The Dark Funnel in Game Marketing & 7 Ways To Measure the Unmeasurable

When marketing your game, you often want to make sure your marketing efforts are giving you some sort of ROI (Return on Investment) for the time and money spent. A mistake that many developers make when marketing their game is relying heavily on 1:1 results, which, when we get into the Dark Funnel and Dark Social Media, simply doesn’t work with direct attribution.

In Game Marketing, the dark funnel is so often overlooked and rarely discussed that, at the time of writing this article, if you were to Google the terms “Dark Funnel Game Marketing” or “Dark Social Game Marketing,” you would find nothing about it. Yet it’s such an important topic that game developers, especially those releasing their own titles, should understand when making choices about marketing and measuring results.

In other words, this article is entering completely new territory—territory that every game developer should understand to effectively evaluate their marketing efforts.

What Is the Dark Funnel?

Sounds ominous, right? You might think it’s marketing done by a Sith Lord or Vader himself. But it’s not as bad or evil as it sounds. It merely refers to marketing activities that cannot be tracked. These untraceable moments can be incredibly powerful in influencing your audience—precisely because they often happen out of view of traditional analytics.

First, let’s define a game’s marketing funnel, as seen in the image below:

1. Awareness: This is when someone sees or becomes aware of your game (views or impressions).
2. Interest: This might look like someone liking your social posts, clicking on a link from an ad, etc.
3. Evaluation: At this stage, they do more research on your game—visiting your website, reading reviews, checking out social proof, etc.
4. Conversion: Finally, this is where they install or purchase the game.

All these activities seem straightforward and, in theory, should be easy to assign to specific sources, right? Not quite.

Let’s consider an example: Suppose you’ve been running a TikTok campaign for your game and you set up everything to track results. A user sees your game on the TikTok mobile app and thinks, “That’s cool! I want to check it out.” But the game is for desktop. So later, they sit down at their computer, type your game’s name into Google, find it on Steam, and then either wishlist or purchase it.

Guess what? The way this user performed the search on your game cannot be directly linked back to your TikTok campaign. This might mislead you to think that creating content on TikTok isn’t working or isn’t worth the effort because there’s no direct attribution. And that’s the core of the dark funnel problem.

Regular Trackable Activities vs. Dark Funnel (Untrackable) Activities

When we talk about trackable versus untrackable activities, think of them as two sides of the same coin.

• One side (trackable) is easy to see, measure, and evaluate through analytics.
• The other side (dark funnel) takes place in channels or conversations that standard analytics either partially captures or misses entirely.

The dark funnel can be incredibly influential, even if it’s hidden from direct metrics. Below is a short list that applies specifically to game marketing:

Regular Trackable Activities

• A user sees an ad on (Google, X/Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and clicks on it.
  This click is recorded, and you can see which ad was most effective, how many clicks you got, etc.
• A user goes to a website, landing page, or store page.
  Most of the UTMs (tracking codes) are recorded. You can also see if a particular campaign is driving traffic—though note that certain services like Apple’s ecosystem can limit tracking data.
• A user wishlists or installs the game.
  Actions taken directly on store fronts (Steam, Epic, etc.) or your own website can usually be connected back to the preceding click, creating a clear picture of cause and effect.

Untrackable (Dark) Activities

• Going on a Discord and asking for thoughts on games
  Someone might hear about your game and casually mention it in a channel. That conversation can spark many new fans, but you can’t easily track who saw that message or how many eventually visited your page.
• Learning about the game from a friend
  Word-of-mouth is powerful. A buddy says, “Hey, check out this new RPG I found!”—no direct link, no UTM parameter, just genuine conversation.
• Seeing the game in a TV Ad (e.g., Hulu)
  They might watch a streaming service or live TV, see your ad, and then search for your game days (or weeks) later. There’s no direct digital footprint linking that TV spot to the eventual purchase or wishlist.
• Discovering the game at a gaming conference (e.g., GDC)
  Maybe they tried a demo on the show floor or received a postcard at your booth. It may lead them to Google your game later, but once again, that final search doesn’t trace back to the in-person encounter.

So while the trackable activities give you easy-to-read metrics (ad clicks, website visits, wishlists), the dark funnel activities are often more about brand awareness, organic conversation, and offline or peer-influenced discovery. Many marketing teams focus only on trackable metrics, potentially overlooking the real reasons your game is getting buzz or sales.

Dark Social

Social media marketing has been become of the most prominent forms marketing a game, with many games utilizing platforms for their go to platform, with uncertainty in investing time and money in other platforms. Part of the Dark Funnel is Dark Social, where it is estimated that up to 86% of social media marketing cannot be tracked.

