How to scrape Pinterest data in 5 easy steps

Hey there! Are you looking to get your hands on some juicy data from Pinterest? You‘ve come to the right place.

In this step-by-step guide, I‘ll walk you through everything you need to know to scrape Pinterest efficiently. With over 450 million monthly active users, Pinterest is a goldmine of valuable consumer data.

But before we dive in, let me introduce myself.

I‘m a web scraping specialist with over 5 years of experience extracting data from sites like Pinterest. I‘ve worked on hundreds of web scraping projects and know all the ins and outs of collecting quality data fast.

Today, I‘ll be sharing my hard-won expertise to help you learn how to scrape Pinterest like a pro.

Let‘s get started!

Why Should You Scrape Pinterest Data?

Now you may be wondering—why scrape Pinterest in the first place?

Here are the top 5 reasons savvy businesses scrape Pinterest data:

Over 175 million people use Pinterest to find inspiration every single day. That‘s a massive amount of consumer insight right at your fingertips!

Scraping Pinterest boards lets you see exactly what types of content perform best and identify upcoming trends before your competitors. You can stay on top of changing consumer interests and create relevant pins that people want to see.

2. Conduct Competitor Research

On Pinterest, you can scrape your competitors‘ boards, followers, engagement rates, and more.

Analyzing this data reveals important intel, like:

What topics and products your rivals are focusing on
The types of images and captions that resonate most with their audience
Who their top followers are

With these competitor insights, you can refine your own Pinterest strategy to attract more viewers.

3. Find Influencers to Collaborate With

Influencer marketing is huge on Pinterest. But connecting with the right influencers can be difficult.

Scraping Pinterest profiles makes it easy to identify accounts with high engagement and followers in your niche. You can then reach out to set up collaborative pinning partnerships.

According to SocialMediaToday, influencer pins drive a 3x higher click-through rate than regular brand pins. So this is an strategy you‘ll want to explore!

4. Listen to Customer Interests

Pinterest lets you listen in on exactly what your customers are interested in right now.

For example, say you sell bird feeders. You could scrape Pins about backyard birds to see:

The types of bird feeders pinners are pinning
What birds they want to attract
What other backyard birding products people search for

This intelligence helps you tailor your product selection and marketing to match customer demand.

5. Keep Tabs on Competitor Products

Want to monitor how your competitor‘s products are performing? Pinterest scraping is the easy way to do it.

You can scrape Pins to extract data on:

What products your competitors are pinning
Engagement metrics like clicks, closeups, saves, etc.
The types of captions and images competitors use to promote their products
Related products people pin alongside competitor products

Analyzing this data allows you to see which competitor products get traction. You can then use these insights to improve your own product pins.

As you can see, a ton of valuable data is there for the taking! Now let‘s look at exactly how much data we‘re talking about.

Massive Pinterest Data Statistics

To understand the scale of data available on Pinterest, check out these stats:

6.2 billion monthly Pinterest searches
450 million monthly active Pinterest users
Pinners have saved over 200 billion Pins since inception
The total number of boards created exceeds 5 billion
Average monthly searches per Pinterest user is 141
Most popular search categories are home decor, fashion, beauty, recipes, and DIY projects
72% of weekly Pinterest users say they have purchased something because of Pinterest

As you can see, Pinterest is a data goldmine for consumer insights!

But how can you go about tapping into this treasure trove? Let‘s look at your options…

Scrape Pinterest with Python Scripts vs Tools

When it comes to scraping Pinterest, you have two main options:

1. Build Your Own Python Web Scraping Bots

The first option is to build your own Python web scraping scripts to extract Pinterest data.

Pros:

Complete customizability to scrape any aspect of Pinterest you want
Scraping bots can be tailored to your specific use case
Ability to scale data collection through the cloud

Cons:

Requires Python coding skills
Time-consuming set up to handle proxies, pagination, throttling, etc.
Ongoing maintenance of scrapers can be tedious

This approach makes the most sense if you have in-house developers to handle building and maintaining scrapers.

2. Use a Ready-Made Pinterest Scraping Tool

The second option is to use an off-the-shelf Pinterest scraping tool like Apify.

Pros:

Super fast set up in just minutes without coding
Handles proxy rotation, pagination, retries, etc automatically
Easy to launch, monitor, and export your scrape
Ability to scrape 1000s of profiles or pins per day
Integrates seamlessly with BI tools like Tableau, Excel, etc.

