Is 21 metrics too many?

You might be think­ing, “Woah! 21 met­rics? That’s way too many.” We get it. So many busi­ness­es just stick to mon­i­tor­ing rev­enue, con­ver­sion rate, and per­haps web traf­fic. And we think they’re miss­ing out!

In the realm of busi­ness, met­rics have often been con­fined to a nar­row scope, with a ten­den­cy to focus sole­ly on straight­for­ward num­bers like rev­enue, sales, or web­site traf­fic. While these tra­di­tion­al met­rics are valu­able, it’s essen­tial that we broad­en the num­ber of met­rics we hold dear and gain access to a rich tapes­try of infor­ma­tion that empow­ers us to opti­mise and refine our con­tent strate­gies in the most sig­nif­i­cant ways.

Con­sid­er, for instance, the pow­er of engage­ment met­rics. It’s not enough to mea­sure web­site traf­fic or social media fol­low­ers; we must delve deep­er into met­rics like click-through rate (CTR), bounce rate, and time on page if we’re to build a more detailed pic­ture of users’ journeys.

These met­rics offer valu­able insights into how your audi­ence inter­acts with your con­tent, pro­vid­ing far more detail than rudi­men­ta­ry met­rics would.

And also, why not?

If a busi­ness is going to embark on mar­ket­ing itself through online con­tent, it should take advan­tage of all the data it can reap. Com­pa­nies that release TV ads or pay for bill­boards don’t get the lux­u­ry of know­ing the engage­ment rate, click-through rate, or time spent on their ads.

That’s why we think it’s a big waste to not use all the infor­ma­tion at your fin­ger­tips. If busi­ness­es can access all this data about the effi­ca­cy of their mar­ket­ing efforts, then they should use it – to learn more, improve, and become more successful.

So, let’s dive into 21 met­rics for con­tent marketing:

Engagement metrics

1. Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) mea­sures the per­cent­age of peo­ple who click on a link or call to action. It indi­cates the effec­tive­ness of your con­tent in gen­er­at­ing inter­est and entic­ing users to take desired actions. By track­ing CTR, you can assess the effec­tive­ness of your mes­sag­ing and opti­mise it accordingly.

Remem­ber, curios­i­ty-induc­ing head­lines or thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tions can pique the inter­est of your audi­ence and entice them to click through to your content.

2. Bounce rate

Bounce rate refers to the per­cent­age of vis­i­tors who nav­i­gate away from your web­site after view­ing only one page (that is, with­out tak­ing any action). A high bounce rate may indi­cate that your con­tent is not engag­ing or rel­e­vant enough to keep vis­i­tors inter­est­ed. On the oth­er hand, a high bounce rate can also be attrib­uted to vis­i­tors find­ing exact­ly what they need on the land­ing page itself.

With this in mind, it’s cru­cial that you look at the con­text (i.e., oth­er met­rics) when eval­u­at­ing your bounce rate so that you don’t jump to conclusions.

3. Time on page

Time on page mea­sures how long vis­i­tors spend on a spe­cif­ic page, indi­cat­ing the lev­el of engage­ment and inter­est your con­tent gen­er­ates. By analysing the aver­age time on page, you can gain insights into the effec­tive­ness of your con­tent in cap­tur­ing and hold­ing the atten­tion of your audience.

A longer fig­ure gen­er­al­ly sug­gests a high­er lev­el of engage­ment, though it’s essen­tial that you analyse the con­tent con­sump­tion pat­terns with­in your pages. We go into fur­ther detail about this later.

Traffic and reach metrics

4. Website traffic

Web­site traf­fic mea­sures the num­ber of vis­i­tors com­ing to your web­site. It pro­vides an over­all indi­ca­tion of the reach and vis­i­bil­i­ty of your con­tent. If your web­site traf­fic is low, con­sid­er what areas of your site’s SEO may be let­ting it down.

Alter­na­tive­ly, pro­mot­ing your web­site through oth­er chan­nels could help to attract more vis­i­tors and increase engage­ment. Try iden­ti­fy­ing high-per­form­ing refer­ral sources and seek­ing out part­ner­ships or col­lab­o­ra­tions with them.

