What is the best way to track sales generated from a blog post & pin?

July 5th, 2016

I have created an infographic which is on my blog and I then pinned it to pinterest. I would like to easily identify and see the clicks, page views and sales it generates in google analytics.

What is the best way to do the tracking of the infographic on my blog and on pintrest?

Roger MacKenzie Analytics Freelancer and Machine Learning Student

July 5th, 2016

You can track both your blog and Pinterest with Google Analytics. On Pinterest you get a Business account and then export your Pinterest Analytics data, and then import it to GA. That is the short answer.

If you want a better integration between GA and Pinterest, then you will need to hire someone go do it. I looked at Pinterest Developer site and you can do almost anything, but the real question is (as always) ROI. You know; what do you want to know and what's it worth to you!

If you are reasonable at GA, then you should be getting good data, which is synchronized with your web-site and blog fairly quickly. It can be a bit confusing and possibly not worth your time, so maybe you should hire someone to do it. Or, you could just use Pinterest Analytics.

I will expend on this answer if you wish, and best of luck

Josh Kirschner Founder & CEO at Techlicious

July 5th, 2016

For a single infographic, it should be pretty easy to track views and clicks in Google Analytics from a source using UTM codes in the URL. Here is a simple Google template for doing that: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en.

Tracking sales requires a bit more effort and some coding skill. You can set up Ecommerce Tracking in GA through Google Tag Manager, but you'll have to feed it the product/sales related information dynamically. This article provides an overview on how to do that: https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6107169.

Once the UTM codes and Ecommerce tracking are in place, you will be able to start seeing granular analysis on your traffic and sales.

Christi Foist Multi-Channel Communications Strategist

July 5th, 2016

Google Analytics' "acquisition" section has several options you might use. I've not done this, but you can set up a named campaign to specifically track where viewers come from. (It looks like this would be a good way to compare traffic/referrals for one infographic vs. another.) Since you're looking at Pinterest in particular, the acquisition section also includes an option to look at social-media sources in particular.

My colleague says Google's URL builder for campaign tracking might also provide your answer.

Mike Guinan Director of Marketing & Analytics | Scientific Digital Marketing Executive

July 7th, 2016

Have you looked in Acquisition > Campaigns > All Campaigns? It should show up there as well if you added the utm parameters.

Sidney Sclar SID the SECURITY PRO at sidthesecuritypro.com

July 5th, 2016

Promo code for tracking purposes.

Davida Shensky We help small to medium size companies put together a strategy for success and hold you accountable to follow through

July 6th, 2016

I use Google Analytics

Roy EA Helping Clients Build Products, Processes, & Profits| Adjunct Chief Financial, Research, or Operations Officers|

July 6th, 2016

These are all great!
You can also use Alexa to monitor performance.

Another approach- one that actually may inflate your results- is to choose a specific item and associate it with a giveaway (hence, the potential for inflation).

Mike Guinan Director of Marketing & Analytics | Scientific Digital Marketing Executive

July 6th, 2016

In Google Analytics, setup goal conversion tracking for your sales process if you haven't already. For your blog post, you could setup a goal conversion funnel with that blog post as one of the steps to a conversion. For Pinterest, you can look in your goal conversion section and look at the source/dimension section and see your Pinterest referrals there. If you need more info let me know.

Angela Wozniak

July 7th, 2016

Hi guys,

All great tips! I've had a few sales from Pinterest already but in GA the source shows up as just "Pinterest". I would like to know which pins are generating the sales.

What I have done so far is pinned my infographic which links back to my blog post and I have put UTM tagging at the end of the URL of the blog post. If the customer clicks the pin, gets to my blog and then buys will the UTM data show in GA?

Josh Kirschner Founder & CEO at Techlicious

July 7th, 2016

It should show up. You can check your Paths to your sales confirmation page to see how people got there. Or set up Goals as Mike suggested above. But you won't see specific amounts for sales of products unless you have different confirmation ppage for each product or you have Ecommerce tracking set up.