Content marketing KPIs you should consider

Ultimately, your content marketing activities need a backbone. They need to be measured and tracked so you know whether or not they're delivering your desired outcomes.

KPIs give you an insight as to whether or not you're using the right channel, if your target audience is seeing, and most importantly, engaging with your content in the way you expect.

But which KPIs should you consider? Well, this all depends on your content marketing goals. Do you want to increase brand awareness or conversions? Are newsletter subscriptions your thing?

In this article we'll look at some content marketing KPIs based on 4 content marketing goals below:

1. Increase brand awareness

2. Lead generation

3. Increase conversions

4. Boost engagement

1. Increase brand awareness

Do you feel as though your business is being ignored? Does your audience know you exist and what you're offering? Then think about a brand awareness campaign.

You need to write content that resonates with your audience. Content that provides solutions from your team of experts, for instance. You need to be getting your business name and expertise out there with awesome content in the form of blog posts, videos etc.

For this particular goal consider tracking the following KPIs:

• Article views: Are people spending time on your articles/blog posts? Use Google Analytics and/or Matomo to track and measure traffic sources, average session duration, bounce rate etc.

• Video views: Use Microsoft Clarity or Google Analytics 4 to see how engaging your videos are. Are people bouncing a third of the way through?

• Social shares and engagement: Who's reacting, sharing and commenting on your social content? Getting it right on social creates discussion. It drives awareness

• Inbound links: If links to your content are being added on other websites, then you're doing something right. This, along with brand mentions, increase your business's credibility and authority, and that can only be a good thing

• Follower/subscriber growth: If you're having an upturn in followers, opt-ins and subscribers then it's a positive sign your content is hitting the spot

2. Lead generation

If your goal is to generate more leads your content marketing efforts must reflect this. Whether using a white paper or e-book you need to be providing enough value for your audience to part with its information in a form online. Consider the following KPIs for lead generation:

• Click-through rate (CTR): The CTR determines how enticing your CTA is. Are people actually clicking on it? Make sure your user journeys are defined. These lead your audience down the path to conversion where a Call-to-Action (CTA) greets them. The more compelling the CTA the greater likelihood it will be clicked

• Cost per lead: How much is it costing you to generate a single lead? Calculate this by dividing the cost of your campaign by the total number of leads. Analysing this helps with future campaigns

• Downloads, email subscribers, form submissions: If you're getting downloads, subscribers and form submissions, every piece of data is a lead. Make sure you track these micro conversions

3. Increase conversions

When you create content, you must know the user journey and the micro and macro conversions along that journey.

The better the content you produce that addresses those pain points, your business's ability to solve them, your USP etc. the better the chance you have of increasing conversions. If this is what you want to do consider the content marketing KPIs below:

• Conversion rate: Conversion rates measure and track the 'magic' content that drives maximum conversions. Use custom UTM links for each piece of content you publish and share

• Length of sales cycle: How long does it take to convert? Do you sell consumable products and services that are readily available? Do you offer a service that requires a longer process that could take up to a year to convert? Whatever the length of your sales cycle you need to understand how long it takes for your leads to convert. This will help you nail the right channels for your content

• Number of new leads generated: The more leads, the higher chance of converting

• Revenue generated:  Ultimately, it's your bottom line. How much revenue have you generated from the campaign?

4. Boost engagement

If you want to stimulate user engagement your content has to be really good. Good enough to make your audience participate in your story.

The more your audience engages the more likelihood it will talk about your business. This means your content has value. Enough value even, to share and comment on.

If your content marketing campaign's sole purpose is to boost engagement, then think about these KPIs:

• Average session duration: How long are people spending on your content?

• Referral traffic:  Where's the traffic coming from? Organic search, social media?

• Social media likes, comments, shares: Remember, the more engaging the more traction your content will gather in the social sphere

• Follower growth over time:  What was your follower growth during the campaign period?

• Content click-through rates: Who's clicking on your content and absorbing it?

Don’t allow your content marketing efforts to fail! Whatever approach you use for your content marketing efforts make sure you track and measure the right KPIs for the desired outcome.

Working with Codehouse

At Codehouse we support our customers in creating content that works. We have an experienced Digital Experience team that provides the best guidance for creating awesome content that meets KPIs. Get in touch when you're ready to talk about your next content project.