5. Organic search traffic

Organ­ic search traf­fic refers to vis­i­tors who find your web­site through search engine results. It reflects the effec­tive­ness of your SEO efforts and the rel­e­vance of your content.

If your organ­ic search traf­fic is low, focus on opti­mis­ing your con­tent with rel­e­vant key­words, cre­at­ing valu­able back­links, and enhanc­ing the over­all user expe­ri­ence. You may see an improve­ment from tar­get­ing long-tail key­words as they often have low­er com­pe­ti­tion and attract high­ly tar­get­ed and qual­i­fied traffic.

6. Content amplification

Con­tent ampli­fi­ca­tion mea­sures the extent to which your con­tent is being shared, dis­trib­uted, and ampli­fied across var­i­ous chan­nels. If this fig­ure is low, con­sid­er diver­si­fy­ing your dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels, lever­ag­ing social media plat­forms, and col­lab­o­rat­ing with influ­encers or indus­try partners.

While paid ampli­fi­ca­tion strate­gies can reap very good results, you can’t flog poor-qual­i­ty con­tent for long. Sus­tain­able con­tent ampli­fi­ca­tion needs the con­tent itself to be high­ly sharable. If you know your audi­ence val­ues inter­est­ing, fun­ny, or infor­ma­tive con­tent, make sure what you pub­lish meets these criteria.

Conversion metrics

7. Conversion rate

Con­ver­sion rate mea­sures the per­cent­age of vis­i­tors who com­plete a desired action, such as mak­ing a pur­chase, fill­ing out a form, or sub­scrib­ing to a newsletter.

If your con­ver­sion rate is low, you may need to opti­mise your land­ing pages, improve the clar­i­ty of your call-to-action, address poten­tial bar­ri­ers or objec­tions, or refine your con­tent to bet­ter align with your tar­get audi­ence’s needs and motivations.

The main thing to under­stand with con­ver­sion is that it is a process. The numer­ous steps that make up the con­ver­sion process often give rise to mul­ti­ple oppor­tu­ni­ties for the con­ver­sion to fail. There­fore, you need to eval­u­ate each step in terms of how users may find them off-putting. Then, get to work remov­ing what­ev­er bar­ri­ers you find and cre­at­ing a fric­tion­less con­ver­sion process.

8. Email subscribers

The num­ber of email sub­scribers reflects the effec­tive­ness of your con­tent mar­ket­ing in build­ing an engaged audi­ence. If your email sub­scriber count is low, con­sid­er offer­ing valu­able incen­tives, opti­mis­ing your sub­scrip­tion forms, or pro­vid­ing exclu­sive con­tent or offers to subscribers.

You may also want to con­sid­er the place­ment of your sign-up form. Per­haps more peo­ple would sign up if the pop-up appeared after a lead showed inter­est in a prod­uct rather than when they’ve just land­ed on a land­ing page.

SEO metrics

9. Search engine ranking

Search engine rank­ing is where your web­site appears in search engine results for spe­cif­ic key­words or queries. If your search engine rank­ing is low, you’ll either need to wait or ramp up your SEO efforts.

As always, ensure your key­word research is accu­rate and that your on-page ele­ments meet an excel­lent stan­dard. After that, you may need to get more tech­ni­cal. Fea­tured snip­pets tell us that Google likes web­pages to answer queries con­cise­ly, per­haps in the form of bul­let points.

10. Number of backlinks

The num­ber of back­links towards your site indi­cates the cred­i­bil­i­ty and author­i­ty of your web­site. If the num­ber of back­links is low, you may want to embark on a link-build­ing strategy.

This involves reach­ing out to rel­e­vant web­sites or influ­encers for col­lab­o­ra­tions and per­haps writ­ing guest posts for oth­er sites.

Of course, cre­at­ing valu­able and share­able con­tent in the first place will, in time, attract back­links. How­ev­er, this process isn’t instan­ta­neous. Remem­ber that the qual­i­ty of back­links is more impor­tant than quan­ti­ty, so don’t be tempt­ed to stoop low for these.

Social metrics

11. Social shares

Social shares indi­cate the num­ber of times your con­tent is shared on social media platforms.

