10 Content Marketing Metrics to Track (+5 Experts on the Ones that Matter to Them)

Let’s beryllium honest: you astir apt didn’t get into contented trading because you emotion moving pinch numbers. 

That’s surely existent for me. I’m a connection nerd. I’ll tally a mile erstwhile threatened pinch mathematics (don’t moreover get maine started connected trigonometry), truthful examining information has ne'er travel people to me. 

But I’ve worked successful media and content marketing for complete a decade now — agelong capable to cognize that keeping a adjacent oculus connected nan numbers is essential if you want your contented trading efforts to salary off. 

Thankfully for folks for illustration me, location are galore superb devices to thief you support connected apical of your contented trading metrics (little to nary mathematics required). But nan sheer measurement of metrics tin beryllium a small overwhelming erstwhile you commencement digging into nan information — pinpointing nan ones that matter for your marque and business isn’t ever easy. 

That’s wherever this article comes in. In it, I’ll locomotion you done what are wide considered nan cardinal metrics to way erstwhile it comes to measuring your contented trading ROI (return connected investment), KPIs (key capacity indicators), and each nan different acronyms business leaders love. Then, to adhd a small nuance to nan discussion, we’ll heavy dive into nan metrics that matter nan astir to respective apical contented trading teams (including Buffer’s). 

Ready to excavation in? Again, I committedness you won’t person to do immoderate mathematics — connection nerd’s honor. 

1. Website traffic

It’s small wonderment almost each of nan contented experts I said to mentioned website traffic. This metric indicates really overmuch postulation was generated (how galore times your tract was visited). Different contented trading analytics tools will person somewhat different naming conventions for nan important metrics that autumn nether this bucket. The ones I’ve seen utilized astir often to way contented capacity are:

Page views

This is usually nan biggest postulation number — nan number of times a landing page aliases blog station connected your tract has been viewed. It’s important to statement that this tracks aggregate visits from nan aforesaid person. For example, if 1 personification visits nan page 10 times, 10 page views will beryllium recorded. (Side note: acknowledgment for reference this again, mom!)

Users

Users, aliases unsocial visitors, show really galore group sojourn your website. Multiple visits by nan aforesaid personification are only counted once. So moreover though my mom has publication this article 10 times, she’s only counted once. 

2. Organic hunt traffic

Organic hunt traffic refers to really galore page views are generated by non-paid hunt results. This number efficaciously ties into website traffic, but contented trading teams will often make this favoritism if:

a) They’re utilizing paid hunt ads connected Google and nan for illustration to scope caller members of their target audience

b) Search motor optimization (SEO) is an integral portion of their content trading strategy, and they’re aiming to climb nan hunt motor results page (SERPs). 

3. Keyword rankings

Again, if SEO is important to a contented team, they’ll apt salary adjacent attraction to their keyword rankings — successful different words, nan website page’s position successful hunt results that are important to their merchandise aliases service. 

For example, position for illustration ‘social media guidance tool’ and ‘social media analytics’ are basal to america astatine Buffer since that’s a large portion of what our merchandise does. People searching Google for position for illustration this mightiness use from utilizing it. By ranking precocious up connected SERPs, there’s a higher chance of them uncovering our adjuvant contented (and product!).

In astir cases, monitoring this will require a abstracted analytics instrumentality from what you usage to way your different metrics. If you’re connected nan hunt for a instrumentality to thief you way keywords and SERPs, cheque retired our free SEO Tools Guide (there are 27 of them connected nan list.)

4. Click-through complaint (CTR) aliases conversions

One of nan astir captious metrics for a contented marketer to way is click-through rate, aliases really galore clicks toward a circumstantial action a spectator takes aft reading, watching, aliases listening to your content. 

Yes, page views and clip connected page are awesome (and important steps towards contented trading success), but click-throughs connected call-to-actions (CTAs) aliases conversions bespeak lead generation. In different words, really galore group definitive much liking successful your business acknowledgment to your contented efforts.

