The Pinterest tag on Shopify
Also called Pinterest pixel · Updated
Pinterest calls its pixel a tag, and its event names are lower case with no separators — checkout, not Purchase; pagevisit, not PageView. The naming is the whole difficulty. Once the names are right, Pinterest behaves like any other pixel on Shopify.
Pinterest tag at a glance
- ID format
- A 13 digit number
- Where to find the ID
- Pinterest Ads Manager → Conversions → Tag manager
- Server-side API
- Conversions API
- Ad surfaces covered
- Standard Pins, Idea Ads, Shopping Ads, Collections
Copy the ID from Pinterest’s own dashboard rather than typing it — a transposed digit produces a pixel that installs cleanly and reports nothing.
Events the Pinterest tag accepts on Shopify
| Event name | When it fires |
|---|---|
pagevisit | Every page. |
viewcategory | Collection and category pages. |
search | Storefront search. |
addtocart | Cart additions. |
checkout | This is Pinterest’s Purchase. Optimise against it. |
signup | Account creation or newsletter signup. |
Server-side tracking: Conversions API
Pinterest’s Conversions API accepts the same event names server-side and deduplicates on a shared event ID.
What goes wrong with the Pinterest tag on Shopify
- checkout means the completed order on Pinterest, not the start of checkout. Mapping it to InitiateCheckout inflates your reported conversions.
- Pinterest attribution windows run long — a Pin saved in November can convert in January — so short comparison windows understate Pinterest badly.
- Rich Pins and the tag are separate. Verified Rich Pins do not imply a working tag.
Pinterest’s attribution window changes how you read reports
Pinterest is a planning surface rather than an impulse surface. A Pin saved in November genuinely does convert in January, and Pinterest’s attribution windows are built around that behaviour, running considerably longer than Meta’s or TikTok’s.
The reporting consequence is that a 7-day window makes Pinterest look far weaker than it is, and a store that judges Pinterest on the same dashboard settings it uses for Meta will usually conclude Pinterest does not work and switch it off. Judge it on a 30-day window at minimum, and expect the reported figure to keep rising for weeks after a campaign ends.
Why Pinterest’s checkout event trips everyone up
Pinterest’s event named checkout is the completed order. It is the direct equivalent of Meta’s Purchase, not of Meta’s InitiateCheckout, despite the name pointing the other way.
The mistake is almost automatic when you are mapping several platforms at once, and it inflates reported Pinterest conversions by however many shoppers start checkout and abandon — typically two to three times the true number. If Pinterest’s conversion count looks implausibly strong next to its revenue, this mapping is the first thing to check.
Step-by-step installation
This page is the reference. For the click-by-click walkthrough, including the Events Manager side of the setup, read the full guide.
Adding Snapchat and Pinterest pixels to Shopify →Related reading
- The Facebook Conversions API on Shopify
How the Meta Conversions API recovers Shopify conversions lost to iOS 14, ad blockers and Safari, what event deduplication does, and how to set it up.
- Shopify custom pixels and when to use an app instead
Shopify custom pixels let you paste tracking code into the Web Pixels sandbox. Here is what they can and cannot do, and when an app is the better call.