top pin was an eight-second-long video pin raking in over 2,000 views, or impressions, for a total of 252 minutes total. This pin attracted 93 close-ups and four saves for the week. But, alas, during this seven-day period, we did not score any click-throughs.
The story behind this analysis is that, while the graphics and overall messaging of the pin are faring quite well, we need to tweak the invitation for engagement just a bit more. Maybe we should ask her audience to access her website for a little Halloween trick or treat. A free download, maybe? The plot is thickening.
By consistently creating and sharing relevant content through her Pinterest platform, Lisa has been able to amplify her visibility exponentially.
The most remarkable take-away from this scenario is that, during a time when person-to-person events were cancelled and one-on-one opportunities to engage with potential buyers have vanished, Lisa has found a way to connect with potential readers – lots of them. The numbers prove it.
Together we have discovered where her audience lives on the platform. We found the zombie lovers! Now we need to develop a strategy to convince them to engage even further. We’ll get it. Just you wait and see.
Before Lisa and I began working on her pre-publication campaign together, she was managing her account quite effectively on her own.
“I had a lot of content,” Lisa says. “It seemed overwhelming to get everything on boards. Deb helped me create templates so that it was very easy for me to create new pins. Then, I just kept a schedule with creating new pins and posting a couple of times a week…Every time I posted about myself, I made sure to repost something by someone else. I really like how we lift each other up on the platform. It’s not just about you. Together we all rise!”
Bravo, Lisa! Well said.
I’d like to encourage you to take the Pinterest plunge. Open a Business Account. Craft some groovy graphics. Build some bodacious boards. Post some engaging pins. Rinse and repeat, time and time again.
Be confident in your content. There is an audience out there just waiting to find it. I am sure of it.
Pinterest is the place for you to make that special connection.
Happy pinning!
Cynsational Notes
This is the final installment of Debbie Gonzales’ posts on Pinterest. In case you missed the others, check out the Buzz About Pinterest and Business versus Personal Pinterest accounts.
Debbie Gonzales is an author, a career educator, and a Pinterest marketing specialist. Being passionate about the marketing potential of Pinterest, Deb delights in leading on-line or in-person workshops, managing client platforms, and coaching Pinterest users in one-on-one sessions.
She has created and established the Guides by Deb website, a free resource consisting of over 300 standards-aligned teacher guides crafted for some of the finest kidlit books in the industry.
Deb is the author of Girls With Guts: The Road To Breaking Barriers And Bashing Records, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon (Charlesbridge, 2019). She earned her MFA in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.