How to Switch to a Business Account on Pinterest

Ready to unlock the real power of Pinterest for your brand? The first step is switching your personal profile to a free business account. This simple change opens up a powerful suite of professional tools designed to help you reach a wider audience, understand what they love, and grow your business. This guide will walk you through why you should switch, how to do it step-by-step, and what your first moves should be once you’ve leveled up your account.

Why a Business Account is a Game-Changer for Your Brand

If you're using Pinterest for anything other than casual personal browsing, a business account isn't just a "nice-to-have" option - it's essential. It moves you from being a passive consumer of content to an active, data-driven creator. A business account fundamentally changes your relationship with the platform, giving you the visibility and tools needed to build a brand, drive traffic, and generate sales.

Access to Pinterest Analytics

This is arguably the most important reason to switch. With a personal account, you’re pinning in the dark. With a business account, you get access to a robust analytics dashboard. This is your command center for understanding exactly how your content is performing.

• You can see which of your Pins and boards are most popular, generating the most impressions, clicks, and saves.
• You get detailed insights into your audience, including their age, gender, location, and interests. This information is pure gold for refining your content strategy.
• You can track how much traffic Pinterest is sending to your website, giving you clear ROI on your pinning efforts.

Without analytics, you’re just guessing. With them, you can make informed decisions, double down on what works, and stop wasting time on what doesn’t.

Unlock Pinterest Ads and Promoted Pins

Even if you don't have a budget for advertising right now, converting to a business account gives you the option to run Ads in the future. Promoted Pins allow you to get your best content in front of a highly targeted audience based on keywords, interests, demographics, and more. When you have a Pin that’s already performing well organically, putting a little ad spend behind it can amplify your results significantly, driving traffic for lead generation, event sign-ups, or direct sales.

Enable Rich Pins for Smarter Content

Rich Pins are supercharged Pins that automatically pull extra information from your website directly onto the Pin itself. This makes your content more helpful, professional, and clickable. There are several types:

• Product Pins: Display real-time pricing, availability, and a direct link to the product page. Utterly essential for e-commerce brands.
• Recipe Pins: Show ingredients, cooking times, and serving sizes right on the Pin.
• Article Pins: Include a headline, author, and story description, encouraging users to click through and read.

Using Rich Pins increases context and credibility, instantly making your brand appear more established and trustworthy on the platform.

Claim Your Website and Other Accounts

A business account allows you to formally claim your website. This does two key things. First, it adds your profile picture and a "Follow" button to any Pin that comes from your site, no matter who Pinned it. This means you get brand attribution and can capture new followers from content that others share. Second, it unlocks web analytics, so you can see what content people are saving from your domain.

You can also claim other social accounts like your Instagram, Etsy shop, or YouTube channel, further solidifying your brand’s presence across platforms.

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making the Switch

The good news is that making the switch is incredibly easy and completely free. You have two simple paths: converting an existing personal account or creating a brand new business account from scratch.

Option 1: Converting Your Existing Personal Account

This is the best option if you've already been pinning content related to your niche and have built up a relevant following. All your existing Pins and boards will carry over seamlessly.

1. Log In: Start by logging into your existing personal Pinterest account.
2. Go to Settings: Click the small down-arrow icon in the top-right corner of your screen and select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.
3. Navigate to Account Management: In the left-hand navigation menu, click on "Account Management."
4. Find the Conversion Option: Scroll down until you see the section for "Account changes." Here, you'll find the option to "Convert to a business account." Click it.
5. Follow the Prompts: Pinterest will guide you through the final steps. You'll need to fill out your business name, link your website (if you have one), and describe your brand by choosing a few topics that fit your niche.

That's it! Your account is now a business account, and you will have immediate access to analytics and other business tools.

Option 2: Creating a New Business Account from Scratch

This is the way to go if your personal account is full of recipes, home decor ideas, and vacation plans that are completely unrelated to your business. It allows you to build a focused brand presence from the ground up without confusing your audience.

