A Practical Guide to Content Marketing Metrics

understand-effectiveness-guide-content-marketing-metrics

[[p]]A strategic [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/build-a-content-marketing-plan-in-10-steps" target="_blank"]]content marketing plan[[/a]] can help a brand attract, engage, and influence a target audience. By creating great content, you can drive traffic, boost engagement, and [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-generate-high-quality-leads" target="_blank"]]generate high-quality leads[[/a]].&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]But that&rsquo;s not all! You can also build relationships with customers and cultivate a sense of community that encourages loyalty and position yourself as a thought leader and authority in an industry[[/p]]

[[p]]So being able to evaluate the success of your content marketing activity, from creation to distribution, is crucial.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Despite this, the two challenges cited most often for marketers when measuring content performance are: attributing ROI to content efforts (56%) and tracking customer journeys (56%), according to the Content Marketing Institute.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]In this blog, we&rsquo;ll explore the most important content marketing metrics so you know how to measure the success of your activities by covering:[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]]Why should you measure content performance?[[/li]]
	[[li]]Key engagement metrics[[/li]]
	[[li]]Key conversion metrics[[/li]]
	[[li]]How can you find the metrics that matter most to you?[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]Before we go into the metrics, let&rsquo;s look at key reasons for measuring content performance.[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Assess effectiveness:[[/strong]] Tracking performance helps determine whether content is achieving its intended goals such as lead generation, engagement, or brand awareness.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Optimize strategy:[[/strong]] By using data, you can refine strategies by focusing on what works and improving what doesn&rsquo;t.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Improve ROI:[[/strong]] Understanding which content delivers the best results helps maximize the impact of marketing budgets.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Get audience insights:[[/strong]] Performance metrics reveal audience behaviors, preferences, and patterns, which allow for better targeting.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Identify high-performing content: [[/strong]]By knowing what content performs, you can replicate success and inform future content creation.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Allocate budget and resources:[[/strong]] Understanding what content performs can help you to allocate budget and resource investment.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Track customer journey:[[/strong]] Measuring how content influences different stages of the buyer&rsquo;s journey will help optimize conversion pathways.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Be competitive:[[/strong]] You can conduct a [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-do-a-competitive-analysis-in-digital-marketing" target="_blank"]]competitive analysis[[/a]] to compare the relevancy of your content to competitors and leverage industry trends.[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]Measure long-term impact: Content marketing often delivers value over time, so tracking long-term metrics helps to ensure sustained growth and brand loyalty.[[/p]]

