13 Content Marketing KPIs for
Business Success
Marketing and advertising are crucial for any business – no matter how small or big. If you are reading this, you probably already know this. You have probably also started with your marketing efforts, whether that’s with a blog, social media, or any other content that might help you get new customers and scale your business.
What now, though? Simply putting content out there and hoping it works for you perfectly rarely turns out to be 100% successful. Tracking the performance of your inbound marketing efforts is the key to tipping the scales in your favor.
Content marketing KPIs are an essential part of any marketing recipe, but with so many KPIs out there it can be daunting to get started.
In this article, you’ll find out what content marketing KPIs are, which KPIs you can start with, as well as some important factors you need to consider. Let’s dive right into it.
What Are Content Marketing KPIs?
Content marketing has been king for ears, and small and medium-sized businesses can tremendously benefit from its many advantages.
However, producing content pieces will get you only so far. Content marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) are data points that reflect your content performance or content marketing campaign results. KPIs reveal patterns, shortcomings, and areas for improvement, and show you what works well.
There is a variety of content marketing KPIs. They can be used from analyzing your overall website’s effectiveness to measuring the performance of single pieces of content. Let’s take a look at thirteen of them which can be beneficial to your business and marketing efforts.
Traffic and Engagement KPIs
The first type of content marketing KPIs are for traffic and engagement. These are some of the most basic KPIs you can track and they offer insights into how effectively your website engages and retains visitors. Each of these KPIs can help you identify areas to refine your content and improve user experience.
Website Traffic
The website traffic measures the total visits to your website, giving you an understanding of the overall reach and interest in your content. It also helps you understand the performance of your website in terms of attracting visitors and generating interest.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate indicates the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing just one page. A low bounce rate means your content is engaging enough for visitors to explore more, while a higher bounce rate suggests that something is prompting people to leave your website. Determining if that happens because of poorly executed content, low-quality design, too many pop-up ads or something else will help you lower this KPI and keep visitors longer on your website.
Time оn Page
This is another basic but very telling content marketing KPI. The average time on a page shows how long visitors stay on each page. If you have a new blog post on your website with a few seconds average time on page, that means visitors don’t find it relevant and engaging enough and probably haven’t even gotten to the end of it.
All of these can be viewed and tracked through Google Analytics.
Audience Growth KPIs
Audience growth KPIs focus on understanding your audience and expanding your reach. These KPIs provide an overview of audience expansion, engagement, and the effectiveness of your content in attracting and retaining visitors. Again, they are pretty straightforward but can be really helpful when it comes to understanding new and returning customers’ experience.
Unique Visitors
This KPI tracks the individual visitors to your website and it shows you the size of your audience. With it, you can better understand audience growth and loyalty. It is very useful for distinguishing between new visitors and returning users, placing them in the right section of the inbound marketing funnel, and adjusting your strategies accordingly. That way you’ll be able to better nurture new leads while keeping returning visitors engaged.
If you go in deeper, you can also explore where the new visitors come from and invest more in these areas, so you keep reaching a broad audience.
Social Media Follower Growth
This is another straightforward, yet very telling KPI. Social media algorithms are so advanced at this point that sometimes a person can see your content even if they don’t follow you. However, the number of followers you have on social media indicates that these people want to see more from you regularly.
Conversion KPIs
Conversion KPIs are where we get deeper. In the marketing customer journey, conversion is a crucial step, as prospects have a clear idea of what they need and they are seeking more detailed information about products and services before they make a decision. If you manage to get their contact information, you are a lot closer to converting casual visitors into valuable leads.
There are three main KPIs that can help you gain insight into how well your strategies for this stage work.
Lead Conversion Rate
Lead conversion rate is an important KPI that measures the percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as signing up for an email list or downloading an ebook. With this KPI you can track early-stage lead generation and see which content resonates most with your audience and makes them leave their contact details. A healthy conversion rate signifies that your content is reaching the right people at the right time. This KPI is also very telling of what incentives work best for getting your audience’s details.
Email Signups
This KPI tracks the number of visitors who subscribe to your email list. Growing your email mailing list indicates that people value your content enough to want regular updates, which can lead to a loyal audience base. These people are also much more likely to turn into paying customers.
Depending on what email platform you are using, you can track sign-ups directly there, gaining insight into where and when users are opting in. This is what helps you modify your email strategy to increase signups and lower opting out.
Customer Acquisition Cost
CAC shows you the cost to acquire a new customer, factoring in marketing expenses over a set period. Lowering CAC over time indicates that your content marketing is effective in generating leads and customers organically, reducing reliance on paid marketing. High CAC usually means you need to optimize your content strategy better.
Content Performance KPIs
As the name suggests, these content marketing KPIs indicate how well your content performs, whether that is on the website, on social media platforms, or elsewhere.
Pages per Session
This KPI shows you how many pages the average visitor views per website visit. A high number of pages per session indicates good engagement and curiosity about your content. A way to increase the number is by optimizing your content, creating a great user experience, and promoting related and existing content.
For example, if you have a blog and notice people are leaving your website after checking out only one page, you could add links to related articles to increase this KPI.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
In the context of content marketing, CTR means the percentage of people who click on the links in your content. High-quality content can be used to guide visitors down a sales funnel, leading them from one piece of content to the next, before ultimately plopping them down on your product page or another landing page.
For this to work, your content has to be engaging enough that visitors are willing to go along for the journey. Tracking CTR will allow you to make sure that your content is working to send visitors down the path you want them to follow.
Social Media Engagement
Social media has become a powerful platform for businesses and tracking the performance of your content is a necessity. Social engagement encompasses likes, shares, reposts, comments, and similar interactions, depending on which particular platform you use. Each of these metrics can show you how well your content resonates with your audience and can help you adjust your social media efforts.
For example, if a bakery uses Instagram and posts a mix of picture posts and reels – short videos – but notices the likes and comments on the reels are significantly higher, they can invest more time and money in making them.
Revenue and ROI KPIs
The next content marketing KPIs are where we dive a lot deeper. They offer valuable insights into the profitability of your content marketing efforts. If you want to make more informed decisions about where to invest for sustainable growth, these KPIs are the answer.
Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI measures the profitability of your content marketing by comparing the cost of creating and distributing content to the revenue it generates. This KPI is fundamental for understanding the effectiveness of your inbound marketing efforts because it reveals whether the money and time invested in your content are directly contributing to revenue growth. This is especially relevant for small and medium-sized businesses where every dollar counts and you need to prioritize right.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
CLV is an estimate of the total revenue a customer will generate over their relationship with your business. This KPI gives you insight into the long-term value of a customer. By knowing the CLV, you can better evaluate how much to spend on acquiring new customers and nurturing relationships through valuable content.
Implementing Tracking аnd Analyzing Content Marketing KPIs
A marketing campaign will never reach its full potential without tracking and analyzing the respective KPIs. To do that, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve from your campaign. Once you set specific content marketing goals, you can match those goals with the right metrics and KPIs.
Remember, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
No single content marketing metric or number will indicate definitive success or failure, though. However, by reflecting on the right KPIs, you can gain a clearer understanding of how your content is performing, what your audience finds engaging, and what they do not enjoy, among other insights. Starting with the basics and gradually building upon them will make it easier for you to track inbound marketing effectively without feeling overwhelmed.
If you’re uncertain where to begin or wish to scale your efforts, don’t hesitate to reach out to our experienced inbound marketing consultants who will assist you with your content marketing KPIs.
Just drop us a line and we’ll find a simple fix to any complex marketing problem you’re having.