Key Takeaways
- Do you know what are marketing campaigns?
- Did you know that the best marketing campaigns use dark social?
- Read our latest blog to learn how to use Dark social marketing campaigns.
In the vast digital marketing world, there is a hidden realm that is often left unnoticed!
We are talking about Dark Social Marketing Campaigns.
It refers to that social sharing that happens beyond the tracking capabilities of the traditional KPIs and analytics.
It can be emails, private messaging apps, or any other form of private communication.
- Why should a digital marketer bother about Dark Social Marketing Campaigns?
- How can it impact your digital marketing campaigns and marketing goals?
In this blog, we will enlighten you regarding Dark Social Marketing Campaigns and how to track & optimize them!
If you are a digital marketer, a digital marketing agency, a business owner, or a marketing enthusiast, this blog is going to open a new realm of digital marketing, i.e., Dark Social Marketing Campaigns!
A few facts about Dark Social Marketing Campaigns
- The most valuable social media platforms for Dark Social Marketing Campaigns are: X or Twitter (post), Facebook (post), Instagram (profile)
Fig 1. A graphical representation of Direct and Dark Social Marketing Campaigns across various social media platforms. [Source: SparkToro]
- X or Twitter leads to the maximum number of unaccounted visits, aka Dark Social!
Fig 2. A graphical comparison of accounted or attributed visits on social media vs. unaccounted visits depicting the power of Dark Social marketing campaigns. [Source: SparkToro]
- A few platforms that have equal direct and dark social marketing impacts are: Mastodon, Slack, and Discord
- Google Chrome is the most used browser, followed by Safari and Android Webview.
- Desktop still accounts for the maximum number of sessions, followed by Mobile and Tablets!
Understanding the Dark Social Marketing Campaigns
Mr. Alexis C. Madrigal, who is a senior editor of The Atlantic, coined the term Dark Social in 2012!
It covers all those social sharing that happen outside the tracking capabilities of the traditional analytics.
Example: All the private sharing between individuals.
The term dark is used because this social sharing is normally invisible to digital marketing campaigns.
The content that is shared is not the issue, but the way it is being shared is!
Imagine your client gets leads from word-of-mouth sharing over Instagram messages.
But it won’t be tracked as part of your social media marketing efforts, and thus it won’t count in your lead generation.
Do you see how disastrous it can be?
On top of that, 84% of outbound sharing, i.e., sharing outside a particular social media platform, is categorized under Dark Social as per RadiumOne!
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns: The Tracking Challenge
As you might have already guessed, tracking the Dark Social Marketing Campaigns is the biggest challenge faced by any digital marketer.
For example,
When a user shares a link via the dark social methods, it will appear as direct traffic in the analytics most of the time!
This will make tracking inefficient, and you will not be able to pinpoint the source of the link.
This will render you helpless in figuring out the areas that work and the ones that need improvement in an online presence.
Plus, encrypted apps like WhatsApp make tracking more difficult as well.
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns: Importance in Digital Marketing
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns can help you understand consumer behaviour!
It is the most powerful form of word-of-mouth marketing that leads to conversions, boosted traffic, and improved engagement.
Today, consumers like to be catered to in a personalized way, and there is a limit to the predictions that can be made by AIs.
But with Dark Social Marketing Campaigns, you can accurately understand and follow a customer’s journey, which will help digital marketing campaigns to be much more effective & tracked in real-time!
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns: Strategies to Tap Their Traffic
Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
Although tracking Dark Social Marketing Campaigns is difficult, we will share ways to understand this traffic to tap into it.
You can use the following methods:
- Direct Traffic
Direct traffic is that traffic that comes from a user typing in the URL in their browser.
But now a days, users don’t type the URLs. So if you see a spike in your direct traffic, that means it is coming from the dark social.
- Indirect Metrics
Using indirect metrics such as boosted engagement, time spent on a page, and conversions can also help you infer dark social.
So, you follow the following strategies to infer Dark Social Marketing Campaigns,
- Direct Traffic Analysis in Analytics
- Traffic Spikes to particular pages
- Monitoring Indirect Metrics
Setting up the Analytics for Dark Social Marketing Campaigns
There are tools that can help you prevent any mismatch while trying to analyze dark social.
They are,
- Google Analytics
It allows anyone to create customized segments dedicated for dark social tracking.
For this, you need to track your direct traffic with a deeper page path!
- GetSocial
It provides detailed reports of the dark social shares.