[[p]]Not all content marketers are masters of measurement, so if you&rsquo;re feeling overwhelmed, basic engagement metrics are a recommended starting point.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]They will answer your most fundamental content questions and provide you with an overview of how your strategy is performing.[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Users/unique visitors: [[/strong]]This provides the total number of unique visitors to a particular page on your website.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Pageviews: [[/strong]]This tracks the total number of times a piece of content such as a blog or landing page is viewed.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Time on page:[[/strong]] This measures how long someone stays on a page to get insights on engagement and relevance.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Scroll depth: [[/strong]]This shows how far someone scrolls down a page to see if the content resonated with them and was engaging.&nbsp;[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Bounce rate: [[/strong]]This measures the percentage of visitors who leave without interacting with the content further. (A high bounce rate may indicate that the content is not engaging or relevant.).&nbsp;[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Video views and watch time:[[/strong]] This looks at video content to see engagement and viewer interest.&nbsp;&nbsp;[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Unique pageviews: [[/strong]]This metric combines pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session, so you can gain an insight into the number of sessions during which that page was viewed.&nbsp;[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]][[strong]]Top tip:[[/strong]] You can create an advanced segment to split out particular types of traffic within [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/webinars/a-beginners-guide-to-google-analytics-4-ga4" target="_blank"]]GA4[[/a]] to take a more precise look at the performance of your content and compare performance (such as, for example, compare blog content to the homepage).&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]You can get more insights about your content by analyzing these metrics:&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Location: [[/strong]]This can really help to inform your content creation process. For example, if the majority of your blog traffic comes from a particular country or region, consider doing localized blog content or recruiting a [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/toolkits/the-ultimate-guest-blogging-guide-and-toolkit" target="_blank"]]guest blogger[[/a]] with insider knowledge.&nbsp;[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Source/Medium: [[/strong]]This provides information on what channels directed people to the content, such as social media or referrals.&nbsp;[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Device:[[/strong]] You can see how many users consume your content on mobile or tablet devices. This will help ensure your team aims for responsive design and better understand the devices users are using to access your content.[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]It&rsquo;s one of the oldest channels, but [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/the-ultimate-email-marketing-guide-for-beginners" target="_blank"]]email marketing[[/a]] is a very effective way to keep in touch with your customers and drive prospects through the marketing funnel.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]It&rsquo;s not a good idea to just send generic emails to your lists and hope to get a result. Segmentation is a key part of email marketing (which [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-are-the-best-ai-and-marketing-automation-tools" target="_blank"]]AI tools[[/a]] or AI-powered platforms like Mailchimp or HubSpot can help with), while triggered workflows can see great results if the messaging is relevant and tailored.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Here are some metrics to help you know how your content sent by email is performing:&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Open rate: [[/strong]]This measures the percentage of recipients who open the email. It indicates how compelling the subject line and sender name are.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Unsubscribe rate: [[/strong]]This is the percentage of recipients who opt out after receiving an email, which can indicate that the content is not relevant or of interest.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Spam complaint rate: [[/strong]]This is the percentage of recipients that mark emails as spam, which can hurt deliverability and sender reputation. Read more about changes to bulk email sends by [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/google-yahoo-email-changes-what-do-they-mean-for-marketers" target="_blank"]]Google and Yahoo[[/a]] in 2024 to avoid this.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Email deliverability rate: [[/strong]]This is the percentage of emails successfully delivered to recipients&#39; inboxes, excluding bounces and spam filters.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]List growth rate:[[/strong]] This measures the rate at which an email list is growing by looking at new subscribers and excluding unsubscribes and bounces.[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]Social media is one of the most effective channels at a marketer&rsquo;s disposal. With over 5 billion users, there are a number of [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-channels-for-your-business" target="_blank"]]social media networks[[/a]] to choose from and they all rely on good content to drive engagement.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Here are the most important metrics to measure for social media content.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]]Engagement: This metric measures how people engage with your social media content through likes or reactions, comments, shares/retweets, and saves, pins, or bookmarks.[[/li]]
	[[li]]Reach and impressions: This is the number of unique users who saw the content and the total number of times content was displayed.&nbsp;[[/li]]
	[[li]]Clicks: This measures how many users clicked on links within the post, showing content effectiveness in driving traffic.[[/li]]
	[[li]]Video: For video content, you should measure views, watch time, and completion rate.&nbsp;[[/li]]
	[[li]]Follower growth: This tracks how quickly an account is gaining or losing followers over time.[[/li]]
	[[li]]Hashtags: This metric tracks how well the branded or campaign [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-use-hashtags-in-social-media" target="_blank"]]social media hashtags[[/a]] perform for engagement and reach.[[/li]]
	[[li]]Audience sentiment: This assesses if comments and reactions are positive, negative, or neutral to gauge brand perception.&nbsp;[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]Here&rsquo;s a great walkthrough video with Rand Fishkin from SparkToro that shows how to use SparkToro, Google Alerts, and Answer the Public for [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/why-your-brand-should-shut-up-start-social-listening" target="_blank"]]social listening[[/a]].[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Top tip:[[/strong]] Collating social metrics through the native analytics of each social channel can be time-consuming if you need to produce a high level overview on a regular basis. To save time, use a tool like BuzzSumo to get data such as social shares and backlinks.[[/p]]

