Ghost records member sources so you can understand where your audience is coming from. This gives you an overview of how many people found your work from other websites, google, social media, and more.

It’s possible to manually set the source that is recorded in Ghost each time a new free or paid member signs up. This method is useful if you’re running specific marketing campaigns so you can track how they’re performing in terms of member conversions. For example, if you place an ad in another newsletter or work with an influencer to promote your work.

To create a custom source, add one of the following query parameters to the referring URL: ref, source, or utm_source.

For example, each of the following would result in a source of xyz:

  • example.com?ref=xyz
  • example.com?source=xyz
  • example.com?utm_source=xyz

That’s it! With the query parameter in place, Ghost will automatically track all new members who signup from that specific source.

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Member sources must be enabled from Settings → Analytics for Ghost to collect source information.