The channel bringing the most clicks is not necessarily bringing the most valuable subscribers. To decide where to spend your time, connect three things: where a visit came from, the first paid subscription and the revenue observed afterward. Keep an unattributed category whenever a connection is missing.
A useful measurement rule
One channel, one period and one attribution rule. Compare subscribers acquired at similar times over an equal observation window. Six months of renewals cannot fairly compete with a campaign launched yesterday.
Define your counts before comparing channels
A click, a visit, a free follower and a paid subscription describe different steps. Choose your conversion: the first paid subscription when you want new customers, or a returning subscription when you are evaluating a win-back campaign. Do not include both in a count labelled new subscribers.
Separate acquisition date from payment date as well. Someone acquired in January can pay in March. That payment belongs in March revenue, while remaining attached to the January cohort when you study the value of that acquisition. These are two views of the same payment, not two separate payments.
Choose a currency, a time zone and a revenue definition. You can track gross revenue, creator earnings after platform fees or earnings after refunds, provided the column says exactly which one it contains. A displayed sale and a bank payout do not automatically represent the same amount or date.
Use native tracking links where available
Create a distinct link for each placement that could affect your next decision: bio, story, collaboration or campaign. Instagram alone is usually too broad. A simple name such as instagram-bio-october or instagram-story-series-a preserves useful context without creating hundreds of unmanageable variations.
On MYM: use Settings → Tracking links. Subscriptions follow the last clicked link within one hour; switching devices loses attribution. Reported earnings exclude MYM fees but do not subtract refunds or cancelled subscriptions. PPV attribution continues while that attributed subscription remains active. Treat this as attribution reporting, not a bank reconciliation.
Test the real journey from the application where the link appears. A successful redirect does not prove that every tracking detail survives. Keep a small register with the link name, placement, launch date and destination you checked. Use it when someone replaces a bio link or starts a new promotion.
When you use your own website measured with Analytics, utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign identify the source, channel and campaign. Keep consistent lowercase names. Adding UTM parameters alone does not connect your website measurement to purchases made on a third-party subscription platform.
Separate observed results from assumptions
| Channel | Tracked visits | Attributed first subscriptions | Earnings after verified fees and refunds | Direct spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic bio | 400 | 12 | €360 | €0 |
| Paid campaign | 300 | 9 | €315 | €180 |
| Collaboration | 120 | 6 | €240 | €80 |
| Unattributed | Not reconciled | 8 | €200 | To allocate |
These are illustrative assumptions, not typical creator results. The earnings column assumes that your reconciliation can account for fees and refunds. Do not use that label when all you have is a number from an attribution screen with a different definition.
Here, the campaign costs €20 per attributed new subscriber: €180 divided by nine. It leaves €135 after direct campaign spend: €315 minus €180, before content production, chatting and other costs. The bio leaves €360 before those costs, but producing organic content still takes working time.
Attributed subscriptions divided by tracked visits equals 3% for the bio and campaign, then 5% for the collaboration. Label it that way. It is not a unique-person conversion rate if the visit count includes several visits from the same fan.
If you include your own time in a second view, use a consistent hourly value across channels. Keep the cash-only view available too. This lets you distinguish a channel that needs money upfront from one that mostly requires your production capacity.
Keep the unknowns visible
A fan can discover you in a video, return through search and subscribe after following a private link. Last-click attribution answers a useful question, but it may not identify the original discovery. Analytics also separates first-user acquisition from the source of an individual session.
Do not distribute the eight unknown subscribers to whichever channel you prefer. An optional answer to “How did you discover my account?” can add context, but keep it labelled as self-reported. It is not a recorded click. Avoid collecting personal details that the measurement does not need.
Show coverage beside the results. In this example, 27 of 35 first subscriptions have an attributed source, or roughly 77%. Your ranking describes that observable portion. A few additional purchases could change the conclusion, so show counts alongside percentages.
Make one practical decision each week
Reconcile the totals
Compare the payments included in your table with the platform record. Look for duplicates, refunds and incomplete periods before interpreting changes.
Compare equally mature cohorts
Use thirty days for every cohort in the first table. Add a sixty-day view once all cohorts have reached that age.
Make a limited change
Try a new placement, profile promise or collaboration. Record it so a different offer does not get mistaken for the effect of posting more often.
To improve the destination after the click, work on your MYM bio. To convert a free audience, use the Fansly follower guide. The creator KPI guide covers the wider account view. Unly can handle configured conversations; it does not replace the measurement needed to establish where subscribers came from.