What Are Engagements on Pinterest and How to Increase Them? Expert Guide [2025]

Are you confused about engagements on Pinterest?

What do they actually mean and which one of them is the most important one?

I will answer all of your questions in this comprehensive guide, which will also cover the different ways of increasing your engagements.

As a Pinterest Manager, I work with Pinterest Analytics on a daily basis, so I am very familiar with the right and wrong ways to use these metrics to grow your account.

Let’s dive in so I can show you everything I know!

PS: Stick around to the end of the article, where you will find my cheat sheet on increasing saves on Pinterest, completely free to download!

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What Are Engagements on Pinterest?

Engagements on Pinterest, in general terms, refer to a user’s interaction with your content.

The official definition explains engagements as follows:

‘The total number of engagements on your Pins. This includes saves, Pin clicks, outbound clicks, carousel card swipes, secondary creative (collections) clicks.‘ (source)

According to Pinterest’s official definition, engagements include:

Saves: When a user saves your Pin to one of their boards.
Pin Clicks: When a user clicks on your Pin to view it in full.
Outbound Clicks: When a user visits the website you’re linking to from the pin.
Carousel Card Swipes: When users swipes between your carousel images.
Clicks on Collections: When a user clicks on the pins from your collection.

Did you notice something?

There is no mention of comments on your pins!

So according to Pinterest, that is not included in engagement signals, and I can imagine the reason is that they can be artificially manipulated.

For that reason, if you ever engaged in any comment threads from Facebook groups, this is proof that it won’t get you far.

Also note that Pinterest only uses pin clicks, saves, and outbound clicks to calculate the engagement rate, so those are the three most important engagement metrics.

Engagement and fresh content are the two things that the Pinterset algorithm loves the most right now, and it makes logical sense = to keep people on the platform, they need to show them lots of new content that the audience finds engaging.

Which is the Most Important Engagement Signal on Pinterest?

Not all of the engagement signals have the same value. Luckily, Pinterest tells us very clearly what to focus on:

Saves!

Here is what they say about saves:

‘There are a lot of metrics to keep track of as a creator. But if you really want to understand how people are engaging with your content on Pinterest, here’s a little secret: Saves are your best bet for tracking your success.

On Pinterest, saves are a sign of intent. People save Pins because they want to revisit them later and actually try them—not just ‘like’ them. When someone saves your Pin, that’s a really, really good sign. It means that your idea is resonating, and people want to try it for themselves.

That’s why the Pinterest algorithm pays attention to saved content. And the more people that save your ideas, the more they’ll show up for other, new audiences all across Pinterest.’ (source)

So all you need to remember about growing on Pinterest is that the one metric to focus on is saves.

If you improve your save rate, your other engagement metrics will naturally increase too.

Let me show you how to do that in here:

Tips to Increase Saves on Pinterest

Pinterest gives us a step-by-step guide on how to create content that people want to save.

I have an extra hack I use, which I will share at the end.

So let’s cover them one by one.

1. Use Eye-Catching Images

Pinterest is a highly visual platform, so the quality of your images will determine how well your account performs.

This is pretty obvious, yet so many people still get it wrong.

What does it mean to use eye-catching images?

Use High-Quality Images: Ensure your photos are clear, vibrant, and visually appealing.
Incorporate Text Overlays: Add compelling text overlays to convey the main message of your Pin at a glance.
Follow Optimal Aspect Ratios: Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio (e.g., 1000 x 1500 pixels) for vertical Pins. This format ensures your content looks great on both desktop and mobile devices, and focus mostly on static pins (simple images), not video or idea pins.
Include Branding: Add your logo or website URL subtly to your images to reinforce brand recognition.

If you’re wondering about using stock images or AI images, those are fine too, as long as they are tweaked to your brand and follow the best practice guidelines described above.

With stock images, you need to be a bit careful, though – don’t share it just as it is, as someone else could have used the same image, and Pinterest will see it as a duplicate.

At the very minimum, I recommend adding text overlay to the stock image and your branding.