[[p]]So let&rsquo;s look at the key conversion metrics you should consider monitoring for your content across channels.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Goal completions: [[/strong]]Setting up goals in Google Analytics will enable you to measure to what extent you achieve your target objectives through your website&rsquo;s content. For the purposes of lead generation, you could set up goals such as a newsletter signup, brochure download, or contact form completion and track the total number of conversions accordingly.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Goal conversion rate: [[/strong]]This will give you the sum of all individual goal conversion rates. It&rsquo;s calculated by dividing the total number of goal completions by the total number of sessions.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Customer acquisition cost (CAC):[[/strong]] This is the cost of acquiring a new customer through content marketing efforts.[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Transactions[[/strong]]: If you apply a filtered view, you can see very easily what percentage of revenue for online transactions your blog, for example, was responsible for and the total amount.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Time to purchase:[[/strong]] This metric shows you the total number of days it took for a user to complete a purchase, which could help inform your content creation and map it to different stages of the sales funnel.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Assisted conversions:[[/strong]] You can filter this to view assisted conversions in relation to your content on a goal-by-goal basis (from a lead-generation perspective), as well as for transactions. This will provide you with information on the monetary value of the conversions assisted by your content and the number of conversions for which your content was the final conversion interaction.[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]]
	[[p]][[strong]]Lead capture forms:[[/strong]] For gated assets such as ebooks and whitepapers, the number of contact forms that are filled out is a very easy way to ascertain how many leads have been generated by a specific piece of content.[[/p]]
	[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Clickthrough rate:[[/strong]] Just like a blog, emails can be measured to see what the clickthrough is to determine the efficacy of the content.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Conversion rate:[[/strong]] This is the percentage of recipients who complete a desired action (such as a purchase, sign up, or download) after clicking a link.[[/li]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Blog/newsletter subscriptions: [[/strong]]As with gated content, the number of newsletter or blog signups will give an insight into the leads generated as a direct result of a desire to engage with your content.[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]][[strong]]Conversion tracking: [[/strong]]conversion tracking on social networks like [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-use-facebook-analytics" target="_blank"]]Facebook[[/a]] and [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/6-ways-to-use-twitter-analytics" target="_blank"]]X[[/a]] can help you measure the ROI of promoted content or ads by reporting on the actions users take after this promoted content is viewed.[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]The right metrics depend on the overall organizational goals for your content marketing activities. Think about what you&rsquo;re trying to achieve with your content. Is it to drive traffic to a site or landing page? Or do you want to generate leads or increase online visibility?&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Even if your goals are purely [[a href="https://digetalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-is-seo-and-why-is-it-important" target="_blank"]]SEO focused[[/a]] (organic search traffic and search rankings), it&rsquo;s a good idea to prioritize building a reputation, visibility, and audience as it&rsquo;s the most effective way to get the best links over time.[[/p]]

[[p]]Most brands don&rsquo;t measure unaided awareness. This is a measure of the number of people who express knowledge of a brand or product without prompting (brand recall). This is a great way to see if your content marketing campaigns are increasing your overall visibility.[[/p]]

[[p]]For that reason, the content metrics to consider alongside your basic engagement metrics include:[[/p]]

[[ul]]
	[[li]]Measurements of reputation and visibility, such as brand searches and unaided awareness[[/li]]
	[[li]]Measurements of the reach of sites where you successfully publish content on third-party sites[[/li]]
	[[li]]Social share counts, and total audience reached[[/li]]
	[[li]]Links and domain authority of the links obtained[[/li]]
	[[li]]Rankings[[/li]]
[[/ul]]

[[p]]The most successful content marketing strategies are those that see beyond the transactional element to the relationship between brand and customer, and recognize that through content marketing, you can inform, engage, and entertain.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]You have the opportunity to really mean something to the people that mean the most to you! 80% of businesses report increased consumer spending (averaging at 38% more) when their experiences are personalized, according to a [[a href="https://cdn.ciptex.com/website/State-of-Personalization-Report-Twilio-Segment-2023-1.pdf" target="_blank"]]Twilio/Segment report[[/a]]. So if you can convince them, you can convert them!&nbsp;[[/p]]

A Practical Guide to Content Marketing Metrics

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