How to Measure Content Marketing Metrics to Optimize Results

Content marketing has become an essential strategy for businesses looking to attract and retain customers in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. But simply creating and publishing content is not enough. To fully realize the benefits of content marketing, you need to measure how your content is performing.

Tracking key content metrics allows you to understand what is and isn’t working With this data, you can optimize your efforts to improve results. This comprehensive guide will teach you how to measure content marketing and use metrics to maximize your ROI.

Why Measuring Content Marketing Matters

Here are some of the key reasons why measuring content performance is critical:

Pinpoints what’s effective Detailed metrics reveal your best-performing content across formats and channels You can use these insights to create more of what works
Identifies areas to improve: Performance data also uncovers content that fails to resonate with your audience. You can update or replace poor performers.
Informs future efforts: Your metrics analysis provides learnings to shape content creation moving forward.
Proves value and impact: Hard data quantifies content’s contributions to business goals. Metrics help justify budgets and resources.
Enables optimization: Regular measurement allows for continuous refinements that boost content’s results over time.

In short, a data-driven approach is key to maximizing content’s impact and value. When armed with performance insights, you can make smarter decisions to improve outcomes.

Deciding Which Metrics to Track

With so many options, determining which metrics to track can be overwhelming initially. Focus on a core set that provides a clear picture of content’s performance and alignment with your goals. As your program matures, you can incorporate additional data points.

Align Metrics to Goals

The first step is outlining your overall content marketing objectives. Common goals include:

Increase website traffic
Grow email list
Generate more leads
Boost brand awareness
Increase sales revenue

With your goals defined, identify relevant metrics to gauge performance for each one:

Website traffic: Pageviews, unique visitors, organic traffic
Email list growth: Email subscriber number, subscription rate
Lead generation: Form fills, downloads, inquiries
Brand awareness: Social shares, inbound links, brand mentions
Revenue: Sales influenced by content, content ROI

Tracking metrics connected to your actual business objectives will provide the most meaningful insights.

Consider Key Performance Indicators

Look at key performance indicators (KPIs) for your most important content types and formats:

Blog articles: Pageviews, social shares, backlinks, organic traffic
Videos: Views, watch time, shares, subscribers gained
Email newsletters: Open rate, click rate, subscriber growth
Social posts: Impressions, engagement rate, clicks
Ebooks/guides: Downloads, social shares, form fills

Monitor metrics aligned to how each content format contributes to your goals. This will reveal what’s working across content types.

Benchmark Against Competitors

Research typical performance benchmarks for your industry. For example, average email open rates or cost per lead.

Comparing your metrics to competitors’ provides useful context when analyzing results. It helps you judge what “good” looks like.

Calculate Content Costs

To determine content’s return on investment, track all costs involved in creating and distributing content. This includes:

Content creation (writing, editing, design)
Promotion (social, email, ads)
Overhead (tools, tech, software)
Distribution platforms or channels

With cost data, you can quantify content’s monetary impact on revenue to prove its value.

How to Track and Analyze Key Content Metrics

Once you’ve identified your key metrics, it’s time to start measuring and monitoring performance. Consistent tracking, analysis, and reporting will enable data-driven content decisions.

Use Measurement Tools

Leverage tools to automatically collect and organize performance data. Options include:

Google Analytics: Provides detailed website traffic and engagement metrics.
Branded reports: Pull customized reports from channels like email marketing or social media platforms.
Spreadsheets: Manually compile metric reports using simple tables.
Content management systems: Built-in analytics track engagement with content.
Marketing automation: Robust data on interactions with content across the buyer’s journey.

The right tools will capture all your essential metrics in one centralized location. Avoid manual tracking which can be time-consuming and inconsistent.

Analyze Metrics Regularly

Designate a frequency for analyzing your metrics reports. Monthly or quarterly cadences allow you to identify trends. Look at performance:

Across formats (articles, videos, etc.)
For specific campaigns or initiatives
Over time (month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter)

Comparing metrics across segments will highlight your best and worst performers. You’ll see how content stacks up among competitors benchmarked KPIs. And whether you’re improving period over period.

Create Metric Reports

Consolidate key metrics into reports or dashboards for different audiences:

Leadership: High-level overview of content’s business impact. Focus on ROI, revenue, leads.
Content team members: Detailed metrics by content type, channel, and campaign.
Other departments: Customized reports aligning to their goals. For example, brand lift for PR.

Tailored reporting keeps stakeholders informed on content’s contributions specific to their needs. It also demonstrates content’s cross-department value.

Key Metrics to Track for Content Marketing Success

Having explored measurement fundamentals, let’s examine specific metrics to track to optimize content programs.

Website and Traffic Metrics

These metrics indicate how well your content attracts and engages your target audience:

Pageviews: Total views of your content. Shows content popularity.
Unique visitors: Number of individual users who viewed content. Measures reach.
Organic traffic: Visitors from search engines. Shows SEO success.
Bounce rate: Percentage who leave quickly. Can indicate content is off-target.
Time on page: How long visitors engage with content. Demonstrates relevance.
Traffic sources: Where visitors originate (social, email, organic, etc.). Reveals best channels.

