Content marketing offers many
benefits like building trust with customers, establishing authority, and
increasing organic website traffic. That’s why it’s essential to track the proper key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your content marketing's effectiveness so you’re not falling short on your goals. Check out the 10 KPIs you should be tracking to determine if your
content marketing strategy is working — or needs adjustment.
Where to Find KPI Data?
Analytics is crucial for being able to track content marketing KPIs. Google Analytics is the most popular since it’s free, provides a wealth of data, and easy to connect. The Landing Pages report is particularly useful for seeing how your website content is performing. However, there are many free and paid analytics services available to suit different needs.
10 KPIs to Track Your Content Marketing Performance
Like any other
digital marketing strategy, content marketing needs to be tracked in order to refine tactics and improve performance. Use the KPIs below to determine which content topics and formats perform best. Doing this will allow you to focus on creating content that provides the most value rather than wasting resources on ineffective content that won’t help your business reach its goals.
1. Sessions
A session is when a user is actively engaged with your content. Total sessions show how many times that all users were on a page during the selected date range (e.g. past 7 days, 30 days).
2. New Users
The number of first-time users that visited your page during the selected date range. The new users KPI helps to see if your content is being exposed to new potential customers.
3. Average Session Duration
The average duration of time that users spent on your content. It’s important to
keep users on your website because they’ll be more likely to engage, thereby increasing conversions.
4. Pages Per Session
The average number of pages viewed during a session on your website (repeated views of a single page are also counted). More pages per session indicate that users are exploring your website, which should help increase your conversions.
5. Bounce Rate
A ‘bounce’ is when a user lands on your content and leaves without taking any action. A bounce rate ranges from 0-100%, so if a page’s bounce rate is 60%, it means that 60% of users left that page without viewing another one. Content with a high bounce rate typically isn’t good because it’s failing to keep users on your website due to poor quality or wrong keyword targeting.
6. Goal Completions
Also known as ‘conversions,’ a goal completion in Google Analytics is when a user completes a desired action like a purchase, download, form submission, etc. While it’s important that your content brings traffic to your website, it won’t mean much if users aren’t converting.
7. Goal Completion Rate
The goal completion rate (aka 'conversion rate’) is the percentage of users that complete a goal out of the total number of users. For example, a goal completion rate of 5% means that 5 users out of every 100 completed the desired action.
8. Goal Value
The goal value (aka ‘conversion value’ or ‘revenue’) is the value produced by a goal completion from your content. This value is calculated by multiplying the number of goal completions by the value that you assigned to your goal.
9. Average Position
In the Queries report, you can see your website’s average positions for keywords in search results. (Note: Search Console must be connected to Google Analytics to see this report.) Although you can’t see which pages rank for the keywords, it’s still helpful to see which keywords drive the most traffic and are worth creating content around.
10. Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your content.
Acquiring backlinks is a great indicator that your content showcases expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Backlinks are a Google ranking factor that helps to boost your content’s positions in search results and increase referral traffic.
Move Your KPIs in The Right Direction
Tracking your content marketing’s KPIs is vital for being able to improve your strategy and generate a higher ROI. If you’re not, then you’re missing out on discovering improvements and opportunities to achieve more conversions and build your brand’s authority. Move your KPIs in the right direction by partnering with an experienced
digital marketing agency that knows how to create, track, and optimize content so your business thrives online.