There is no doubt about the explosive growth of the latest social media platform, Pinterest. Interestingly, of all the social networks, Pinterest ranks top when it comes to trust. It has also been reported that the platform is driving more referral traffic than Twitter, which is especially surprising considering that it is still invite only.

Like many other social networks, it can be difficult to quantify the effect that investment in a social space has on your bottom line. Social influences are often higher up in the purchase cycle, and influence a consumer at the awareness stage, rather than being the source attributed for the conversion.  However, we have a few suggestions on ways to start measuring how much traffic Pinterest drives to your site and what content users are sharing and repinning.

How Much Traffic Does Pinterest Drive?

Referral Traffic

To view your own Pinterest traffic trends in Google Analytics, look under Traffic Sources > Sources > Referrals.

Pinterest may be one of the top 10 traffic drivers, but if it is not reflected in this list, a search for the term “pinterest” is required using the simple search filter at the top of the report you are viewing. This search will show you visits from both pinterest.com and m.pinterest.com (if you have traffic from these sites).

It is important to note that you can view traffic from each individual pin as they all have their own unique URL. To view this information, click on the pinterest.com item in the Referral traffic report. 

(Image: www.blueacorn.com)

If you have an eCommerce site, use the same method explained above, but click on the eCommerce tab (default view is the Site Usage tab) to see if this platform contributed to any conversions on your site.

Dashboards

You may want to keep a regular check on how your Pinterest efforts are paying off, so setting up a dashboard with scheduled email reports (this is one of the latest updates to the current version of Google Analytics) would be useful. Information included could be visits from Pinterest, percentage of visits from a mobile device, the content users are viewing and actions they took on the site. This will help to inform your Pinterest strategy and identify your followers’ interests for possible new boards.

For a step-by-step guide in setting up a dashboard, see this article.

Multi-Channel Funnels

I mentioned above that your efforts in a social space often influence a user at the awareness and consideration set. Most of the reports you view in Google Analytics will use a last click attribution (the conversion will be credited to the last source a user visited your site from).  So Pinterest may be the last source before a conversion or a user may have discovered a product she wants to purchase when visiting your site from a Pinterest board, but returns later via organic traffic to make the conversion. All is not lost – thanks to multi-channel funnels, you can identify where in the conversion process Pinterest sits.

A multi-channel funnel is a very valuable report and “shows you how your marketing channels work together to bring in visitors and generate conversions.”

You will find these reports under Conversions > Multi-Channel Funnels, but remember that if you don’t have eCommerce enabled or goals set up, this report won’t show any data. In the Assisted Conversions report, select the primary dimension as Source/Medium and use the simple search function to filter for “pinterest”. The information shown in the report will be the number of conversions Pinterest assisted in, as well as those conversions it was the last source for.

(Image: http://social-media-management-services.com/google-analytics-for-pinterest)

To unpack these Assisted Conversions, use the Top Conversion path report. As above, select Source/Medium as the primary dimension and filter for “pinterest”. This will show you how Pinterest works with the other channels and at what stage in the funnel it assists.

Who is Sharing Your Content on Pinterest?

So now you have an idea of how to measure the traffic to your site from Pinterest. It is also important to understand which of your content users are sharing. To view all the pins from your site, you can use this easy formula:

http://pinterest.com/source/yourdomain.com/

e.g. http://pinterest.com/source/quirk.biz/

This search will show you the original pins of your content, as well as the pinners, with the number of repins listed below. It will not show you information on any subdomains, as these are tracked separately and require a separate search.

There’s no time like today to start measuring your Pinterest traffic and thinking of ways to optimise how you use this exciting new platform.