THE

DARK SIDE
OF MOBILE SHARING
 TABLE OF
CONTENTS

02 Executive summary

Dark Social:
04
Then and now

08 Dark Social case studies

The increasing influence

12
of mobile engagement

A two-step process for

13 connecting with mobile
audiences

The intersection of Dark

15
Social and mobile by region

Solving the investment

21 disconnect in mobile
advertising

1
 EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
In 2014, RadiumOne published a
report that helped marketers and
agencies harness Dark Social data
and improve the return on their
digital marketing investment.

This paper is a follow-up to the 2014 paper and demonstrates how:

> Consumers’ Dark Social activity
is too big to ignore – 84% of
consumers’ outbound sharing
from publishers’ and marketers’
websites now takes place via
private, Dark Social channels such
as email and instant messaging.
> Consumers respond the most
to Dark Social shares via
their mobile devices – 62% of
clickbacks on Dark Social shares
now come from mobile devices.
The other 38% of clickbacks on
Dark Social shares come from
desktops.
> It’s easy and worthwhile to
convert Dark Social activity
into a marketing opportunity
– Marketers and agencies who
use Dark Social activity to fuel
their paid media achieve great
results. A luxury retailer used
RadiumOne’s sharing software to
capture Dark Social activity on its
website and then used this data
to inform paid media. As a result,
the retailer tripled its site traffic
and beat its CPA goal by 71%. A
new SVOD service in Southeast
Asia partnered with RadiumOne
and publishers to access the Dark
Social activity of entertainment
fans, and then activated it with
paid media to convert 560,000
of its first 1 million subscribers.
> Multiple global measures point
to the increasing influence of
mobile engagement – In 2015,
mobile advertising took the lead
in digital advertising expenditure
and mobile search took the lead
in search queries. Now, in 2016,
mobile traffic almost equals
desktop traffic. This highlights
the need for all types of digital
engagement to work well on
mobile.

2
Act On
Insights
After reading this paper, you will know why and how to use Dark Social
data to connect with mobile audiences. You can act on this knowledge by:

> Using a two-step process for > Solving the investment

connecting with mobile audiences disconnect in the sharing
– In the first step, you track all economy – Marketers and
content sharing. In the second agencies are spending over 1
step, you use this data to fuel paid billion USD per month on mobile
media, including mobile media. advertising with Facebook
despite the fact that, according to
> Sizing the intersection of Dark
RadiumOne’s research in February
Social and mobile by region
2016, just 11% of site-originated
– As you consider tracking all
mobile shares and 21% of mobile
content sharing, you may want
clickbacks happened via Facebook
to explore what to expect in your
worldwide. In contrast, Dark Social
country or region and in your
channels made up 82% of site-
vertical. Here, you’ll find Dark
originated mobile shares and 67%
Social insights from the U.S., the
of mobile clickbacks worldwide.
U.K., Europe, Australia, Southeast
Asia and insights from 23 diverse
advertising verticals.

The data sourced in this paper comes from an analysis

of the aggregate actions of the universe of users who
share content using RadiumOne’s sharing software. In
2014, this universe included over 900 million monthly
online unique users. Today, this universe of users is
over 940 million.

3
Advertisers are finding
increasing opportunities
at the intersection of
Dark Social and mobile

DARK
SOCIAL
THEN &
NOW

4

In the last year-and-a-half, Dark Social
has become an even bigger share of
consumer’s outbound sharing activity
from publishers’ and marketers’
owned and earned assets. Consumers
are also increasingly responding to
sharing from their mobile devices. As
a result of these consumer trends, a
growing number of advertisers are
finding increasing opportunities at the
intersection of Dark Social and mobile.
Let’s explore these trends in a little
more detail.
7%
9%
PERCENT
OF ON-SITE
SHARES BY
CHANNEL,
GLOBALLY
DARK SOCIAL FACEBOOK
ALL OTHER PUBLIC SOCIAL NETWORKS
DARK
SOCIAL
THEN &
NOW
Consumers’ Dark
1 Social activity is
too big to ignore
Shares that happen over Dark Social
channels, such as email and instant
messaging, dominate how content
is getting shared online. In the last
year-and-a-half, Dark Social shares
as a percent of on-site shares jumped
from 69% to 84% globally. If you want
to connect with audiences, you can’t
ignore Dark Social because it’s how
your existing customers and prospects
are recruiting your future customers.
DARK
SOCIAL
DOMINATES
84%
SHARING
ACTIVITY
Source: RadiumOne social
analytics data, February 1-29, 2016
5
 DARK
SOCIAL
THEN &
NOW