You can keep this fig­ure high by cre­at­ing share­able con­tent, engag­ing with your audi­ence, incor­po­rat­ing vis­i­ble shar­ing but­tons on your web pages and posts, and actu­al­ly encour­ag­ing your read­ers to click “share.”

If you feel this fig­ure could do with a boost, try cre­at­ing some con­tent that responds to a trend­ing dis­cus­sion or sparks emo­tion in peo­ple. Above all, always show appre­ci­a­tion for shares and make it a “two-way” discussion.

12. Social engagement

Social engage­ment mea­sures the lev­el of inter­ac­tion and par­tic­i­pa­tion your con­tent receives on social media plat­forms. As well as shares, it includes oth­er tokens of engage­ment, such as likes and comments.

And as dis­cussed above, this fig­ure can be kept from drop­ping by insti­gat­ing con­ver­sa­tions and pub­lish­ing thought-pro­vok­ing con­tent. Don’t for­get to respond to com­ments, ask ques­tions, and ini­ti­ate discussions.

One oth­er way to increase social engage­ment is to broad­en your audi­ence – join rel­e­vant groups and com­mu­ni­ties to get your con­tent out there on more screens.

Audience metrics

13. Audience demographics

Audi­ence demo­graph­ics pro­vide insights into the char­ac­ter­is­tics of your tar­get audi­ence, includ­ing age, gen­der, loca­tion, inter­ests, and pref­er­ences. Analysing audi­ence demo­graph­ics can help you tai­lor your con­tent to bet­ter res­onate with your intend­ed customers.

If you have lim­it­ed infor­ma­tion on audi­ence demo­graph­ics, con­sid­er car­ry­ing out sur­veys, using ana­lyt­ics tools, or lever­ag­ing social media insights to gath­er more data.

If you feel your tar­get­ing isn’t as effec­tive as it could be, you might want to con­duct a deep dive into your ide­al cus­tomer type. Cre­at­ing a Buy­er Per­sona could help nar­row down your con­tent strat­e­gy efforts, but it needs to be done well. Think about the psy­cho­graph­ic aspects of your audi­ence, such as their val­ues, inter­ests, and moti­va­tions, to gain a more detailed understanding.

14. Content consumption patterns

Under­stand­ing how your audi­ence con­sumes and engages with your con­tent is cru­cial for opti­mis­ing your con­tent strat­e­gy. Track met­rics such as page views, time spent per page, and click pat­terns to gain insights into which types of con­tent res­onate best with your audience.

Pay atten­tion to the top­ics, for­mats, and medi­ums that gen­er­ate the high­est engage­ment and adapt your strat­e­gy accord­ing­ly. You may need to exper­i­ment with dif­fer­ent sub­jects, medi­ums, or deliv­ery chan­nels until you see a boost in engagement.

Financial metrics

15. Return on investment (ROI)

ROI mea­sures the finan­cial impact of your con­tent mar­ket­ing efforts. It com­pares the cost of your con­tent mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties to the rev­enue gen­er­at­ed or oth­er desired out­comes, such as lead gen­er­a­tion or cus­tomer acquisition.

If your ROI is low, you may need to eval­u­ate your entire con­tent strat­e­gy, dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels, and con­ver­sion process­es to iden­ti­fy the areas that need improvement.

To mea­sure the direct impact of your efforts on rev­enue, you might want to imple­ment con­ver­sion track­ing and attri­bu­tion models.

Learn more about ROI by read­ing this in-depth guide.

16. Customer lifetime value (CLV)

CLV rep­re­sents the total val­ue a cus­tomer gen­er­ates for your busi­ness over their entire rela­tion­ship with you. By track­ing it, you can assess the long-term impact of your con­tent mar­ket­ing in terms of cus­tomer reten­tion and rev­enue generation.

If your CLV is low, focus on enhanc­ing cus­tomer loy­al­ty, pro­vid­ing excep­tion­al cus­tomer expe­ri­ences, and deliv­er­ing ongo­ing val­ue through your con­tent to increase cus­tomer life­time value.