2. Write Compelling Pin Descriptions

Pin descriptions help users understand the context of your content and improve its discoverability through keywords. Keep these tips in mind:

Use Relevant Keywords: Incorporate keywords that your target audience might search for. For example, if you’re sharing home decor ideas, include terms like “modern living room,” “interior design,” or “budget-friendly decor.”
Highlight Value: Clearly state the benefits of clicking on or saving your Pin. For example, “Learn how to create a minimalist workspace with these simple DIY tips.”
Add a Call-to-Action (CTA): Encourage users to take action, such as “Click to read more” or “Save this idea for later.”

3. Pin Consistently

Consistency is key to staying visible on Pinterest. Aim to Pin regularly rather than sporadically.

Here’s how:

Pin Daily: Schedule Pins throughout the day to maintain a steady presence. Tools like Tailwind can help automate your scheduling.
Create Multiple Fresh Pins: Once you share pins from your article, don’t just let it sit and collect dust. Continuously create fresh pins even for older content.
Share a Mix of Content: Try different layouts, keyword combinations, colors and see what works best for your audience.

BONUS TIP: You can use a tool like Pin Clicks to see which content ranks at the top for your main keyword, and use those pins as an inspiration for your own design.

Get PinClicks

Optimize your pins to get more traffic

GET IT HERE

What about pinning volume? How many pins is enough, and how many is too much?

Here is a general guide you can use:

new accounts (under 1 year old) – start with 1 to 3 pins per day
established accounts – 10 to 15 pins per day

4. Use Pinterest Trends

Pinterest Trends is a feature that shows what topics are currently popular on the platform.

I like to use it to research new topic ideas, and the main idea is that these are trending topics that don’t have that much competition or content on the platform so that you can get a lot of engagement much faster.

Make sure that the content aligns with your overall strategy.

In the trends tool, you can find these topics using the general interest filter you can see below:

Or you can also type in a very generic keywords to get more ideas:

Even if the trends are very seasonal, Pinterest right now loves fresh content, so you can pin seasonal content even a month before the event, and it will get traction.

Here is what I mean: the top-ranking pins for this specific topic (screenshot below) have been created only in the last 3 months, and the ones at positions 3 and 4 have only been created a few weeks ago (correct at the time of writing).

This is a screenshot from Pin Clicks which I mentioned earlier.

5. Analyze And Optimize

Pinterest Analytics provides valuable insights into your performance, and you should pay attention to it to figure out what works on your account and resonates with your audience.

For saves, I like to check how the saves look like in the last 30 days and whether or not there are some spikes in the curve.

I also like to check which pins created in the last 30 days got the most saves, as that helps me to understand what content resonates with my audience the most, so I can focus on creating more of it.

Finally, I also record which boards got the most saves for the same reason – these topics get the most engagement, so I want to measure and track that.

What you also want to do is to compare how the boards with top impressions compared with the boards with the most saves – are they the same, or is there a gap?

Can you find a way to improve the content with the most impressions to increase the saves?

6. Bonus: Save Only Content

Finally, here is the latest hack I started implementing, and you can see it in action in this article too.

For every 5 – 6 fresh pins I create, I make sure at least one of them is ‘save only’ content – this is designed to attract saves, not clicks.

That means you give away the whole story in the graphic, and people don’t have to click on it to read the article.

I know this may sound the opposite of what you’ve heard everywhere else, but as long as you keep only a tiny fraction of your pins in this style, they will naturally increase the save rate of your content.

So what do these look like?

Just check the one below – I made this cheat sheet to summarize the information from this post in a more visual way, so you can remember it easier and store it somewhere for quick retrieval – you know, like a Pinterest board!

Free Cheat Sheet: How To Increase Engagements on Pinterest

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or a Pinterest beginner, focusing on engagement is the key to unlocking the platform’s full potential.

I hope this article answered all your questions about engagements on Pinterest and how to use them to your advantage.

If you have any questions left , leave a comment below and I will happily answer!

Want to Learn More?

This PDF guide will give you a crash course in Pinterest Marketing – plus I included access to my free AI tool for creating SEO optimized titles & descriptions.

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Save these for later so you can find this article when you need to refer back to it. You will also find lots of practical tips and guides on my Pinterest profile, so don’t forget to stalk me there.