Fathom

Fathom is a simple, privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. To hear the Fathom folks describe it:

Our entire company is built on putting digital privacy first. We're GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, PECR (and more) compliant. Our business model is selling software, not selling data. Because of this, Fathom doesn't require annoying cookie notices.

Connecting your Fathom account to Buttondown

To wire up your Fathom account to your Buttondown newsletter, all you need to do is create a new site:

Once you've done so, you'll receive a new embed code, as seen below:

Go ahead and email me that "Site ID" (CPJAXHPW in the above screenshot) along with your username and I can take care of the rest!

Adding a Fathom goal for new subscribers

Fathom has a concept of 'goals' that is roughly analogous to events or actions. To quote their documentation:

So goals are useful for things like button clicks, form submissions or the loading of very important pages, like ecommerce success pages (after someone buys your product). You can create unlimited goals in Fathom, and each goal completion counts towards your page view limits on your pricing plan.

If you're using Fathom to track your Buttondown account's analytics, you likely want to track conversion rate — the number of folks who show up on your subscribe page that ultimately subscribe.

The easiest way to do this is to create a custom goal for "subscribing". Once you've done so, email me with the goal ID and I can get it wired together for you!