Pinterest Ads connection

What it reads

For each connected ad account, Growth Dept MTA lists ads in every status and reads spend, impressions and outbound clicks (paid clicks to your site) by ad and day, with campaigns, ad groups and ads. Pinterest gives these dates in UTC.

It also reads Pinterest's reported checkouts and their value (30-day click, 1-day view), which fill the Pinterest platform-reported columns; view-through checkouts with their value; and hourly spend. Each ad's pin image becomes its thumbnail.

A pull runs about once an hour and re-reads the last 7 days, and a nightly pull re-reads the last 30. Each pull replaces the rows for its window, so days that Pinterest restates end up matching Pinterest. Spend is converted to the brand's currency as it arrives, at the European Central Bank rate for each day.

Connecting

1. Sign in to Growth Dept MTA as an owner or admin of the brand's organization. Other members can see Settings > Connections but cannot change it.
2. Open Settings > Connections and click Connect on the Pinterest Ads card.
3. Pinterest shows its own sign-in and permission screen. Sign in as a Pinterest user who can see the ad accounts you want, and approve the request. The request is for ads:read, plus boards:read and pins:read, which are used only for ad thumbnails.
4. Back in Growth Dept MTA, the page lists every ad account that login reaches. Tick the ones that belong to this brand and click Connect.
5. Each account you chose appears on the card, and a backfill starts over the brand's lookback window (Settings > Lookback window), up to the 90 days of daily data Pinterest keeps. Scheduled pulls take over from there.

To add accounts later, click Connect beside Link an additional ad account on the same card. If the list comes up empty, the login you used reaches no ad accounts: connect again as a user who has access to them.

If you have been sending Pinterest Ads spend through the spend API or a spreadsheet, remove those rows before you connect. They carry their own account ID, so they would be counted on top of the connected account's spend. Settings > Data Spreadsheets lists each upload. Once the connection is live, the spend API and spreadsheets refuse new Pinterest Ads rows.

If the card says “Pinterest Ads connection is not set up on this server yet.”, the Connect button stays off until Growth Dept registers its Pinterest app. Email support@growthdept.ai if you see it.

Tracking parameters

Add these to the destination URL of each Pin ad. Pinterest also adds its own click ID, epik. Settings > UTM guide in Growth Dept MTA shows the same string with a copy button.

utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign={campaignid}&utm_term={adgroupid}&utm_content={adid}&nbt=nb:pinterest::{campaignid}:{adgroupid}:{adid}

Limits

• Growth Dept MTA only reads from Pinterest. It does not change campaigns, budgets or ads.
• Pinterest keeps 90 days of daily data and 8 days of hourly data, so nothing older can be pulled.
• Hourly rows carry no conversions.
• Dates are in UTC, not the ad account's time zone.
• Pinterest's reported conversions are Pinterest's own credit, under Pinterest's attribution settings. They fill the Pinterest platform-reported columns and are not part of Growth Dept MTA's attribution.
• If Pinterest rejects the stored token, or refuses to refresh it, the account's row on the card shows the error, and the account has to be connected again.

Disconnecting

Each linked account has its own Disconnect button in its row on the Pinterest Ads card. Only owners and admins can use it. After you confirm:

• Syncing for that account stops.
• The stored access token is deleted.
• Data already pulled stays in your reports.

Connecting the account again later starts a new backfill.