Consumers respond Conversely, clickbacks on Dark Social

2 the most to Dark shares coming from desktop devices
are down from 47% of clickbacks in
Social shares via August 2014 to 38% of clickbacks in
their mobile devices February 2016. Agencies and marketers
For the past year-and-a-half, the need to assume that when someone
majority of responses to Dark Social shares their content, it will more often
shares or “clickbacks” have come from than not be viewed on a mobile device.
mobile devices, which are quickly
becoming consumers’ preferred
devices for content consumption and
interaction. Remarkably, clickbacks on
Dark Social shares coming from mobile
devices are up from 53% of clickbacks

201
in August 2014 to 62% of clickbacks in

4
February 2016.

201
6
16
20

53% 62%
14

47%
20

38%

38% OF
62% OF
CLICKBACKS ON
CLICKBACKS ON DARK SOCIAL
DARK SOCIAL SHARES COME
SHARES COME FROM MOBILE
FROM DESKTOPS DEVICES
Global percent of clickbacks on Dark Global percent of clickbacks on Dark
Social shares coming from desktops. Social shares coming from mobile devices
Source: RadiumOne social analytics data, August 1-28, 2014
and February 1-29, 2016

6
 DARK
SOCIAL
THEN &
NOW

It’s easy and

3 worthwhile to convert
Dark Social activity
into a marketing
opportunity
The right software, such as
RadiumOne’s sharing tools, can gather
and activate Dark Social data on your
behalf, every time visitors to your
owned media assets share your content
or links into private messages. These
tools also ensure that your Dark Social
data is rich with intent by capturing
information about how audiences
respond to the content that has been
shared with them.
In addition, since Dark Social shares
are personalized to the recipient,
Dark Social data provides an accurate
representation of consumers’ interests
and intent, and the ability to target a
highly qualified and intimate network
of connections. This representation
makes it worthwhile to harness Dark
Social on owned and earned media
because it can be used together with
data-driven media buying to capture
the attention of consumers at just the
right moment in their increasingly
complex consumer journeys.

16% THE
MAJORITY
84%
OF SHARING
HAPPENS VIA
EMAIL, IM
& TEXT
PUBLIC SOCIAL

DARK SOCIAL

7
 DARK SOCIAL
CASE STUDIES

MARKETERS AND
AGENCIES WHO
USE DARK SOCIAL
ACTIVITY TO FUEL
THEIR PAID MEDIA
ACHIEVE GREAT
RESULTS
Three case studies that demonstrate how…

8
HOW A LUXURY
RETAILER BEAT
ITS COST PER
ACQUISITION (CPA)
GOAL BY 71% USING
DARK SOCIAL DATA
ACROSS SCREENS
In the shopping category, 74% of With these custom segments, the
all on-site shares and 42% of the results of a data-driven ad campaign
clickbacks on shares happen via Dark will always be good, but this luxury
Social. So, when a luxury retailer started retailer went one step further. They
to build custom audience segments also scaled the audience segments by
based on people who shared and finding more people across the Web
clicked back on their content, they connected to their sharers. Then, they
began to tap into the power of Dark reached all segments – their sharers,
Social on desktop and mobile devices. sharing recipients, and the amplified
These custom audiences of people segment – with relevant creative
sharing and responding to sharing were designed to convert.
much more intent on purchasing from
the luxury retailer.

