What is Dark Funnel?
The buying activity and research that happens outside your trackable marketing channels, invisible to attribution tools.
Definition
The dark funnel refers to all the buying research and decision-making that happens in places your analytics can't see: private Slack communities, word-of-mouth recommendations, podcast mentions, offline conversations, dark social sharing (copied links without UTM parameters), and private browsing. When a prospect fills out a demo request form, they've often done 70-80% of their research in channels that won't show up in your attribution model.
Why It Matters
The dark funnel challenges the way most B2B companies measure marketing effectiveness. If your attribution model only credits trackable touchpoints (paid ads, organic search, email clicks), you're undervaluing the channels that actually drive buying decisions. Communities, podcasts, peer recommendations, and private research shape purchasing behavior more than most companies realize. Understanding the dark funnel means accepting that you can't measure everything and adjusting your strategy accordingly.
Example
A VP of RevOps hears about a data enrichment tool in a private Slack community. They Google it, read reviews on G2 (in incognito mode), ask peers in their network, listen to a podcast episode featuring the founder, and then visit the website directly to book a demo. Your attribution model credits 'Direct Traffic' as the source. The actual decision was influenced by community, word-of-mouth, G2, and a podcast, none of which show up in analytics.