It can even track private SMS, emails, and messages on private messaging apps!
Remember that these tools can only provide you with an estimate and not the exact figure.
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns: URL Shorteners & UTM Parameters
Dark social shares can easily be tracked via UTM parameters and URL shorteners!
- A URL shortener like the Bitly can help you track clicks per link.
- While UTM parameters help in tagging the URLs, and when a URL is clicked, then the notification is sent to Google Analytics for apt tracking!
Thus, with UTM parameters, you can track the medium, source, and campaign of a link, helping you understand the source of the traffic.
This method only works if the users utilize the links, and it won’t work if they copy & paste the content of the link!
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns: The Integration in Your Digital Marketing Campaigns
Once you have built up some insights into dark social, then you are ready to integrate the same in your digital marketing campaigns.
Here’s how you use dark social insights,
- If a particular topic is being shared a lot, then you can craft more content on it.
- If particular content is frequently shared via dark social, then you can use that for modifying your ideal user personas.
It depends solely on you how you interpret and then utilize those interpretations in your traditional marketing campaigns.
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns: Creating Shareable Content
You got to create content that motivates dark social sharing!
The type of content that is most shared on dark social is usually emotionally charged, entertaining, and informational.
You can also create personalized content such as insider tips and exclusive deals, as this will encourage users to share it in their private channels.
Lastly, make such content that is easy to read and understand to widen your coverage, such as clear CTAs or call-to-action buttons, share buttons, and pre-filled messages, as it makes it easier for the users to share further!
Dark Social Marketing Campaigns: Best Practices & Ethical Considerations
You have to consider the ethical considerations behind dark social!
As it involves prying into personal conversations, user privacy can become a crucial factor to be adhered to.
So,
- Be transparent in your tracking and let users know the data you are collecting and the way you are using it.
- Never harass and spam users as this damages your brand reputation and the trust you have built up amongst the target audience.
- Complying with Privacy Laws and compliances is vital, especially with GDPR in Europe and local laws of your region.
Remember to give users a way out if they do not want their personal data to be tracked!
Conclusion: Dark Social Marketing Campaigns are the Future
The digital world is evolving, and so is the dark social!
It is becoming more and more important every day in the digital marketing landscape.
Marketers that are using Dark Social Marketing Campaigns are already one step ahead of their competitors.
If your marketing partner is not using it, you are losing business!
Wildnet Technologies is a leading Digital Marketing Company in India that caters the best possible combination of digital marketing services, i.e., Omnichannel marketing, Dark Social Marketing Campaigns and AI-driven digital marketing analysis.
If you would like to know more,
- Omnichannel Marketing: Maximizing the Impact of your SEO, PPC and SMM Efforts
- How to Leverage AI for Digital Marketing?
- Wildnet’s Digital Yum (our thought leadership’s weekly POV on the latest additions in the digital transformation industry)
Connect with us at info@wildnettechnologies.com and get an edge via Dark Social Marketing Campaigns!
FAQs
FAQ 1. How to track your marketing campaign?
Ans: Use Google Analytics (a free tool) and Semrush (paid) to easily track your marketing campaigns.
FAQ 2. How to measure the success of a marketing campaign with metrics?
Ans: Depending upon whether it is an SEO marketing campaign, PPC campaign, Social Media Marketing campaign, or an Omnichannel campaign, you switch between the KPIs accordingly!
Instead of going through so much hassle, opt the Wildnet Technologies!
FAQ 3. Which 3 metrics or campaign elements would you prioritise when analysing performance?
Ans: If you are asking for general campaign elements, then use,
- CPC, or cost per click,
- Clicks and Impressions, and
- Backlinks to prioritize while analyzing performance.
FAQ 4. How do you develop marketing campaigns and track their success?
Ans: We do the following to craft an amazing marketing campaign and track it:
- Get on Discovery call with the client to understand their requirements, time frame, and budget.
- Conduct a thorough audit to see the client’s current digital standing, their competitors, and the market they are in.
- Draft a digital marketing campaign that will help the client achieve their marketing and business goals.
- Share it with the client for approval.
- Once approved, start their digital marketing campaign and set tracking parameters as per their goals.
- Keep analyzing on a regular basis to highlight profitable aspects and areas of improvement in the digital marketing campaign as well as the client’s online presence.
- Update both as and when to achieve the promised targets in the given budget and within the given timeline.
It is not easy to deliver digital marketing results, and that’s why our clients never leave our side!