THE LUXURY RETAILER

THE TRIPLED TRAFFIC TO
RESULTS
ITS WEBSITE.

9
HOW A NEW SVOD SERVICE IN
SOUTHEAST ASIA CONVERTED
56% OF ITS FIRST 1 MILLION
SUBSCRIBERS USING DARK
SOCIAL DATA ACROSS
SCREENS
In the entertainment category in Southeast Asia, 93% of all shares and 61% of the
clickbacks on shares happen via Dark Social. With this in mind, the region’s newest
subscription-based Internet TV service, iflix, built the campaign for its initial product
launch on gathering and activating live data about how entertainment lovers share
content with their intimate social networks of friends, family, and colleagues.

Mark Britt, iflix Group CEO said, “We knew entertainment lovers shared high
volumes of digital content with each other but, we also knew a lot of sharing was
occurring outside of public social networks.”

“Harnessing Dark Social means we are covering all bases; no blind spots in our
view of consumers’ sharing behavior across all channels and devices,” he added.

iflix initially targeted entertainment lovers who had no relationship with the brand.
To do this, RadiumOne formed strategic partnerships with large entertainment
publishers who deployed RadiumOne’s sharing software.

As iflix acquired customers rapidly, the company generated their own first-party
Dark Social data and leveraged new customer interest by tracking all sharing
of their content and offers, across all channels and devices. This enabled iflix to
convert prospects to subscribers with great effectiveness.

SINCE MAY 2015, THE ‘ALWAYS

THE ON’ FULLY AUTOMATED IFLIX
CAMPAIGN HAS SEEN 56% OF ALL
RESULTS NEW SUBSCRIBERS CONVERTED
THROUGH TARGETING BASED ON
DARK SOCIAL SHARING DATA.

10
HOW A LEADING HEALTH
AND BEAUTY RETAILER
INCREASED ROI BY 10X AT
CHRISTMAS WITH A CROSS-
SCREEN CAMPAIGN FUELED
BY DARK SOCIAL DATA
Imagine what it would be like to
increase ROI by 10x at Christmas. This
is what the health and beauty retailer
Boots UK was able to do with a cross-
screen campaign during the 2015
Christmas season.
Boots UK achieved this level of success
by implementing a plan to identify,
amplify, target, and optimize data-
driven ads for the “Christmas gifter”
segment of consumers who are likely
to buy health and beauty gifts for their
loved ones.
To identify this high-value audience,
Boots UK conducted an in-depth
analysis of both online and app data.
The analysis revealed that “Christmas
gifters” were extremely active in sharing
holiday content such as photos, videos,
recipes, gift ideas, and wish lists via
apps, websites, social, email, IM and
other channels.
To amplify this audience, Boots UK
extrapolated the “Christmas gifters” on
its own website to a much larger group
of over 10 million UK consumers using
RadiumOne’s ShareGraphTM algorithms,
which considered variables such as the
recency of sharing holiday content, the
frequency of sharing holiday content,
and the directionality of sharing activity.
Finally, to target and optimize paid
media for this audience, Boots UK
used RadiumOne’s buying platform.

RADIUMONE DELIVERED A
RETURN OF 10X ON BOOTS’
THE CAMPAIGN INVESTMENT.
RESULTS CONSUMERS FROM DARK SOCIAL
CHANNELS DROVE A COST PER
ACQUISITION 12.3 TIMES BETTER
THAN AVERAGE.

11
 THE
INCREASING
INFLUENCE
OF MOBILE
ENGAGEMENT

In the last year-and-a-half, consumer engagement on mobile devices has

surpassed that of desktop devices across a number of global measures

Mobile advertising Mobile searches took Mobile traffic almost

took the lead in digital
ad expenditures
In April 2015,
eMarketer predicted
that the global mobile
advertising market
would account for more
than 50% of all digital
ad expenditure in 2016.1
the lead in search
queries
In October 2015,
Google’s senior vice
president of search,
Amit Singhal, said that
worldwide, mobile
searches now exceed
desktop searches.2
equals desktop traffic
As of May 2016, mobile
traffic is nearly as
large as desktop traffic
with smartphone and
tablet devices together
driving 47% of traffic
while desktop devices
are driving 52% of
traffic, according to
StatCounter Global
Stats.3

These measures all point to the increasing influence of

mobile engagement. More now than ever before, marketers
and agencies must connect with mobile audiences. But how?

