Substack has become a popular platform for writers to create and distribute their own newsletters. With its easy-to-use interface and customizable options, Substack has attracted a large number of writers who are looking to build their own audience. However, creating a newsletter is only the first step. To truly succeed, writers need to understand how their newsletters are performing, and this is where Substack Analytics comes in.
Substack Analytics is a powerful tool that provides writers with detailed insights into how their newsletters are performing. With Substack Analytics, writers can track their link performance, engagement, user cohorts, and more. By understanding how their audience is engaging with their content, writers can make informed decisions about how to improve their newsletters and grow their audience. Additionally, Substack Analytics allows writers to connect Google Analytics to their publication, enabling them to track page views, sign-ups, and paid subscriptions.
Understanding Substack
Substack provides a range of metrics to help you understand how your publication is performing. These metrics are available on the Home page, which offers a high-level overview of your publication’s subscriber growth and engagement, gross annualized revenue, recent post performance, and strategic guidance.
For all publications, this section will show your subscriber count, publication views, and open rate. These metrics can help you understand how your content is resonating with your audience and identify areas for improvement.
In addition to these high-level metrics, Substack also provides more detailed metrics on the Posts, Podcast, Subscribers, and Stats pages. These metrics can help you understand how individual posts are performing, how your subscribers are engaging with your content, and how your publication is growing over time.
The Importance of Analytics in Substack
Analytics play a crucial role in understanding the performance of your Substack publication. By analyzing metrics such as total views, free and paid subscriptions, and shares, you can gain insights into what content resonates with your audience.
With Substack’s built-in metrics, you can track the performance of individual posts as well as your overall publication. This information can help you make data-driven decisions about what content to create and how to distribute it.
In addition to Substack’s native metrics, you can also connect Google Analytics to your Substack publication. This allows you to track more granular data such as traffic sources, user behavior, and conversion rates. By combining Substack’s metrics with Google Analytics, you can get a more complete picture of how your publication is performing.
How Substack Analytics Works
Substack Analytics is a powerful tool that provides valuable insights into your newsletter’s performance. With Substack Analytics, you can track everything from link performance to user engagement and user cohorts. Here’s how it works:
Tracking Metrics
Substack Analytics tracks a variety of metrics, including total views, free subscriptions, paid subscriptions, and shares. Total views refer to the number of views on your post, including web, email, and the Substack app. Free subscriptions represent the number of people who subscribed to your publication from that post, while paid subscriptions refer to the number of people who signed up for a paid subscription from that post. Shares indicate the number of people who clicked “Share” from that post.
Engagement Metrics
Substack Analytics also tracks engagement metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. Open rates refer to the percentage of subscribers who opened your email, while click-through rates represent the percentage of subscribers who clicked on a link in your email. Bounce rates indicate the percentage of emails that were not delivered successfully.
User Cohorts
Substack Analytics allows you to easily see how engaged users who subscribed are based on referral source and date subscribed. This information can help you identify which sources are driving the most engagement and which subscribers are most engaged with your content.
Focus on What Matters
With Substack Analytics, you can focus on what matters most – delivering the insights you need to grow your newsletter. By tracking key metrics and engagement data, you can make informed decisions about your content and marketing strategy, ultimately leading to increased engagement and growth.
Key Metrics in Substack Analytics
Subscriber Growth
Subscriber growth is one of the most important metrics in Substack Analytics. It shows how many new subscribers you have gained over a specific period. This metric can help you understand whether your content is resonating with your audience and whether your marketing efforts are effective. You can track subscriber growth on the Home page of your publication.
Open Rates
Open rates show the percentage of subscribers who opened your email. This metric can help you understand how engaging your subject line is and how interested your subscribers are in your content. You can track open rates on the Stats page of your publication.
Click Rates
Click rates show the percentage of subscribers who clicked on a link in your email. This metric can help you understand how effective your call-to-action is and how interested your subscribers are in your content. You can track click rates on the Stats page of your publication.
Revenue Generation
Revenue generation is the amount of money your publication has earned over a specific period. This metric can help you understand whether your publication is profitable and whether your monetization strategy is effective. You can track revenue generation on the Home page of your publication.