Click-through rates tin return galore different forms and directions, depending connected wherever nan customer is successful your integer trading funnel. Here are immoderate examples:

• Signs up for your merchandise aliases service
• Downloads a portion of package aliases resource
• Clicks done to a demo petition form
• Signs up for your newsletter
• Signs up for an event
• Joins your community

At Buffer, blog-assisted sign-ups are our type of this metric, and we support a adjacent oculus connected this successful our analytics dashboard (our Head of Communications and Content, Hailley Griffis, explains why below).

5. Time connected page

The mean clip your assemblage spends connected your website aliases reference your blog posts (now called average engagement time successful Google Analytics 4) is simply a beardown parameter of your contented success. 

Time connected page indicates really profoundly your assemblage is engaging pinch your content. More clip spent suggests that your activity is providing value, and little clip spent that your contented is falling short aliases not delivering nan contented nan header of your article promised. 

6. Bounce rate

Bounce complaint tells a akin communicative to clip connected page but successful a somewhat different way. Bounce complaint measures nan percent of single-page sessions connected your tract — successful different words, really galore visitors only look astatine 1 page earlier bouncing distant again. 

A precocious bounce complaint intends that a ample percent of visitors are leaving your tract aft viewing only 1 page. This is nan past point you want arsenic a contented marketer, peculiarly if that visitant enters nan tract via a portion of contented connected your blog aliases nan like. While location are galore reasons for a bounce (a slow page load clip is simply a communal culprit), it’s a not-to-be-ignored motion your contented is not adjuvant to them.

Is 1 of your contented trading goals building brand awareness, being seen arsenic an manufacture thought leader, aliases driving website traffic? Then, I’d reason a growing, engaged societal media pursuing is 1 of nan astir powerful devices successful your contented trading toolbox. Not only is societal media a powerful contented distribution engine, but it’s besides a awesome measurement to spot if nan contented you’re creating is resonating.

Here are immoderate metrics you should see tracking, nary matter which societal media platforms you use:

• Follower aliases subscriber growth
• Engagement rate (the number of actions taken connected your contented — like, comment, etc. — per number of followers aliases subscribers)
• Post scope aliases impressions (how galore times a station appears successful feeds)
• Social shares (how galore times your contented is shared)
• Video views

8. Newsletter metrics

Email marketing is different fantabulous instrumentality for that contented marketer’s toolbox. Email is an owned transmission — no tricky algorithms to contend pinch — and it’s 1 of nan astir nonstop and reliable ways to scope your audience.

If you’re leveraging newsletters and email lists successful your contented trading efforts, location are 3 main numbers to salary attraction to (all of which you’ll find successful nan dashboard of your chosen newsletter tool):

• Subscriber growth aliases sign-ups
• Open rate (how galore group unfastened your newsletter successful their inbox)
• Click-through rate (how galore group click connected astatine slightest 1 nexus successful your newsletter)

9. Event sign-ups

In galore trading teams, events are considered portion and parcel of a company’s contented offering (just look astatine really Goldcast’s Lindsay McGuire handles them below). Events are conscionable contented presented live, aft each — and they tin beryllium an important root of contented to repurpose for short-form videos connected societal media, YouTube videos, aliases moreover blog posts. 

Events tin besides beryllium a awesome measurement to present imaginable customers to your offering and expertise. Brands for illustration Goldcast will often usage high-value events to tie group into their leads ecosystem, possibly utilizing it to build retired a newsletter subscriber base. 

If events are a cardinal portion of your contented trading strategy, past event sign-ups should beryllium 1 of nan numbers you regularly study on. Tied to this is event attendance and nan quality betwixt these 2 numbers (and location will almost ever beryllium one) and views connected arena recordings if you connection them.