12
 A TWO-STEP
PROCESS FOR
CONNECTING
WITH MOBILE
AUDIENCES

Around the world, marketers and agencies are leveraging RadiumOne’s sharing software
and data to connect with their most valuable audiences. In the first step, you track all
content sharing. In the second step, you use this data to fuel paid media across all
channels, including mobile. HERE IS HOW IT’S DONE:

1 TRACK ALL CONTENT SHARING

This arms you with powerful signals of consumer interest and intent that come
from previously unsighted Dark Social activity across your owned and earned
media assets.

2 USE THIS DATA TO FUEL PAID MEDIA

Through RadiumOne’s data-driven platform, you can use your first-party sharing
data, overlayed with RadiumOne’s publisher data, to reach people who share
your content, people who respond to your shared content, and others in the
sharing universe of users that have demonstrated interest and intent in your
product or category.

This simple approach works. It works because when you track content sharing
on your owned and earned assets, you collect the most powerful and timely
signals of interest and intent. Acting on these signals has proven to lift
performance considerably. For instance, in October 2015 RadiumOne looked at
all live campaigns in Australia and reported an overall 153% uplift in conversions
among consumers who shared relevant content.

13
 THE TWO-STEP PROCESS
1. TRACK ALL CONTENT SHARING

SHORTEN & SHARE

HTTP://SUPERLONGURL

ALL COPY AND 40+ PUBLIC SOCIAL IN-APP SHORTENED

PASTE DARK NETWORKS SHARING LINKS
SOCIAL SHARING

2. USE THIS
DATA TO FUEL
PAID MEDIA

14
 THE
INTERSECTION
OF DARK
SOCIAL AND
MOBILE BY
REGION

Zooming in on mobile sharing and mobile clickback

activity, RadiumOne’s sharing data shows that Dark
Social is too big to ignore on mobile, in addition to
being too big to ignore overall. Globally, Dark Social
represents 82% of mobile shares originating from
publishers’ and marketers’ owned and earned assets.
67% of the clickbacks to the original content source
are also coming from mobile. So, when people share
a publishers’ or marketers’ content from their mobile
device, 8 out of 10 times they will share it via a Dark
Social channel. And, when people respond to shares
from their mobile device, nearly 7 out of 10 times
they’re clicking on a share within a Dark Social channel.

15
The majority
of mobile
shares
8%

11%

happen
via Dark GLOBAL
Social 82% Dark Social

channels
8% 4%
DARK SOCIAL 7%
FACEBOOK
13%
ALL OTHER
PUBLIC SOCIAL
NETWORKS
U.S. AUSTRALIA
79% Dark Social 89% Dark Social

BY REGION

9% 8% 4%
9%

11% 13%

EUROPE U.K. SOUTHEAST ASIA

80% Dark Social 77% Dark Social 87% Dark Social

Source: RadiumOne social

analytics data, February 1-29, 2016

16
The majority
of mobile
clickbacks
11%

happen
via Dark GLOBAL
21%

Social 67% Dark Social

channels
3% 5%
DARK SOCIAL
8%
FACEBOOK

ALL OTHER
PUBLIC SOCIAL
NETWORKS
U.S. AUSTRALIA
47% Dark Social 92% Dark Social

BY REGION
31%

5% 5% 4%
9%
13% 15%

EUROPE U.K. SOUTHEAST ASIA

82% Dark Social 80% Dark Social 84% Dark Social

Source: RadiumOne social

analytics data, February 1-29, 2016

17
 Mobile Dark
Social sharing
as a percentage
of all sharing by
advertiser category
SOUTHEAST
GLOBAL U.S. U.K. EUROPE AUSTRALIA ASIA

