How to Use Analytics to Track Flipboard Visits
I’m a big proponent of tracking everything that happens on Flipboard.
WHY?
By monitoring traffic and engagement, you can “tweak” your efforts, making sure you get the highest performance from the app.
“Which Is the Best Way to Track Flipboard Traffic?”
In this article, I’ll answer this question by covering popular tracking methods to assist you in your success.
Flipboard Analytics
Using Flipboard’s on-platform analytics is a good start to getting insights into your profile performance.
Access Analytics on Your Flipboard Profile:
- Open the Flipboard app on your desktop.
- Navigate to your profile on the top right by tapping your profile picture or username.
- Look for “Analytics” in the drop-down bar.
What Flipboard Tracks: The platform stats track your magazines and articles for key engagement metrics such as:
- Flips — as in how often content is reshared.
- Likes — this indicates approval.
- Comments — direct participation from your readers.
- Engagement trends over time.
- Magazine Opens — how often a magazine is accessed.
- URL Opens — click-throughs to external links.
- Magazine Follows — amount of users subscribing to your magazines.
Why It’s Useful:
Flipboard provides built-in engagement metrics that help magazine creators understand audience interaction. Even though these metrics are not the final say, they give you insights into what your readers seek.
Best For:
- Gaining insights into audience preferences.
- Refining content strategy to increase engagement.
- I use these as a guide for magazine curation.
Pro Tip: Keep a spreadsheet to record these metrics if you don’t publish frequently. Over time, it will help you understand your best-performing content and guide your curation strategy.
Third-Party Tools
Flipboard’s built-in metrics may not be enough if you need more detailed analytics. To track visits and engagement accurately, I use other third-party solutions like Google Analytics G4. This tool provides deeper insights into how Flipboard users interact with your website.
Google Analytics G4
How to Track Flipboard Traffic with Google Analytics:
Flipping content directly from your website? Set up Google Analytics to monitor referral traffic from Flipboard.
Use UTM parameters to differentiate traffic sources. Example:
Analyze Flipboard traffic under Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium for performance trends.
By implementing UTM tracking, you’ll get a granular view of Flipboard’s impact on your website traffic and engagement. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you set G4 up to monitor your Flipboard activity
Set Up GA4 Property:
- Go to your Google Analytics account.
- Click on “Admin” in the lower-left corner.
- In the “Property” column, click “Create Property.”
- Follow the prompts to create a new GA4 property.
Install GA4 Tracking Code:
Install the GA4 tracking code (Global Site Tag) on your website. Ask your web developer to add the GA4 tag to your website’s header. If you use a CMS like WordPress, you might do this through a plugin like Yoast.
Create Custom Dimensions and Metrics:
Look at the attached screenshots for ideas of custom dimensions in GA4 for detailed tracking. I added traffic acquisition on my end to monitor Flipboard’s performance. Here’s what I did:
Go to your GA4 property:
- Navigate to “Acquisition” under “Life Cycle” on your left.
- Navigate to the “Pencil” on the far right. “Create Custom Dimension” or “Create Custom Metric” as needed.
- Define your custom dimension/metric (e.g., in this case, Flipboard-specific events like user acquisition or engagements from Users).
Once the tracking is set up, you can analyze Flipboard traffic:
- Go to your GA4 property.
- Click on “Reports” in the left-hand menu.
- Use the “Acquisition” reports to view traffic sources. Filter by `utm_source=flipboard` to see specific data from Flipboard.
- Create custom reports or use segments further to analyze the behavior and conversion data from Flipboard users.
Verify Tracking:
Verify the data to make sure it’s tracking correctly:
Use the GA4 “Real-time” report to check if Flipboard traffic is being recorded.
Why It’s Useful:
- Readership to your website is the most important metric for most publishers. GA4 gives a good idea of Flipboard’s reader activity from the platform. The analytics do a good job of tracking referral traffic from Flipboard to your website or blog.
Google Analytics Is Best For
- Overall website performance and traffic tracking.
Bitly or Link Shorteners with Analytics
Bitly links are shortened UTM links that can be flipped into a Flipboard magazine. They retain their structure when using them for affiliate links. I recommend not adding more than three bitly links to your articles. I have experienced losing the main image when overusing Bitly links. I like to measure traffic from affiliates, Shopify, or Amazon stores.
How to Use It:
- Shorten links to your Flipboard magazines or articles.
- Monitor click performance to assess which content drives the most traffic.
Why It’s Useful:
Tracks clicks on shared Flipboard links.
Best For
This method is excellent for quick click tracking and link performance when used cautiously. This is great for affiliate links and campaign monitoring.
Tips for Effective Tracking
- Regular Monitoring: It’s essential to check your stats often. Regular monitoring helps identify significant trends. You’ll understand what content resonates with your audience.
- Analyze Your Content: Analyze which articles or magazines get the most engagement. You will get insights on what resonates with your readers.
Pro Tip: Use Google Analytics for website metrics with Flipboard Insights for in-app engagement. Enhance this with Bitly trackers for granular data on clicks. This combination helps you get a holistic view of your Flipboard performance.
Monitoring Flipboard stats helps you make informed decisions. You will be able to enhance your content strategy accordingly.
Happy flipping!
- Please find me on Flipboard.
- Join our Facebook user community for #Fliptips and tricks.
- Follow me on Mastodon or Threads.
- To learn to use Flipboard, follow my 40-second Flipboard tutorials on YouTube.
- Follow my Surf Feeds. For quick access, use code Surf+JanetteSpeyer:
Flipboard is a powerful and versatile tool. Ask me about consulting services to learn how to use your profile for countless benefits. I’m here to help.
Full disclosure: I do not work for Flipboard.
