Dark social: The biggest missed opportunity in digital marketing

Ammarah Marjan, Charles Graham, Margaret Bruce and Andrew Mitchell
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Ammarah Marjan: London South Bank University, UK
Charles Graham: London South Bank University, UK
Margaret Bruce: London South Bank University, UK
Andrew Mitchell: Brandmovers Inc., USA

Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 2020, vol. 8, issue 3, 261-276

Abstract: Following the widespread adoption of closed social media apps, marketers can no longer easily track outbound sharing of website links, or inbound traffic resulting from those shares — so-called dark social. This social traffic is misclassified in Google Analytics as ‘direct’, and little is currently known about its volume or relative behaviour, and therefore how to manage it effectively. This study aims to contextualise the typical contribution of the direct channel to total website reach, identify the relative contribution of (true) direct traffic and estimate the volume of dark social traffic. Traffic flows totalling over 3 million hits were observed over two years on five websites. The results suggest that the direct channel can contribute over one-third of total traffic and, according the authors’ estimate, an inbound dark social component of almost one-fifth. This is little understood at present, and the article proposes a future research agenda to develop theory in the area.

Keywords: dark social; web traffic; Google Analytics; direct traffic; social media; e-WOM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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