EDUCATION 61% 70% 76% 65% 69% 28%

RELIGION 54% 48% 77% 57% 72% 48%

STYLE & FASHION 49% 23% 17% 33% 18% 25%

HEALTH & FITNESS 28% 38% 19% 15% 13% 10%

FAMILY 26% 29% 39% 34% 35% 33%

ENTERTAINMENT 23% 20% 24% 25% 25% 25%

FOOD & DRINK 21% 25% 31% 19% 32% 17%

SOCIETY 21% 6% 37% 25% 12% 20%

AUTOMOTIVE 20% 21% 52% 32% 9% 15%

HOBBIES & INTERESTS 19% 12% 24% 24% 17% 16%

SHOPPING 18% 6% 31% 27% 16% 6%

TECHNOLOGY 18% 18% 25% 15% 21% 15%

TRAVEL 15% 33% 21% 24% 16% 7%

SPORTS 14% 14% 16% 15% 19% 14%

BUSINESS 14% 12% 8% 13% 10% 12%

LAW & POLITICS 14% 14% 10% 8% 13% 5%

REAL ESTATE 12% 23% 15% 12% 7% 2%

PETS 11% 11% 18% 13% 13% 10%

CAREERS 10% 14% 8% 8% 16% 5%

SCIENCE 9% 12% 12% 8% 10% 6%

HOME & GARDEN 9% 9% 15% 10% 23% 8%

NEWS 6% 10% 11% 7% 19% 6%

PERSONAL FINANCE 6% 3% 3% 6% 34% 20%

Source: RadiumOne social analytics data, February 1-29, 2016

18
 Mobile Dark Social
clickbacks as a
percentage of all
clickbacks by
advertiser category
SOUTHEAST
GLOBAL U.S. U.K. EUROPE AUSTRALIA ASIA