10. Output

I’m adding this 1 into nan operation pinch a caveat — if contented output is simply a metric you track, you must beryllium clear connected why. Output for output’s sake, is thing of a vanity metric. If you’re not focusing connected high-quality contented creation pinch a clear extremity successful mind (like Hailley Griffis and Eric Doty explicate below), delivering ROI connected each your difficult activity is going to beryllium tough. That said, this whitethorn impact search things like:

• Blog posts per week
• Social posts per day
• Events per month
• Podcasts per week

Content trading experts connected nan metrics they attraction astir (+ why)

Here’s really nan metrics I laid retired supra look arsenic portion of a larger contented strategy — note really each of them are tied to an important business goal. 

Hailley Griffis, Buffer

Top contented trading metrics: Organic traffic, blog-assisted sign-ups, and articles per week

At Buffer, we way nan capacity of some our blogs — Buffer Resources and Buffer Library — successful a Mixpanel dashboard that shows america page views for nan past 7 days, 30 days, and 3 months astatine a glance. We measurement nan occurrence of contented successful those spaces somewhat differently. Since nan Library is wherever our SEO-focused contented lives, we way nan occurrence of these articles location complete a much extended period. On Resources, we attraction much connected timely content, and truthful sprout for our results location to beryllium much immediate. 

As I mentioned above, blog-assisted sign-ups are an basal number for us, too. “If personification has visited an article connected 1 of our blogs astatine immoderate constituent earlier signing up for Buffer, moreover if they came successful via our homepage aliases a different portion of our site, we see this a blog-assisted sign-up,” Buffer’s Head of Communications and Content, Hailley Griffis, explains. 

Another metric we attraction a batch astir is our contented output — we purpose to people caller blog contented 4 times a week, Monday done Thursday. 

This determination has a batch to do pinch nan long, rich | history of Buffer’s contented trading history. Our blog has been astir since astir nan clip of Buffer’s inception successful 2011, and accumulation connected nan blog slow ramped up arsenic nan squad — and nan merchandise — grew. We saw astonishing integrated website postulation results successful our highest publishing years, 2014 to 2018. In 2014, we published 422 articles — 8 blog posts a week!

It was (and is!) high-quality content, too. Articles produced during that clip still rank precocious up successful SERPs — though we person to activity difficult to support this charismatic contented up-to-date to support it there, of course. 

But for respective reasons — large projects for illustration our audio conference, Built to Last, a smaller team, and eventually, focusing connected our COVID-19 messaging arsenic nan pandemic began — our blog output dropped. This really impacted our website postulation and Buffer sign-ups and eroded spot pinch an assemblage who had travel to dangle connected us.

But since early 2022, we’ve been moving connected building up our publishing cadence again. “We’ve recovered that this has a knock-on effect connected nan different metrics we attraction about, postulation and sign-ups,” Hailley says. “For example, regular ‘fresh’ contented makes it much apt our activity will beryllium featured successful starring manufacture newsletters aliases shared by different thought leaders.”

“But possibly nan biggest portion of expanding our output is rebuilding spot pinch our audience,” Hailley adds. “We want to show them we’re going to show up each week pinch high-quality contented that we deliberation will beryllium useful to them.”

Eric Doty, Dock

Top contented trading metric: Output

Eric Doty, Content Lead astatine Dock, is simply a Marketing squad of 1 astatine an early-stage start-up. He’s spent nan past twelvemonth building Dock’s contented programme from nan crushed up. 

“Metrics are meant to guideline our behaviour and focus,” Eric says. “In nan agelong term, we want to look astatine metrics for illustration MQLs [marketing-qualified leads], SQLs [sales-qualified leads], and gross generated. But if I measured these things from time one, we’d mostly beryllium looking astatine zeros and single-digit numbers — truthful they’d do thing to guideline my behavior.

Instead, nan metrics that matter to him correct now are starring indicators for early success. “So nan number 1 point I’ve tracked for nan first twelvemonth is output. Did we deed our target of 8 published blogs each month? Did we people and administer our podcast each week? Did we get 1 play trading email?

“While it’s not successful vogue to preach amount (vs. quality), focusing connected nan amount of my output forced maine to beryllium hyper-efficient successful my processes (while keeping a value bar). Where do we request devices to adhd efficiencies? What’s nan champion measurement to activity pinch freelancers? How overmuch clip do I person successful a period for caller projects?”

