Pinterest has announced its first foray into providing free web analytics for marketers. The tool — which is available to users with verified websites — is designed to help website owners “understand which pieces of content people find most interesting.” The analytics provided will help illustrate to eligible users what and how people are sharing their site content.
Since launching in 2010, Pinterest has exploded in size to become the internet’s third largest social networking site, with approximately 30 million unique visitors in January 2013. This latest development follows on the heels of a new set of tools made available to website owners late last year, including business accounts and website verification. These latest updates continue to pave the way for greater business participation on the platform.
What types of analytics are being offered?
This update will allow brands that have a verified website on the platform to gain access to free performance data including:
- The number of people who have pinned from their site
- How many users have seen these pins
- How much traffic Pinterest is driving to a brand’s website
- A selection of the most repined, most clicked and recent pins to gain insight into what’s popular
To take advantage of Pinterest Web Analytics, brands will need to verify their websites on Pinterest and integrate the “Pin It” button into the site itself. This second step will allow a brand to see which content is most popular and encourage sharing among visitors.
What does this mean for brands?
Before this update, reporting on Pinterest activity was largely a manual exercise unless a third-party vendor, such as Pinfluencer or Curalate, was being utilized to help track and analyze presence. For website-verified brands on Pinterest, this update means that they will soon be able to access basic data from within Pinterest at no additional cost.
The biggest development missing from this announcement is the inability to provide analytics for websites that are NOT verified, either because they are not a top-level domain, or because they redirect from a vanity URL; for instance, Velveeta (kraftrecipes.com/velveeta) and Nike Golf (nike.com/golf).
Pinterest Web Analytics is a first step in the right direction. And with hints of more tools for brands coming down the pipeline, we’re excited to see how the next level of experimentation will further opportunities for marketers on the platform.
Cover Photo via Medianovak