Cons:

Less customizability than fully custom scripts

This is by far the easiest way for non-developers to scrape Pinterest. You don‘t need any prior coding experience.

Based on my experience with hundreds of clients, a purpose-built tool like Apify is the best way for most businesses to scrape Pinterest. The time and cost savings are massive compared to maintaining custom scrapers.

Ready to give it a try? Keep reading!

Let‘s dive into the step-by-step process for scraping Pinterest with Apify.

First, you‘ll want to sign up for a free Apify account. You can register quickly using your email, Google, or GitHub.

The signup process takes just seconds. Once your account is created, you‘ll be ready to launch your first Pinterest scrape!

Step 2: Open the Pinterest Scraper Page

Next, open Apify‘s Pinterest Scraper page and click "Try for Free".

This will open the scraper in Apify‘s web console, with everything set up and ready to configure.

Step 3: Enter Your Start URL(s)

Once the console loads, you simply need to provide the Pinterest profile URL or Pin URL you want to scrape.

For example, to scrape pins from a board, you could use:

https://www.pinterest.com/pinterest/popular-pin-recipes/

Or to scrape a user profile, the URL would be something like:

https://www.pinterest.com/lifestyleblog/

You can enter a single URL or multiple URLs separated by commas or line breaks. This allows you to scrape thousands of profiles/pins in one go!

Step 4: Set Additional Options

Next, you may want to configure some of the additional options:

Depth of scrape: This sets how many levels deep the scraper will crawl. For example, a depth of 2 would scrape the input profiles/pins, all their followers/repins, plus those users‘ followers/repins as well.
Number of results: You can limit the number of results per starting point. This avoids scraping thousands of followers from huge profiles.
Custom cookies: If needed, you can pass cookies containing login credentials or other metadata.
Webhook: Adding a webhook will ping an URL of your choice when the scrape finishes.

Once configured, click "Run" to launch your Pinterest scraping job!

Step 5: Check the Results

Now sit back and relax while Apify does the hard work! The scraper automatically handles:

Rotating proxies to avoid bans
Random delays to mimic human behavior
Retries of failed requests
Pagination to scrape all data

In a few minutes to hours, your scrape will finish. You‘ll receive an email confirmation, plus webhook ping if configured.

Finally, open the Datasets tab in Apify to view your scraped Pinterest data! You can download the results in JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML and other formats.

And voila! You‘ve just scraped a ton of valuable Pinterest data without writing a single line of code.

Real-World Pinterest Scraping Examples

To give you ideas for putting Pinterest scraping into practice, here are just a few examples of how businesses use Apify to extract Pinterest data:

A food blog uses Apify to scrape hundreds of popular recipe Pins each week. Analyzing ingredients, cuisine types, and engagement reveals upcoming food trends to cover.

Discovering Home Decor Inspiration

An e-commerce site selling home goods scrapes the top home decor Pins boards to curate products matching the latest interior design trends.

Monitoring Competitor Products

A clothing retailer uses Apify to scrape Pins for competitors’ newest apparel items. This allows them to rapidly produce similar styles that are likely to sell well.

Connecting with Micro-Influencers

A skincare brand identifies micro-influencers in their niche by scraping profiles with above-average engagement. They collaborate on spon-con pins to drive sales.

Listening To Customer Feedback

A SaaS company scrapes Pins related to their product name to analyze customer pain points and feature requests social listening-style.

The possibilities are endless!

Frequently Asked Pinterest Scraping Questions

Here are answers to some common questions around scraping Pinterest:

Is it legal to scrape Pinterest data?

Yes, scraping public Pinterest profiles and pins is 100% legal. The data is considered public and you have the right to analyze it.

Can I get banned for scraping Pinterest?

Unlikely, as long as you use Apify‘s built-in precautions like proxy rotation and random delays. Millions of scrapes have been completed successfully with Apify.

Does Pinterest have an API?

Yes, but it is limited to 1,000 calls per day for free usage. Apify provides unlimited scraping capabilities beyond this API limit.

What format is the scraped Pinterest data in?

Apify provides outputs in JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML tables and more. You can import this structured data into any BI or analysis tool.

How much does it cost to scrape with Apify?

Apify provides 500,000 free scrape requests monthly. After that, pay-as-you-go pricing starts at just $0.005 per page scraped.

I hope this guide covered everything you need to know to start scraping Pinterest like a pro! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Happy pinning!