FOOD & DRINK 65% 48% 78% 72% 76% 74%

HEALTH & FITNESS 56% 70% 62% 55% 43% 70%

STYLE & FASHION 51% 78% 30% 36% 77% 72%

HOBBIES 50% 60% 60% 48% 74% 78%

HOME & GARDEN 48% 72% 48% 47% 48% 45%

SPORTS 47% 62% 58% 54% 72% 28%

REAL ESTATE 45% 43% 14% 17% 55% 30%

ENTERTAINMENT 45% 36% 72% 65% 55% 58%

TECHNOLOGY 45% 58% 74% 55% 39% 48%

AUTOMOTIVE 40% 74% 36% 31% 75% 62%

TRAVEL 37% 43% 35% 38% 55% 25%

NEWS 34% 45% 6% 6% 87% 43%

SOCIETY 28% 6% 43% 38% 12% 14%

SCIENCE 24% 14% 70% 44% 52% 24%

PERSONAL FINANCE 23% 28% 43% 32% 42% 35%

EDUCATION 22% 30% 24% 13% 28% 43%

SHOPPING 21% 25% 43% 38% 32% 60%

BUSINESS 21% 35% 30% 15% 28% 43%

RELIGION 18% 30% 28% 21% 30% 28%

FAMILY 15% 43% 6% 7% 9% 30%

LAW & POLITICS 15% 28% 45% 30% 21% 6%

PETS 13% 6% 28% 22% 30% 6%

CAREERS 5% 24% 6% 4% 18% 6%

Source: RadiumOne social analytics data, February 1-29, 2016

19
In the U.S., Dark Social clickbacks from
mobile devices accounted for the majority
of all clickbacks in 7 categories including
the highly popular Sports category. In this
category, 62% of clickbacks happened via
Dark Social channels on mobile devices.
In the U.K., Dark Social clickbacks from
mobile devices also accounted for the
majority of all clickbacks in 7 categories
including the Food & Drink, Arts &
Entertainment, and Sports categories.
In the Food & Drink category, 78% of
clickbacks happened via Dark Social
channels on mobile devices. In the Arts
& Entertainment category, 72% of
clickbacks happened via Dark Social
channels on mobile devices. In the Sports
category, 58% of clickbacks happened via
Dark Social channels on mobile devices.
DARK SOCIAL
CLICKBACKS
HOBBIES
78%
In Southeast Asia, Dark Social clickbacks
from mobile devices accounted for the
majority of all clickbacks in 7 categories
including popular categories like Hobbies &
Interests, and Food & Drink. In the Hobbies
& Interests category, 78% of clickbacks
happened via Dark Social channels on
mobile devices. In the Food & Drink
category, 74% of clickbacks happened via
Dark Social channels on mobile devices.
20
In Europe, Dark Social clickbacks from
mobile devices accounted for the majority
of all clickbacks in 5 categories including
the Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, Sports,
Arts & Entertainment, and Technology
& Computing categories. The largest
percentage of clickbacks that happened
via Dark Social channels on mobile devices
in the region was in the Food & Drink
category, at 72%.
DARK SOCIAL
CLICKBACKS
FOOD &
DRINKS
72%
In Australia, Dark Social clickbacks from
mobile devices accounted for the majority
of all clickbacks in 10 categories including
News, Sports, and Arts & Entertainment.
In the News category, 87% of clickbacks
happened via Dark Social channels on
mobile devices. In the Sports category,
72% of clickbacks happened via Dark
Social channels on mobile devices. In
the Arts & Entertainment category, 55%
of clickbacks happened via Dark Social
channels on mobile devices.
 SOLVING THE
INVESTMENT
DISCONNECT

Even though Dark Social activity dominates mobile sharing from brands’ and publishers’
owned and earned assets, the marketing dollars have primarily been going to public social
networks, and Facebook in particular. For instance, Facebook’s mobile ad business grew
82% year-on-year to account for $4.5 billion in Q4 2015 revenue for the company. According
to Ad Age4 this was 80% of the company’s total ad revenue for the quarter. RadiumOne’s
research in February 2016 found that only 11% of site-originated mobile shares and 21%
of mobile clickbacks happened worldwide via Facebook. In the same month, 7 times the
number of site-originated mobile shares and over 3 times the number of mobile clickbacks
happened via Dark Social.

A FEW BIG DISCONNECTS

84% OF YET OVER 90%*

SHARING IS OF SOCIAL
HAPPENING MARKETING
OUTSIDE $ GOES TO
OF SOCIAL SOCIAL
NETWORKS NETWORKS

* THE 2016 CMO SURVEY.

21
MARKETERS
SPEND 10%
OF THEIR
BUDGETS
ON SOCIAL AND PLAN TO
MEDIA* DOUBLE THIS IN
THE NEXT 5 YEARS
YET 40% OF
CMOS REPORT A
BELOW AVERAGE
PERFORMANCE*

One of the reasons for this

investment disconnect is that
not all agencies and marketers
know what you know. They
don’t know why or how to use
Dark Social data to connect
with mobile audiences. That
makes the two-step approach
outlined in this paper a
lucrative, untapped marketing
opportunity for you.

RadiumOne can help you

get started.

www.radiumone.com

* THE 2016 CMO SURVEY.

22
 APPENDIX

1) “Mobile Ad Spend to Top $100 Billion Worldwide in 2016,

51% of Digital Market,” eMarketer, April 2, 2015. http://www.
emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Ad-Spend-Top-100-Billion-
Worldwide-2016-51-of-Digital-Market/1012299

2) “Worldwide, More Than Half of Google’s Searches

Happen on Mobile,” Search Engine Land, October 8, 2015.
http://searchengineland.com/half-of-google-search-is-
mobile-232994

3) StatCounter GlobalStats, Platform Comparison, December

2008 to May 2016. http://gs.statcounter.com/#all-
comparison-ww-monthly-200812-201605

4) “Facebook’s Ad Volume Has Grown for the First Time in Two

Years,” Ad Age, January 27, 2016. http://adage.com/article/
digital/facebook-q4-2016-earnings/302378

radiumone.com