What you need to know about your monthly Pinterest views…
Let’s chat about Pinterest impressions. Or Pinterest “Monthly Views”
I have done a few posts on this, but it’s 2023, and worry around Pinterest impressions is still something I see daily in many business-related Facebook groups.
It’s something users come to me about weekly, frustrated they are doing something wrong and not sure how to fix it. In this post, I will explain what you need to know about Pinterest impressions and metrics and when you should worry.
Pinterest Monthly Views.
If you have been a follower of mine for a while, you know there is nothing that gets under my skin more than someone preaching how “they got 1 million monthly Pinterest views.” Why? Because these posts VERY RARELY talk about what percentage of those views converted to clicks. And that is because, most of the time, they don’t. And I don’t know about you, but my goal for using Pinterest is to get more users to my website.
Monthly Pinterest views consist of how often your pins appear in someone’s home feed. That’s it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t even mean they have laid eyes on your pin. It just means that you are reaching X amount of users over a 30-day period.
And sure, the more users you reach, the higher your chance for someone to see your pin and engage with it, but that doesn’t guarantee it. I had someone come to me just last week with a reach of 2.7 million; only 3% of those views were bringing her traffic. THREE PERCENT.
Monthly Pinterest views account for your overall account performance. But the performance of individual pins and their metrics affect your monthly views.
Confused yet?
You can see here my analytics look like a mountain range. Going up and down every single day. And they fluctuate like this because of individual pin stats. Analytics that look like this, are VERY normal.
You can see with this pin here that it had a GREAT reach for a few days (my monthly views also went up about 4%), but then my monthly views dropped enough for me to wonder why. So I go to my analytics and look at my top pins. When you click on a pin, you can see the individual pin metrics, but there is also an option to see ” more stats.” That is where this chart shows up telling me hey, this pin was killing it for a few days and then dropped off a lot.
It went from reaching over 3K users a day to 30. Not because of anything I did but because that is how the algorithm works. Pins pick up traction based on what keywords are trending and then stay at the top based on how much engagement they get. Eventually, that drops off. And the cool thing is, it can pick back up again! This pin is over a year old. I haven’t touched it since I published it. My favorite part about Pinterest is once a pin is on the platform, it’s there for life.
And while it may not have taken off right away, like this pin, it sent me over nearly 12 thousand views to my blog in 30 days. Just from ONE pin. Not bad right?
So 99% of the time, if you haven’t changed anything with your pinning strategy, and you see a drop, it’s most likely because a popular pin lost traction. And that happens all the time.
You will never see a continuous uptick in growth. Your numbers are always going to fluctuate. And that’s ok!
Here are the main factors that affect monthly views
- Pinterest is seasonal. Meaning content trends based on the season we are in and going into. Every user sees a pretty drastic decline in views from the months of March-July because the more significant holidays are over, and we are heading into summer, where Pinterest says that there are up to 40% fewer users on the platform. I like to call it “The Sumer Slump” Because it’s summer, and we all want to be outside! This is usually the time of year people freak out and go into panic mode over the significant drop in views. And while that hit isn’t fun for anyone, it will slowly start to go back up by the end of July when we are getting close to a new school year.
- A pin that was trending for a while and then lost traction. If you see more significant drops in views, look at your analytics and the individual metrics of your top-performing pins. 99% of the time, you will see that their reach has dropped, thus causing a drop in views.
- Your pins aren’t being seen as “fresh pins.” Did you know you aren’t supposed to re-pin your own content? While Pinterest announced in late 2021 this was a big no-no, many users are still re-pinning their own content. This outdated practice can drastically impact your reach and set off unwanted spam filters that can flag your account. Once it’s flagged, sadly, it’s tough to recover. So make sure you are up-to-date with CURRENT best practices.
- You are using improper Pinterest SEO. I still see SO many pins that are optimized with keyword stuffing like this ” Pinterest marketing | Pinterest trends | Pinterest tips | Pinterest for business.” This type of SEO is improper and not how the algorithm pulls keywords. You want to make sure your handle, profile, boards, and pins are optimized properly. If not, your pins will only reach 10-20% of what they could reach if you are up-to-date on Pinterest SEO.
I have been working in Pinterest marketing since 2015. I have trained over 6,000 students. And my 2 keys to success on Pinterest are very simple.
- Stay consistent. Pinterest wants to show users NEW content. The more active you are, the higher your confidence score will go and the more people you will reach. 1-2 new pin images a day is really all you need. MOST accounts do well with just one new pin a day. So it’s not as much work as you may think.
- SEO. Pinterest is a search engine. The way the algorithm picks up on SEO is different than other platforms. So learning the right way to optimize the content on Pinterest will be the final key to your success.
I promise it does not need to be complicated!
So while Pinterest views can stress most of us out, try and focus on what matters, outbound traffic.
If you want to learn more about current Pinterest Marketing tips, strategies, and how to optimize your account and pins for proper Pinterest SEO, click HERE!
As always,
Happy Pinning!
xo Megan