Analyzing Substack Analytics Data
Substack provides analytics data to help writers understand their readership. This data can be used to track subscriber growth, engagement, and content performance. To make the most of Substack analytics, writers need to know how to analyze the data and use it to optimize their content strategy.
One of the key metrics that Substack provides is the open rate for each newsletter. This metric measures the percentage of subscribers who opened the email. Writers can use this data to identify which newsletters are resonating with their audience and which ones are not. They can also experiment with different subject lines and content to see if they can increase their open rates.
Another important metric is the click-through rate (CTR). This measures the percentage of subscribers who clicked on a link in the email. Writers can use this data to identify which links are generating the most engagement and which ones are not. They can also experiment with different calls-to-action and content to see if they can increase their CTR.
Substack also provides data on subscriber growth over time. Writers can use this data to track their progress and identify trends. They can also experiment with different tactics to see if they can increase their subscriber growth.
In addition to these metrics, Substack provides data on the number of unsubscribes, the number of bounces, and the number of spam complaints. Writers can use this data to identify potential issues with their content or their email list. They can also use this data to improve their email deliverability and reduce the likelihood of their emails being marked as spam.
Leveraging Substack Analytics for Growth
If you want to grow your Substack publication, it’s important to understand how to use Substack Analytics to your advantage. By analyzing your metrics, you can determine what’s working and what’s not, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your content, engagement, and revenue.
Content Strategy
One of the most important aspects of growing your Substack publication is creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience. Substack Analytics can help you understand which posts are performing well and which ones aren’t. By analyzing your post engagement metrics, such as open rates, click rates, and shares, you can determine what type of content your subscribers are most interested in.
You can also use Substack Analytics to track your subscriber growth over time. By analyzing your subscriber acquisition metrics, such as referral sources and conversion rates, you can determine which channels are driving the most subscribers to your publication. This can help you optimize your content strategy to attract more subscribers.
Subscriber Engagement
Engaging with your subscribers is key to building a loyal audience and increasing your revenue. Substack Analytics can help you understand how engaged your subscribers are with your content. By analyzing your engagement metrics, such as open rates, click rates, and shares, you can determine which subscribers are most engaged with your publication.
You can also use Substack Analytics to track your subscriber churn rate. By analyzing your churn metrics, such as unsubscribe rates and inactive subscribers, you can determine which subscribers are at risk of churning and take steps to re-engage them. This can help you increase your subscriber retention and revenue over time.
Revenue Optimization
If you’re using Substack to monetize your publication, it’s important to optimize your revenue streams to maximize your earnings. Substack Analytics can help you understand which revenue streams are performing well and which ones aren’t. By analyzing your revenue metrics, such as gross annualized revenue and conversion rates, you can determine which revenue streams are driving the most revenue to your publication.
You can also use Substack Analytics to track your revenue growth over time. By analyzing your revenue growth metrics, such as monthly recurring revenue and average revenue per subscriber, you can determine how your revenue is trending and take steps to optimize your revenue streams. This can help you increase your earnings and grow your publication over time.
Limitations of Substack Analytics
While Substack Analytics provides valuable insights into the performance of your publication, it also has some limitations that you should be aware of.
Firstly, Substack Analytics does not provide detailed information about individual subscribers. You can see the total number of subscribers and their growth over time, but you cannot see who your subscribers are or their engagement with specific posts. This makes it difficult to tailor your content to specific audiences or to identify your most engaged subscribers.
Secondly, Substack Analytics only provides data for email subscribers and website visitors. If you have subscribers who access your content through RSS feeds or other platforms, their engagement will not be reflected in your Substack Analytics. This means that your engagement metrics may not accurately reflect the true engagement of your audience.
Thirdly, Substack Analytics does not provide any information about the demographics or interests of your subscribers. This makes it difficult to understand who your audience is and what they are interested in. Without this information, it can be challenging to create content that resonates with your audience and to attract new subscribers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Substack Analytics provides content creators with a comprehensive set of metrics to help them understand their audience and improve their content. The platform offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to import mailing lists and engage readers through comments. Additionally, the unique subscription model benefits creators by providing backend support.
One of the most important metrics to pay attention to is the number of subscribers. This metric indicates the size of your audience and can help you understand how successful your content is at attracting and retaining readers. Another important metric is open rates, which show how many people are actually opening and reading your emails.