1. Start on the Business Page: Instead of the regular homepage, go directly to pinterest.com/business/create.
2. Enter Your Details: Fill in your email, create a password, and enter the age for the account. Click "Create account."
3. Build Your Profile: Pinterest will then walk you through building your business profile. You’ll be asked for your brand name, website, country, and language.
4. Describe Your Business: You'll then describe your brand's focus (e.g., blogger, online retail, local business) and select a few topics related to what you do. This helps Pinterest understand your content and suggest it to the right people.
5. Get Started: After that, you’ll be prompted to claim your website, create your first Pin, or build your first board. Your new, dedicated business account is ready to go.

You’ve Switched! Here’s What to Do Next

Flipping the switch to a business account is just the beginning. Now it's time to set up the powerful features you've just unlocked. Don't skip these steps - they are fundamental to building a successful Pinterest strategy.

1. Claim Your Website

This should be your very first action. Go to your settings under "Claimed accounts." Pinterest will give you a couple of ways to do this, usually by adding a meta tag to your website's HTML or by uploading an HTML file to your site's root directory. If you're not tech-savvy, this might sound scary, but it's a simple copy-and-paste job. Many platforms like Shopify or Squarespace have dedicated fields that make it even easier. Once you do this, you start getting credit and analytics for everything Pinned from your website.

2. Optimize Your Business Profile

Now is the time to make your profile look professional and keyword-friendly. Think of it as your digital storefront on Pinterest.

• Profile Picture: Use a high-quality version of your brand logo. It should be clear and easily recognizable, even as a small circle.
• Cover Image: Instead of a single static image, business accounts can have a dynamic cover that showcases your latest Pins from a specific board. Use this to create a visually appealing first impression.
• Display Name &, @Username: Make your display name your business name. If there’s room, add a primary keyword (e.g., "Postbase | Social Media Tools").
• Bio Section: You have a small space to tell people what you do and who you help. Write a clear, keyword-rich bio that explains your value and includes a call to action, like "Visit our blog for more marketing tips!"

3. Apply for Rich Pins

After claiming your website, getting Rich Pins enabled is critical. This process usually involves adding some simple metadata to your site (most modern CMS platforms like WordPress with the Yoast SEO plugin do this automatically). Once the metadata is on your site, you’ll need to officially apply using Pinterest’s Rich Pin Validator. You only need to submit one URL from your site. Once approved, all content from your site will show up as Rich Pins.

4. Get Familiar with Pinterest Analytics

Don't be intimidated! Pop open your Pinterest Analytics and just click around. There's no better way to learn than by looking at your own data. Pay attention to three core areas initially:

• Overview: A high-level dashboard showing your top Pins, top boards, and key metrics like Impressions and Engagements.
• Audience Insights: This is where you get to know the people who love your content - their categories and interests are listed here.
• Website Clicks: Find this in the "Reporting" tab. This tells you exactly how many people are leaving Pinterest to land on your website every day.

5. Create Your First Targeted Boards

Organize your profile by creating several clear, highly-focused boards. Give them SEO-friendly names that people would actually search for (e.g., "Small Business Marketing Tips" instead of "Fun Stuff for Work"). Write descriptive, keyword-rich descriptions for each board. This tells the Pinterest algorithm what your content is about, helping it get discovered by the right audience through search and recommendations.

Final Thoughts

Switching to a Pinterest business account is a simple, free process that transforms the platform from a simple mood board into a serious tool for marketing and growth. By unlocking analytics, advertising capabilities, and advanced content formats, you give yourself the tools needed to build a brand and drive meaningful results.

Once your business account is up and running, building a strong and consistent pinning strategy becomes your focus. As a team that’s lived in the world of social media, we built Postbase with tools that make this less of a chore. Our visual content calendar is perfect for a platform like Pinterest, allowing you to plan your Pins and boards at a glance. You can schedule content reliably, see where the gaps are in your strategy, and ensure your brand is always active, so you can spend more time creating beautiful visuals and less time just managing layouts.