With 450 million active users, Pinterest drives a ton of online traffic and revenue. About 80% of users claim they’ve bought something off Pinterest, and 85% have bought something based on pins from brands. That’s a lot of earning potential!
Like any social media platform, to get the best results from Pinterest, you need to be posting at the right time.
In this article, we tell you everything you need to know about the best time to post on Pinterest.
Pinterest Smart feed – Does Pinning Time Matter Anymore?
In Pinterest’s early days, posts appeared in a user’s feed in the order they were posted. This meant the time you posted was super important. If you posted when few people were online, no one would see your post.
In 2014, Pinterest introduced a new system called the Smart Feed. This system shows users’ posts based on what they’re interested in, not when the posts were made.
The Smart Feed system ranks posts based on three things:
- It mixes different types of posts together.
- It looks at the quality of the posts.
- It puts posts into categories based on who’s following them, what they’re related to, and what the user’s interested in.
Even though the Smart Feed uses decides which posts to show, the most important thing is how people initially react to it. If a post gets a lot of clicks, saves, and repins right after it’s posted, the system sees it as a high-quality post. This makes the post appear higher in search results.
So, even with the Smart Feed system, it’s still important to post when your audience is most likely to be online and interacting. This helps your post get more initial engagement, which helps it in the overall feed.
So yes, pinning time does matter.
But when is the right time to post on Pinterest? Let’s find out.
Best Time To Post on Pinterest – Generic Overview
When’s the best time to post on Pinterest? Various companies have published data-centric reports on this topic, but each has slightly different results.
For example, here’s a summary of CoSchedule’s data-driven report:
- Peak times – (8 pm- 11 pm), (1 am – 3 am).
- Worst times – (12 am – 1 am), (5 am – 6 am)
- Best days – Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.
- Worst days – Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
- Best time zones (US) – Central and Eastern Time zones.
On the flip side, Sprout Social found the following:
- Best day: Saturday.
- Best time: 2-4 pm (EST) and 10 pm-1 am (EST).
Here’s a summary of results from other leading brands, businesses, and publications –
Although these look varied, we can draw some key insights by combining them. The consensus is late evening hours, specifically between 8 PM – 11 PM is the best time to post on Pinterest.
The Best Time To Post On Pinterest By Day
The best time to post on Pinterest changes by day. User engagement varies throughout the week, affecting the visibility of your pins. Weekends see higher activity, while weekdays mostly peak at night.
These trends can differ based on your audience’s habits, so knowing your audience and experimenting with posting times is crucial.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – Monday
Optimal Pinning hours – Monday (ranked best to worst)
The best time to post on Pinterest on Monday is 8:00 PM.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – Tuesday
Optimal Pinning hours – Tuesday (ranked best to worst)
The best time to post on Pinterest on Tuesday is 8:00 PM.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – Wednesday
Optimal Pinning hours – Wednesday (ranked best to worst)
The best time to post on Pinterest on Wednesday is 2:00 PM.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – Thursday
Optimal Pinning hours – Thursday (ranked best to worst)
The best time to post on Pinterest on Thursday is 8:00 PM.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – Friday
Optimal Pinning hours – Friday (ranked best to worst)
The best time to post on Pinterest on Friday is 4:00 PM.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – Saturday
Optimal Pinning hours – Saturday (ranked best to worst)
The best time to post on Pinterest on Saturday is 11:00 PM.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – Sunday
Optimal Pinning hours – Sunday (ranked best to worst)
The best time to post on Pinterest on Sunday is 8:00 PM.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest – User Specific
While the above results can help you start growing on Pinterest, these results aren’t universal.
Solution? Manual analysis of data, constant experimentation, and outsourcing.
Here are three ways to do this –
1 – Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is a free tool that gives you basic information and services to improve website visibility on search engines.
While bloggers and marketing professionals use this tool to identify top traffic sources, individuals or businesses trying to grow on Pinterest can leverage GA to find the right time to schedule your pins.
Marketers use this tool to see where their traffic comes from and various other insights. You can also use it to determine the best time to post on Pinterest for your specific website.
Here’s how –
Recent Traffic Patterns
In GA, select Acquisition > Channels > Social > Pinterest, to see a detailed report on recent traffic patterns.
Set the timeline for the last 30 days. Then, you’ll see which days your site had the highest traffic from Pinterest.
Top Performing Posts
You can also use Google Analytics to see which of your posts performed the best in the past.
Go to Acquisition > Social > Network referral > Pinterest.
Select a Blog post and set the time frame to 60 days.
Is there a pattern of days with peak traffic?
Track peak performance days and schedule fresh pins on related blog posts for those days moving forward.
2 – Pinterest Analytics
Just like GA, Pinterest analytics (PA) gives users various metrics to analyze their performance — impressions, engagement, top pins, boards, and more.
You can also find detailed information like audience location. Use that information to schedule your pins for your audience’s time zone.
Pro-tip – Combine the audience insights from PA with the top referring pins in Google Analytics.
3 – Third Party Tools – Tailwind
Another way to decide the best time to post for your business is to use an expert tool. There’s a couple out there, our favorite is Tailwind.
Tailwind is a tool that helps you schedule social media posts and is specifically designed for Pinterest.
Unlike other tools that post pins without a strategy, Tailwind has a feature called Smart Schedule. This figures out the best time to post pins based on how active your account is.
Even if you’re new to Pinterest, Tailwind can figure out the best times for you to post based on what’s popular in your area of interest.
All you need to do is decide how often you want to post pins.
For example, if you choose to post three times a week, Tailwind might post more on a Tuesday if that’s when people in your area of interest are most active, and less on a Sunday when fewer people are likely to see your post.
You can also periodically update your Smart Schedule to keep up with changes in when people are active.
To enable Smart Schedule, go to –
- Tailwind dashboard > Your Schedule > General Queue.
- Click “recreate schedule” and choose desired pinning frequency.
With Smart Schedule, you’ll have access to the right number of timeslots. It’ll even warn you if you choose above the ideal pinning limit.
Select ‘shift previously scheduled pins to newly-created timeslots’ and then hit the green button at the bottom.
Congrats, you’ve automated your way to consistent engagement on Pinterest.
Takeaway
Understanding when to post on Pinterest boosts your visibility, engagement, and sales revenue. General guidelines can offer a starting point, but audience-specific analysis is key for continued growth. Consistency and quality of content are still “king”, so figure out what your audience likes and then iterate. Happy pinning!