Dark social typically happens because:

1. Email: When a user puts information in email, one of the most common forms of communication, it becomes untrackable. This is estimated to be 37% of how people share information.
2. Native Apps: Many apps now have increased privacy, especially with Apple. This inability to track users and the actions can leave unknowing if your methods are effective.
3. Messaging Apps: WhatsApps, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, DMs and many other messaging apps in which content is shared on is hard to track. It estimated that 63% of sharing is done through messaging apps.
4. Text Message: A user copies the link from your socials into a text message and sends. This is not trackable and its estimated how 48% of people share content.
5. Word Of Mouth: They see it on social and tell their friends; impossible to track. It is estimated that 51% of content sharing is done through word of mouth.

The statistics above are general stats for how content is shared. There is no in-depth analysis of the time of writing that covers Dark Social when it comes to gaming content.

What happens is that a game developer might feel a certain channel is not working because they cannot directly see the results of that channel. So we need to explore solutions to address the dark funnel and dark social.

Ways to Track (at least partially) the Dark Funnel

There are some “best effort” ways to get a sense of the dark funnel’s impact. Note that these methods aren’t perfect and may require extensive data collection to avoid misinterpretation.

1. Correlation Analysis

Compare organic search volume spikes (from Google Search Console, Steam wishlist trends) to social media campaigns, PR pushes, or influencer activations. If there’s a time-lagged increase in wishlists or purchases after a campaign, it suggests an indirect impact—people are likely Googling your game name rather than clicking a direct link.

This is one of the tools we provide at Glitch: the ability to correlate marketing actions within a specific timeframe against changes in wishlists, sales, and installs.

2. Direct Surveys (“How Did You Hear About Us?”)

Add an optional survey at sign-up, checkout, or when users launch the game. Provide multiple-choice options like “Saw on social media,” “Friend recommendation,” or “Google search,” and include a free text field for open-ended answers.

The drawback to this approach is that it may cause some churn if users feel it’s intrusive during onboarding. Always track whether users drop off at this survey step. Tools like Game Analytics can help you watch these onboarding metrics closely.

3. Unique Branded Search Tracking

If your campaign or influencer marketing introduces a specific phrase (e.g., “CyberBlade Game Steam”), track how often these terms are searched using Google Trends or Google Ads data. An increase in brand searches post-campaign strongly indicates that direct searches are bypassing your UTM links.

This is especially important because many users come to a Steam page from social media using their mobile device, but ultimately buy and play on desktop. Keeping an eye on unique search terms can help confirm that your campaign is making an impact.

4. Vanity URLs & UTM Parameters

Use custom domains or tracking links that forward to your website or Steam page (e.g., cyberbladegame.com/play). Though some users will still Google your game name rather than typing the vanity URL, you’ll at least capture a fraction of direct visits and can see if there’s a spike in these direct hits. This method is especially useful when you want track items through dark social, as you can assign everything is own unique url to help you understand where something was originally posted and where it was shared.

Be very careful with link shorteners. Some communities (like Reddit) might mark these as spam and shadowban the content. Keep your links and domain reputable to avoid red flags.

5. Social Listening & Community Monitoring

Monitor Discord, Twitter, Reddit, and gaming forums for mentions of your game. If there’s a spike in user-generated discussions following a campaign, but you don’t see a corresponding spike in direct clicks, this indicates dark funnel impact.

You can write your own custom bot or use third-party tools to actively scan for mentions of your title. Sometimes even a single influential mention can lead to a discussion that drives new players.

6. Lift Testing (A/B Testing at Scale)

Run a campaign in specific geographic areas and compare sales, wishlists, or engagement in those locations with regions where you have no paid promotion. This is how big brands measure TV or offline ad impact—you measure the difference (“lift”) between treated areas and control areas.

7. Referral Discount Codes

Use referral discount codes for influencers and track wishlist or purchase surges after their content goes live. Even if people don’t use the direct link, a spike in interest indicates dark funnel activity triggered by the influencer’s mention.

Not all store fronts support referral discount codes, so you might need to use an external website or app for code redemption. Even a small number of redeemed codes is proof that people are hearing about your game in places you can’t directly measure.

Use Both Trackable vs. Untrackable Funnel Activities

Trackable activities are your best friend when you want data-driven decisions. You see clear patterns—ads lead to clicks, which lead to wishlists or installs. This allows you to forecast ROI, optimize ad placements, and refine your pitch. These metrics become your comfort zone.

However, untrackable (dark) activities are often responsible for the most authentic, enthusiastic support. Word-of-mouth, community chatter, a random mention in a niche Discord, or a creative influencer’s shout-out can become the reason a surge of new people hear about your game. These “invisible” pathways can create a passionate fan base that trusts the recommendation of a friend or idol more than any ad. If you ignore these hidden avenues of influence, you risk undervaluing the real power behind your game’s growth and missing key opportunities to foster community and organic hype.

You don’t want to rely solely on intangible results, because you still need to measure if your marketing dollars are doing anything. At the same time, you don’t want to be so reliant on 1:1 measurable metrics that you ignore the broader ways people discover and talk about games. Balancing these two areas—leveraging data where possible while recognizing the limitations of strict analytics—ensures you’re effectively planning and evaluating your marketing strategy.