Latest / The CMO Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Leadership, Budgets, and Executive Strategy / How CMOs Use Dark Social to Track Untraceable Sharing
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to talk about the biggest blind spot in marketing measurement — something that probably accounts for the majority of how your content actually spreads, yet almost no dashboard tracks it. Luna: Okay, you've got my attention. What are we talking about? Lucas: Dark social. It's the sharing that happens in private channels — WhatsApp, iMessage, email, Slack, direct messages on Instagram or Twitter. Links get pasted there, people click them, but because there's no referrer header, analytics tools just lump that traffic under 'direct' or 'unknown'. Luna: So you're saying that when someone sends a link to a friend via text, and that friend clicks it, Google Analytics doesn't know where it came from? Lucas: Exactly. It shows up as direct traffic. And here's the kicker: a 2023 study from RadiumOne estimated that 84 percent of consumer content sharing happens through dark social channels. Not on Facebook, not on Twitter — in private conversations. Luna: Eighty-four percent. That's huge. So most marketers are optimizing for the 16 percent they can see. Lucas: Right. And that creates a distorted picture of what's working. A campaign that drives tons of private sharing might look like a failure if you're only measuring public social engagement. Meanwhile, a campaign that gets lots of public likes but few private sends might be overvalued. Luna: Can you give me a concrete example of a company that actually figured this out? Lucas: Airbnb. A few years ago, their analytics team noticed that a huge chunk of referral traffic was coming from 'direct' — way more than you'd expect for people typing in a URL. So they ran a customer survey asking: 'How did you hear about us?' Over 40 percent of respondents said they got a link from a friend via text, email, or messaging app. That was dark social. Luna: Forty percent of referral traffic from channels they couldn't see. That must have changed how they thought about their marketing mix. Lucas: It did. They started using unique link shorteners and custom UTM parameters specifically designed to survive the copy-paste journey. They also built what they called a 'unified customer journey' model that didn't rely on last-click attribution from public sources alone. Luna: And Glossier is another one, right? I remember reading that their early growth was almost entirely driven by word of mouth in private groups and DMs. Lucas: Exactly. Glossier's CMO has talked about how they saw surprisingly high direct traffic from mobile devices, which turned out to be people sharing product links via iMessage. They responded by making their content more 'forwardable' — shorter URLs, better link previews, and even a referral program that rewarded private sharing. Luna: So what's the practical playbook here? If I'm a CMO and I want to start measuring dark social, what's step one? Lucas: Step one is admitting you have a blind spot. Then you do what Airbnb did: survey your customers. Ask them, 'How did you first hear about us?' And give them specific options — 'a friend sent me a link in a text' or 'someone shared it in a group chat.' That gives you a baseline. Luna: And then you start tagging links more intelligently. Lucas: Right. Use a link management platform like Bitly or Rebrandly that lets you create custom short links. Append UTM parameters, but don't rely on them alone — they can get stripped in some apps. The real trick is to create distinct landing pages or unique coupon codes for different sharing channels so you can cross-reference. Luna: What about the attribution model itself? If dark social breaks last-click, what works better? Lucas: A time-decay or even a linear attribution model gives a fairer picture. But the gold standard is a multi-touch attribution system that incorporates survey data and probabilistic modeling. There are tools like Branch or Adjust that specialize in this — they use device-level data to infer sharing paths. Luna: Is there a simpler way for smaller teams that can't afford enterprise attribution? Lucas: Yeah. You can add a simple 'how did you find us?' dropdown on your signup or checkout page. Then in your analytics, segment that data by source. Over time, you'll see patterns — like 'people who selected 'friend's link' tend to convert at a higher rate.' That alone can shift your content strategy. Luna: I like that it's low-tech. It doesn't require a data science team. Lucas: Exactly. And honestly, the most important thing is just acknowledging that dark social exists. I've talked to CMOs who were shocked to find that their 'direct' traffic was actually their most valuable channel — they'd been underinvesting in shareable content for years. Luna: So what kind of content performs best in dark social? Lucas: Utility. Think: a discount code, a how-to guide, a listicle with a specific takeaway. People share things that make them look helpful or smart in a private conversation. A funny meme might get public likes, but a 'here's how to save $200 on your flight' link gets sent to a friend. Luna: That makes sense. It's the difference between broadcasting and gifting. Lucas: Nice way to put it. And that's exactly why this matters so much for marketing ROI. If you can attribute value to dark social, you can justify spending more on content that's inherently shareable — and less on hollow public engagement. Luna: You know, this conversation reminds me of something I've been thinking about lately. We spend so much time talking about attribution and marketing channels on this show — and these conversations have genuinely helped me rethink my own approach. And I know they've helped a lot of listeners too. Lucas: Yeah, I hear that a lot. People tell me they've taken specific frameworks from the show and applied them at work. That's the whole reason we do this. Luna: It really is. And the thing is, this show is entirely independent — no ads, no sponsors. That's something we're proud of, but it also means listener support is what keeps it going. If you've ever gotten a practical tip from an episode, or used something we discussed to solve a marketing problem, a small contribution — a couple of dollars a month — genuinely makes a difference. It's at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: And it's simple. No tiers, no perks, just knowing you're helping keep these conversations ad-free. We really appreciate it. Now, back to dark social — because I want to talk about one more actionable tactic. Luna: Please. I'm taking notes. Lucas: Okay. Another thing you can do is enable WhatsApp sharing buttons on your content. It sounds small, but WhatsApp is the dominant messaging platform in many markets — Brazil, India, parts of Europe. You can track clicks from that button, and you can even set up a WhatsApp Business API to create shareable templates. Luna: That's a good point — it's not just about measurement, it's about making sharing frictionless in the first place. Lucas: Exactly. And once you start tracking those clicks, you'll likely find that WhatsApp-sourced traffic converts differently. At one DTC brand I worked with, WhatsApp referral customers had a 30 percent higher lifetime value than those from Instagram. That's the kind of insight that changes budget allocation. Luna: That is wild. And it makes you wonder how many other blind spots are hiding in plain sight in our analytics. Lucas: Probably a lot. But dark social is the biggest one — and the one you can actually do something about without overhauling your entire tech stack. Luna: So I'll leave listeners with this: next time you look at your direct traffic numbers, assume a big chunk of it is actually dark social. Start asking your customers how they found you. You might uncover your most valuable channel. Lucas: And then you can start building content that's built for private sharing — not just public performance. That's a shift in mindset that pays off.