The most impor­tant thing when it comes to CLV is the nur­tur­ing of long-term rela­tion­ships. This can be embraced by con­tent mar­ket­ing through the cre­ation of rel­e­vant con­tent but also in its deliv­ery method. For instance, mail­ing list sub­scribers are more like­ly to be “turned off” if they’re bad­gered by emails dai­ly than a week­ly newslet­ter of mod­er­ate interest.

17. Cost per acquisition (CPA)

CPA mea­sures the cost incurred to acquire a new cus­tomer or lead through your con­tent mar­ket­ing efforts. If your CPA is too high, eval­u­ate your con­ver­sion fun­nel, tar­get­ing strate­gies, and con­tent opti­mi­sa­tion to min­imise acqui­si­tion costs.

You may want to exper­i­ment with dif­fer­ent chan­nels, refine your audi­ence tar­get­ing, and opti­mise your con­tent and land­ing pages to improve the effi­cien­cy of your acqui­si­tion efforts.

How­ev­er, don’t for­get that it’s always more expen­sive to acquire a new cus­tomer than to keep an old one. So, don’t jump to the con­clu­sion that your acqui­si­tion costs are too high with­out good reason.

Feedback metrics

18. Sentiment analysis

Sen­ti­ment analy­sis assess­es the over­all sen­ti­ment or atti­tude expressed by your audi­ence towards your brand or con­tent. It helps gauge the per­cep­tion of your brand and the effec­tive­ness of your con­tent in elic­it­ing pos­i­tive responses.

If sen­ti­ment analy­sis reveals neg­a­tive sen­ti­ment, your next step should be to iden­ti­fy the root cause. There isn’t an easy way to do this – you’ll need to sift through what peo­ple have said and make note of any repeat­ed ideas.

Once you know what’s gone wrong, you’ll need to address what­ev­er con­cern or issue you found and focus on deliv­er­ing valu­able and engag­ing con­tent that aligns with your audi­ence’s expec­ta­tions from there on.

19. Customer feedback

Unlike sen­ti­ment analy­sis, cus­tomer feed­back pro­vides insights into the sat­is­fac­tion, pref­er­ences, and needs of cus­tomers. Busi­ness­es should active­ly seek feed­back through sur­veys, social media lis­ten­ing, or direct com­mu­ni­ca­tion channels.

They should then use this feed­back to refine their con­tent strate­gies, address pain points, and align their con­tent with the expec­ta­tions and desires of audi­ences. While sen­ti­ment analy­sis may just indi­cate a brand’s online rep­u­ta­tion, actu­al feed­back indi­cates real shop­ping expe­ri­ences, which can’t be underestimated.

20. Customer retention

Cus­tomer reten­tion mea­sures the abil­i­ty of your con­tent mar­ket­ing efforts to retain exist­ing cus­tomers and fos­ter loyalty.

Busi­ness­es should focus on build­ing strong rela­tion­ships with their exist­ing cus­tomers through per­son­alised expe­ri­ences and rel­e­vant con­tent. Plus, they should mon­i­tor cus­tomer reten­tion in case it drops.

Reten­tion can be helped by send­ing per­son­alised con­tent, offer­ing exclu­sive dis­counts, pro­vid­ing birth­day or anniver­sary vouch­ers, cre­at­ing loy­al­ty pro­grammes, and always pro­vid­ing excep­tion­al cus­tomer service.

21. Customer satisfaction

Cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion reflects the lev­el of con­tent­ment and ful­fil­ment expe­ri­enced by your cus­tomers. Make sure you reg­u­lar­ly mea­sure cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion through sur­veys, rat­ings, or oth­er feed­back mechanisms.

Use this data to iden­ti­fy areas for improve­ment and use your con­tent strat­e­gy to address these con­cerns. Per­haps you release a blog post detail­ing your new post and pack­ag­ing sys­tem or send an email with an exclu­sive dis­count code to every­one who’s recent­ly spo­ken with your cus­tomer ser­vice team.

To learn how you can opti­mise your con­tent strat­e­gy for 2023, check out this arti­cle.

If you’d like help launch­ing or refin­ing your con­tent strat­e­gy, our team at pur­ple­plan­et would love to help. Click the but­ton below to reach out or learn more about our services.

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