A twelvemonth into his activity astatine Dock, Eric is turning his attraction to different metrics, for illustration integrated traffic, video views, societal impressions, and more. “You must build a guidelines earlier you tin get to that stuff.”

Lindsay McGuire, Goldcast

Top contented trading metrics: Website postulation and arena sign-ups 

As Associate Director of Content and Campaigns astatine Goldcast, different early-stage company, Lindsay McGuire is laser-focused connected marque awareness. “My days are spent overseeing and creating contented astir really B2B marketers tin usage events arsenic 1 of their apical revenue-driving channels.”

“As a young startup, correct now, we are mostly focused connected getting our marque retired into nan marketplace and past generating demos and opportunities from that marque reach,” she adds.

What does this mean for nan metrics? For Lindsay, her goals are tied to wide website postulation and integrated traffic. Secondary to those numbers is their conversion complaint connected circumstantial high-traffic pages. 

As an event-led company, Lindsay has different group of metrics to monitor. “Another immense statistic connected my mind is arena registrants and attendance, followed by nan pipeline [sales leads] generated and attributed from those events.” 

Tom Whatley, Grizzle

Top contented trading metrics: Organic traffic, keyword rankings, clip connected page, and root of caller leads 

Tom Whatley is nan Founder & CEO of Grizzle, a contented and SEO agency that helps B2B and SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies make leads, income pipeline, and users.

These are precisely nan business goals Tim expects Grizzle’s in-house contented trading to lend to. There are respective metrics he looks astatine to show occurrence connected these fronts, he says.“We measurement integrated traffic, keyword rankings, and clip connected page for our content.”

In position of pipeline impact, nan Grizzle squad simply asks caller leads wherever they heard astir nan agency connected nan first telephone and logs that info into their CRM (Customer Relationship Manager). “Sometimes they'll cognize precisely which article it was that led them to us; different times it's simply ‘Google’ aliases ‘the blog’ aliases ‘someone shared X article pinch me,’” Tom adds. “Right now, this is astir arsenic blase arsenic we get arsenic we're successful a play of experimentation.”

Sara Ott, Hound

Sara Ott is nan Head of Community and Content astatine Hound, ​​a recruitment & worker engagement package for nan veterinary manufacture successful nan US.

The metric she’s astir focused connected correct now is bounce rate. “The veterinary manufacture is simply a small little tech-savvy than astir (sometimes they still do insubstantial charts for their patients!), truthful erstwhile trading package to them, we person to beryllium very clear and acquisition astir why they should moreover attraction to person our software,” she explains. 

“So, a batch of our contented is much persuasive and teaches our prospective customers astir these bigger worker engagement concepts — past we excavation into why they request a solution!”

A little bounce complaint for their contented is simply a beardown parameter that they’re nailing those goals, she adds. “It signals that our prospective customers are really digging into nan contented and will beryllium much knowledgeable (and excited!) astir nan benefits of our package erstwhile we get them connected a demo.

In turn, this makes for an easier waste and a amended narration successful nan agelong run, she says. 

Ben Kazinik, Mayple

Top contented trading metrics: Organic postulation and conversions

For Ben Kazinik, Director of Content astatine Mayple, location are 2 pieces of nan contented trading puzzle: page views and conversions. 

Thanks to a awesome domain authority connected their website (a people retired of 100 utilized by hunt motor optimization devices to foretell really apt a website is to look successful Google’s hunt motor results), Ben and his squad cognize that astir high-quality content pieces connected their blog will rank well, he says.

“Once it does, we look astatine really overmuch postulation each article gets. Then, we activity connected converting that postulation into leads by adding interactive widgets, engaging calls to action, and A/B testing each of that. 

“Bringing leads from your contented is astir apt nan biggest situation marketers face, and we are taking it caput on,” he adds. “Will fto you cognize if it useful out!”