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Pinterest Ads — Metrics Reference

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Written by Ben Keeling

Every metric Medialake reports for Pinterest Ads, and the Pinterest analytics column it comes from.


Metrics are read per ad from Pinterest's Ads Analytics endpoint. We capture them in daily buckets and roll those up into weekly, monthly, yearly and lifetime totals. These metrics power the Performance dashboards and reports in Medialake.

>Cost metrics need billing-level access. If the connecting account only has Analyst permission on the ad account, Pinterest returns every delivery and engagement metric normally but silently omits spend, CPC, CPM, CPA, ROAS and conversion value. They arrive blank, with no error anywhere. See Troubleshooting.


Metrics

All columns below are documented on Pinterest's Ads Analytics reference.


Delivery and video

Medialake metric

Pinterest column

Notes

Reach

TOTAL_IMPRESSION_USER

Unique accounts that saw the ad at least once — estimated by Pinterest

Impressions

TOTAL_IMPRESSION

Times the ad was on screen

Clicks

TOTAL_CLICKTHROUGH

Clickthroughs on the ad

Views

TOTAL_VIDEO_MRC_VIEWS

Video views at Pinterest's MRC standard — 50% of the video in view for two seconds

Video depth

TOTAL_VIDEO_P25_COMBINED

Plays reaching 25% of the video's length

Average watch time

TOTAL_VIDEO_AVG_WATCHTIME_IN_SECOND

Pinterest reports seconds; Medialake stores milliseconds

Frequency

TOTAL_IMPRESSION_FREQUENCY

Average times each person saw the ad


Engagement and outcomes

Medialake metric

Pinterest column

Notes

Engagements

TOTAL_ENGAGEMENT

Pinterest's combined engagement count

Engagement rate

EENGAGEMENT_RATE

Effective engagement rate as reported by Pinterest

Conversions

TOTAL_CONVERSIONS

Uses your Pinterest conversion setup and attribution window

Conversion rate

TOTAL_PAGE_VISIT_CONVERSION_RATE

Page-visit conversion rate as reported by Pinterest

Click-through rate

ECTR

Effective clickthrough rate as reported by Pinterest


Spend and efficiency

Medialake metric

Pinterest column

Notes

Total spend

SPEND_IN_DOLLAR

In your ad account's currency — see the note below

Cost per click

ECPC_IN_DOLLAR

Effective cost per click

Cost per mille

CPM_IN_DOLLAR

Cost per 1,000 impressions

Return on ad spend

CHECKOUT_ROAS

Checkout ROAS as reported by Pinterest

Currency

Ad account currency

The ad account's billing currency

>A note on the _IN_DOLLAR column names. Despite the naming, Pinterest returns these figures in your ad account's own currency, in whole currency units rather than cents. Medialake records them in that native currency and converts to USD separately — see Currency conversion.


Derived metrics

Three metrics aren't supplied by Pinterest directly. Medialake calculates them, and each one is only available when the values it depends on are:

Medialake metric

How it's calculated

Available when

Cost per acquisition

Total spend ÷ conversions

Spend and conversions are both present, and conversions are above zero

Conversion value

Return on ad spend × total spend

ROAS and spend are both present

Total watch time

Average watch time × views

Both are present

Because all three depend on spend or ROAS, an ad account connected at Analyst permission has no CPA and no conversion value either — they can't be derived from metrics that were never returned.


Metrics Pinterest doesn't supply

Medialake's common paid metric set includes comments and shares. Pinterest's ads analytics doesn't report either at ad level, so both stay blank for Pinterest Ads. Interactions with a Pin are counted within engagements instead. The full common set is described in the Performance Metrics Reference.


Reporting periods

Pinterest Ads is captured daily, which makes it one of the more granular connectors:

  • Daily buckets are the source of truth. Each day of an ad's delivery is stored as its own record.

  • Weekly, monthly, yearly and lifetime totals are rolled up from those daily buckets inside Medialake, not fetched separately.

Two limits shape what history is available:

  • Pinterest's 90-day analytics window. Pinterest only serves ad analytics for roughly the last 90 days. Nothing older can be retrieved, by us or by anyone else through the API — so an ad that ran a year ago will not backfill.

  • Coverage builds forward. When you connect an account, we collect what's available inside that 90-day window and then extend it day by day from there. History deepens the longer the connection runs.

Recent days are re-polled for a fortnight after they're first collected, so late-arriving conversions and Pinterest's own restatements are picked up rather than frozen at their first value.

Because lifetime totals are built from daily buckets, a Pinterest Ads lifetime figure means everything captured since the connection began, within the 90-day window — not the ad's all-time total since launch. For an ad that started before you connected, expect the Medialake lifetime figure to be lower than the all-time figure in Ads Manager.


Currency conversion

Spend-based metrics (total spend, CPC, CPM, CPA, conversion value) are recorded in your ad account's native currency, and additionally converted to USD so spend can be compared across accounts and markets. Because Pinterest Ads is captured daily, each day's figures are converted using that day's exchange rate — making the converted totals accurate across long-running ads rather than approximated at a single rate.

The exchange-rate date is stored alongside every converted value, so any converted number can be traced back to its native value.

Return on ad spend is a ratio, not a currency amount, and is stored as reported.


Comparing with Ads Manager

Numbers can differ slightly from what you see in Pinterest Ads Manager. The usual reasons:

  • Date range. Ads Manager defaults to a specific date range; a Medialake lifetime figure covers everything captured since the connection began, bounded by Pinterest's 90-day window.

  • Late conversions. Pinterest restates conversion data as attributed conversions arrive. Medialake re-polls recent days to follow those restatements, but a day outside the re-poll window keeps the value it last had.

  • Attribution. Conversions depend on your conversion setup and attribution window, both configured on Pinterest's side.

  • Time zones. Figures are reported on Pinterest's reporting day boundaries.

If a number looks off, check the date range first — and if spend specifically is zero or blank across the whole account, that's a permission issue rather than a reporting difference.


Further reading (Pinterest documentation)


Questions about a specific metric? Contact [email protected].

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