What’s the Best Time to Post on Pinterest? (2023)

Wondering the best time to post on Pinterest?

Pinterest is such an important platform for website traffic. My best social referrer!

But it can be a challenge keep up with the best marketing practices on Pinterest, and constantly create Pins for Pinterest.

And in 2023, we’ll get a new twist on Pinterest Idea Pins.

With more media types and competition, Pinterest will take more effort than ever.

Don’t waste it! Be sure you Pin at the best time.

Why Pinning Time Matters

Go back a few years when we had a chronological feed on Pinterest.

When you Pinned was super important. Pin at the wrong time and no one would see it!

Now we have Smart Feed. At first glance, it might seem that when you Pin isn’t important anymore.

But that’s not the whole story. You still need to know the best times to Pin to Pinterest.

That’s because you want – need – your followers to interact with your content when it first arrives.

We often say Pinterest follower numbers don’t matter.

But their reactions do.

If your followers see new Pins and save or click on them, that tells Pinterest they’re good. Desirable. Worthy for more Pinners to see.

Then Pinterest can boost them in the Smart Feed and search results, to ensure that more people who don’t follow you see them.

This really helps you get found on Pinterest!

So knowing when your audience is around is really important.

When Is the Best Time to Post on Pinterest?

It’s best to decide the best time to post on Pinterest by your own account – but there are a few general rules to help you get started.

For example, CoSchedule compiled a study of the best time to Pin. They used data from loads of big digital marketing companies using Pinterest.

According to their study:

• 80% of the U.S. population is in the Central and Eastern time zones.
• You’re best working your Pinning schedule for these zones.
• Pinterest users most often use the platform in evenings and during spare time.

They found two peak times – 8pm-11pm and 2am-4am.

If your audience is mostly U.S.-based, then these times (in Eastern and Central time) may work for you. But there’s more to this story.

Another study from Sprout Social found:

• Best day: Saturday.
• Best time: 8-11pm.
• Other good times to pin: 9pm, 2-4pm (EST) and 8pm-1am (EST).

But, being based on averages, these results are very generic.

Saturday may be great for the majority of Pinterest content, which is B2C (business to consumer). But it’s not the best if you’re B2B (business to business) – because your audience isn’t thinking about work then.

How to Use Google Analytics to Find Your Best Time to Pin

You can see that the experts are a little vague on when it’s best to Pin to Pinterest.

But the good news is that Google Analytics isn’t anywhere near as vague! It can tell you exactly when Pinners visit your site.

There are a few ways to get this information.

Look at recent traffic patterns

One of the first ways to see when your audience is around is simply to look at the pattern of traffic from Pinterest.

If you select Acquisition > Channels > Social > Pinterest and choose a 30-day time frame, you can see a chart.

This shows you which days are busiest with people coming from Pinterest.

It also shows you things like bounce rate and pages per session. Generally, bounce rates from Pinterest are higher than other types of traffic and pages per session lower. So, don’t panic if you see this.

Look at what posts and what days

Another interesting one to check is what days your top posts saw the most traffic.

If you are making fresh pins for it, this could help you pick when to send them out.

Go to Acquisition > Social > Network referral > Pinterest.

Select a blog post and set the time frame to 30 days or more.

Are there any patterns in the days?

Plus, you can see which Pins resonated most.

Ask insights for information

I saved the best for last!

There are two simple ways to see when you get the most traffic from Pinterest.

The first is to select the top search bar in Analytics and type in ‘top day of week Pinterest’.

You will get a graph that shows you over a six-month period what your busiest days were.

Check it out! Saturday is actually my worst day.

Then you can do the same with asking ‘best hour Pinterest’

You’ll get a report showing the top hour by session for Pinterest. You can swap this for pageviews.

The only downside with this one is that it only shows for 24 hours. But you could check it once a day for a week or two to get a better snapshot.

Carry out a 30-day experiment

What if you’re new to Pinterest and there’s nothing much on Google Analytics to help?

The answer is to run a test for 30 days to see what works.

1 | Create fresh Pins for your blog posts with keyword-optimized descriptions.

2 | Focus on a small number of boards that have great keywords.

3 | Save your fresh Pins to them at different times each day of the week.

4 | Then repeat the following week but go for different times for each day.

Do this for two more weeks.

Then check Google Analytics to see if there are any patterns. Did any day win? Or certain times?

Keep checking as you continue to add more content and watch for trends to appear.

Using Tools to Find the Best Time to Pin

I have to be honest, the easiest way to find the best time to Pin is to let someone else work it out for you!

In this case, that means Tailwind.

That’s because Tailwind not only schedules your pins for you. – it also has something called Smart Schedule. This is a clever feature that works out the best times to post based on your account.

Even if you have a new account, it can calculate slots based on other Pinners in your niche. You simply tell it how many times a day you want to pin, and it’ll work out a schedule.

If you choose ‘5,’ you won’t get exactly 5 times every day of the week. It might be more on a Saturday if that’s a busier day for your niche, but fewer on a Monday when no one’s around.

And the great thing is, you can periodically refresh your Smart Schedule and get up to date information. Just click, and Tailwind will update your time slots. I recommend doing this every 3-6 months for best results.

To use the Smart Schedule, go into the ‘your schedule’ area on Tailwind and then to the ‘general queue’.

Click ‘recreate schedule’ and select how many times a day you want to post in the General Queue.

With their new Smart Guide, you will get an average number of timeslots, including any Smart Loop posts. It will warn you if you are going a bit too high on the number of Pins a day too.

Select to shift previously scheduled pins to newly-created timeslots and then hit the big green button.

You can manually add extra slots if you want to. The times with the dotted lines around are suggested timeslots, based on your account.

When you start adding Pins, they’ll go out at these new optimized times!

Check it out! Try Tailwind for Pinterest Free Forever Plan now!

Disclosure: If you purchase after using my link, I may earn a referral fee at no cost to you.

Solving When to Pin to Pinterest

There are lots of different factors to consider when pinning to Pinterest. Which is probably why there’s no definitive “best time to Pin” that suits everyone.

But there are some good ways to get information about your own account and audience!

And you can always let Tailwind do the heavy lifting for you.

Try it out and see!

• • • Click here to try Tailwind for Pinterest FREE FOREVER Plan • • •

Like to check it all out visually? Then look at QuickSprout‘s handy infographic below!

Then tell us, when do you see the most traffic from Pinterest?

Pop your best time to post on Pinterest in the comments below!