If you don't know what Dark Social is, we definitely recommend that you read more into it! We have a blog post that explains in full detail what Dark Social is, how it happens and how you can track it to make better data-driven decisions.

Dark Social refers to the traffic generated by social sharing outside of what can be measured by web analytics platforms. It happens when someone clicks on a link that was shared through a private messaging channel, such as WhatsApp, Slack, Email, SMS, etc.

Most people copy and paste the URL of a website onto a social channel, chat or email, as opposed to using share buttons. Our Copy & Paste Share Tracking tool allows you to track these shares.

You can find this tool in our platform by going to 'Social Tools' on the menu, and scrolling down to 'Tracking & Engagement Tools'.

NOTE: Your 'Social Tools' view may look different from this depending on your plan. Regardless, Copy & Paste Share Tracking is available for all paid plans.

We've done heavy research on this topic over the years and have found that Dark Social makes up quite a large percentage of referral traffic to most websites.

Although it varies across different types of websites, our experience tracking Dark Social tells us that, on average, 74% of social shares happen on Dark Social, with some websites having up to 99% of dark social shares.

Missing out on this data means not fully understanding your audience's behaviors and preferences. You'll remain uncertain of which social channels are generating the most traffic, sales, leads, and shares. You'll invest in content based solely on your gut and distribute to social media channels that might not give you the highest ROI.

Dark Social allows you to:

You can read more about this in our blog post.