Monitoring user behavior metrics ensures content resonates with your core buyer personas. You can identify poorly performing areas of your site to improve.

Social Media Metrics

For content promoted on social platforms, analyze:

Shares/retweets: How often content is shared. Indicates audience finds it valuable.
Engagement rate: Interactions (likes, comments, clicks) divided by reach. Shows content resonance.
Impressions: Number of times content is displayed to users. Measures potential eyeballs.
Click-through rate: Clicks on content divided by impressions. How well it converts exposure into clicks.

Optimizing based on social metrics will boost amplification and visibility of your content on these high-reach channels.

Lead Generation Metrics

If a goal is driving conversions, track metrics like:

Form fills: User submissions via forms. Shows interest.
Content downloads: Assets downloaded. Indicates user is moving down funnel.
Email subscribers: Email sign-ups generated by content offers. Grows your audience.
Conversion rate: Percentage of visitors who convert. Evaluates funnel effectiveness.

Use lead gen metrics to identify your best-converting offers. You can also test content types and calls-to-action to improve conversion rates.

Brand Lift Metrics

To quantify content’s brand impact, look at:

Mentions/references: How often your brand or content is referenced online. Shows awareness.
Backlinks: Links to your content from external sites. Boosts brand visibility.
Social followers: Follower growth on social accounts. Expands audience reach.
Sentiment: Analyze if brand mentions are positive, negative or neutral. Tracks brand perception.

Monitoring metrics like these evaluates if content is positively increasing brand visibility, trust, and authority.

Business Impact Metrics

Connect content efforts to bottom-line business results with metrics like:

Sales influenced: Track revenue from content-driven sales. Proves financial impact.
Cost per lead: Overall cost to generate a lead through content. Assess spending efficiency.
Decreased service costs: Lower customer service needs due to helpful content. Shows value.
Revenue growth: Compare sales with and without content program. Demonstrates effectiveness.

Measuring content’s influence on these crucial business metrics is key. It quantifies exactly how and where content contributes to financial objectives.

Turning Metrics Insights Into Action

The true value of content metrics comes from applying the insights they provide to optimize your strategy. Here are some best practices for turning your data into impactful decisions and improvements.

Identify Top Performers

Pinpoint your best-performing pieces across formats and channels based on metrics tied to goals. For example, your

how to measure content metrics

What are content metrics?

Content marketing metrics are standards of measurement that show you how well your content creation is doing.

From metrics to determine how well youâre creating brand awareness to how many new leads youâre adding to your sales funnel, there are a variety of numbers to track.

ð¡ Learn more: Getting started with measuring the performance of your content

The ones you settle on tracking, however, boil down to two things:

Your overarching content goals
Your monthly/quarterly priorities

So before you start measuring your content marketing programâs performance, make sure you:

One, decide on what your content marketing goals are with relevant stakeholders. These could be anything from driving organic traffic to improving brand awareness and engaging your target audience.

Keep in mind: the goals you set depend on how mature your content marketing program is.

For example, if youâre starting out, youâll want to focus on growing brand awareness and building authority. Similarly, if youâve been in the game for a while and see good content engagement, you can focus on increasing the number of conversions.

And, two, highlight your priorities based on the set goals so you can shortlist the metrics to review.

Ultimately, the content metrics you measure depend on your priorities that, in turn, depend on your content marketing goals.

ð¡ Pro tip: Make notes of industry benchmarks â what numbers others in your industry are reaching on average. This will help you understand how well youâre doing.

Sales enablement metrics

If youâre using content for growing sales, look at the following metrics:

Demo requests. Track the number of demo requests you get, the number of forms submitted, and the number of completed calls.
Sales conversion rate. By sending problem-solving content to qualified leads, you can convert them faster. Youâll know your content is helpful by comparing leads you send content to with those you donât send content to nurture.
Sales cycle length. With helpful content assisting in converting leads, you should be able to shorten the sales cycle for those leads. Again, compare the sales cycle of those you send content to with those you donât to learn the impact of your content.

Grow your sales enablement metrics today: Collaborate with the sales team to understand exactly who your target audience is and the frequent questions they have. This way, you can create content thatâs uber-useful to qualified leads and helps close deals effectively.

How to Measure Content Performance in 2021

What content marketing metrics should I use?

The ideal content marketing metrics for you to use will be determined by what your goals are with your content marketing strategy. If you are looking to increase brand awareness, you will utilize different metrics than if your primary goal is to increase sales of a specific product or increase turnout for your next event.

How do I track content marketing metrics?

Once you choose the content marketing metrics to track, create your dashboard. It’ll show you all key metrics on one screen, helping identify trends and areas for improvement. Without it, you’ll likely not look at your content metrics as regularly as you should be.

What are content marketing analytics metrics?

This metric indicates how much traffic was generated (how many times your site was visited). Different content marketing analytics tools will have slightly different naming conventions for the important metrics that fall under this bucket. The ones I’ve seen used most often to track content performance are:

What are content performance metrics?

Let’s explore 19 content performance metrics to measure for better results. User behavior metrics help you understand visitors’ behavior on your website or app. Views represent the number of total visits your website or app got within a specific time frame. They refer to visits from all sources.