Attribution tracking shows you where each subscriber came from—the traffic channel, the campaign, and even the specific link they clicked before signing up. Over time you can see which channels and campaigns are actually growing your list.

Kit records the referring page automatically. To capture channel and campaign data too, add UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters to the links pointing to your Kit Forms and Landing Pages, then share those links with your audience.

When someone clicks one of those links and subscribes, their data appears in the How they first found you and How they subscribed sections on the left of their subscriber profile:

In the screenshot above, this subscriber signed up through a Form called "Black Friday promo" after clicking a Black Friday ad on Facebook.

In this article:

Referrer data arrives on its own, but it only tells you the page someone was on right before they subscribed. UTM parameters tell you how they got to that page (source and medium), which campaign brought them there, and which link or ad they clicked.

Format your links like this:

[your link URL]?utm_source=value&utm_medium=value&utm_campaign=value&utm_term=value&utm_content=value

Replace each value with something short and descriptive, and leave out any parameter you don't need. A finished link for a Black Friday ad on Facebook might look like this:

https://mysite.com/newsletter?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=black_friday_sale&utm_content=ad_v1

A free tool like the Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder will build these links for you.

Kit can only save attribution data if the UTM parameters are still on the URL at the moment someone subscribes. So point your tracked links straight at the page holding your Form or Landing Page, with as little to click on along the way as possible.

Say someone clicks https://myblog.com/newsletter-freebie?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social, sees your Form on the page that loads, and subscribes. The parameters are still there, so their attribution data is saved.

Now say someone else clicks the same link, wanders through a few other pages, then comes back to https://myblog.com/newsletter-freebie without the UTM parameters and subscribes from there. The parameters are gone, so there's no attribution data to save.

Two things to know before you read the data:

The URL of the page someone was on right before they subscribed through your Form or Landing Page.

If they clicked a link in your blog post at https://myblog.com/going-adventuring and subscribed, that blog post URL is the referrer.

The platform or channel the subscriber came from.

Example values: google, facebook, instagram, kit.

The type of traffic channel the subscriber came from.

Example values: search, social, paid_social, cpc, email.

The marketing campaign that led to the signup.

Example values: black_friday_sale, free_checklist, webinar_promo.

The keyword behind the paid search ad that led to the signup.

If you ran a paid search ad for your Landing Page on the "lightroom presets" keyword and someone clicked it and subscribed, the UTM term is lightroom+presets.

A value that tells apart two links pointing at the same Form or Landing Page. Useful when:

Example values: top-cta-link, ad_v1.

When a subscriber profile shows "unknown," one of these is usually the reason.

Either the link wasn't tagged when that person subscribed, or the parameters went missing along the way. That happens when:

Attribution is captured only at signup on a Form or Landing Page. Subscribers added another way—through the API, an import, or the Creator Network—won't have attribution data.

Kit needs a referring page to attribute a subscriber to. There won't be one if your tracked link is the first page someone opens in a new browser window, tab, or session.

Attribution data can't be captured if your link: