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Inbound marketing pulls customers to you; they’re attracted by the value you promise to deliver – and won over by the value you deliver on. This comprehensive approach helps you turn your website, social channels, and blog into an always-on lead-generating machine fueled by relevant, timely content. But many brands jump right into the deep end without investing in a content strategy. 

Think about it like this: would you go fishing without the right bait? Build a house without blueprints? No! It is the same when utilizing content marketing for goal completion. Without a strategy, any success you achieve is accidental – and unrepeatable. With it, though… watch out, competition. 

One of the first steps is determining which KPIs (key performance indicators) you need to track in order to determine if you are spending your time and resources in the places where it will bear the most fruit. 

Content Marketing for Goal Completion

Content for content’s sake is a waste of the budget dollars you use on it. That’s the bottom line: if you do not have a strategy, and if your content assets are not geared towards goal completion, you may be throwing your resources away. That is not to say content isn’t valuable; it is invaluable. The caveat is that you must ensure it works as hard and efficiently for you as possible. 

Part of your strategy must encompass identifying critical KPIs – and following through with the analytics you are tracking to make tweaks, improvements, course corrections, etc., in order to funnel your budget into the right areas at the right time. Doing so will empower you to reach the right people.

That said, which KPIs do you need to watch (and act on!) in order to realize optimal results? How do you achieve goals in Google Analytics and other tracking platforms?

16 KPIs to Keep A Sharp Eye On

A 2022 Content Marketing Institute B2B study found that the KPIs that provided the most insight for brands are related to engagement, traffic, and conversions. Let’s examine some critical areas to examine and analyze when evaluating your content marketing strategy. 

Engagement

Grabbing and keeping the attention of today’s media-saturated consumers is certainly a challenge. You must ensure that you engage them from the start to keep them watching/reading/interacting. Track:

1. Organic Traffic/Page Views. How do you achieve your goals in Google Analytics? Start with the low-hanging fruit. Finding data on unique page visits is easy; it will tell you how many eyes you have your content in front of. If no one sees it, it doesn’t matter if it’s exceptional. Start with traffic. It doesn’t tell you the whole story, but it gives a great sneak peek if you will. 
2. Click-Through-Rate. When you have links embedded in your blog or landing pages, how many people click on them? Divide the number of people who clicked by the total number of visitors to that page to arrive at the CTR. You can then see if you need to work on your anchor text and/or calls-to-action in order to boost this metric. 
3. Time on Page. Now, you may have 1000 people visiting a blog post, but if the majority only spends 5 to 10 seconds glancing at it, then the content isn’t as effective (for whatever reason) as it could be. Maybe they’re not interested, but more likely (because they were searching for this topic and found you), the content itself wasn’t resonating. This gives you actionable insight into ways you can revamp your offerings.
4. Pages per Session. When people visit your site, how many pages do they interact with per session? The higher, the better! This means when they engage with a blog site; they click those links they search for more. 
5. Bounce Rate. You don’t want your site to be a trampoline: visitors come and quickly or immediately bounce right back out. It may be because your page loaded too slowly, the site was difficult to navigate, or the content was not helpful or relevant. 
6. Comments. What topics and pieces of content get people talking? What encourages them to act? 

Brand Awareness 

People are more likely to buy from brands with which they are familiar. Brand awareness is a key goal. To ensure you are making progress towards that endeavor, track:

7. Search and Keyword Rankings. Landing on the first page of the Google search results pages is imperative. These sites garner over 90% of all traffic; the first three results get the bulk of that. See where you are in relevant search and keyword rankings. 
8. Backlinks. This is a big one. When authoritative sites link back to your content, it is gold. They find it valuable and relevant enough to share, and Google rewards this. Backlinks are a tremendous way to grow your reputation – and your place in the search engine results. 
9. Referral Traffic. This metric is related to the number of people who follow the backlinks we just mentioned. This is invaluable in isolating the type of content that performs best – and leveraging it to its fullest potential. 
10. Social Shares. This is an indication of your success at building brand recognition and your follower base. This also gives you a new base of potential customers to drive to your website/landing pages. Also, look at tags and mentions. Free advertising is always a boon!

Conversion

Here’s where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. You will see how well your content achieves its goal of getting people to do what you want them to do! Look at:

11. Landing Page Conversion Rate. Your landing pages exist to encourage people to take the desired action (e.g., sign up for a newsletter or free trial, schedule an appointment, call for a consultation, download an ebook, etc.). How many people visit this page versus how many people complete the CTA?
12. Return Visitors. How many people come back? This is important because it indicates that they found something of value that scratched their itch. Measure over a specified period to see if your content marketing strategy is doing its job.
13. Leads. Track the number of leads you generate to be sure. But you also need to look at the quality. For example, if you are offering a free trial or discount, the prospects that click on your offer will be the number of overall leads. When they actually sign up, that will elevate them to a quality lead.
14. Customer Acquisition Cost. This is a tangential metric, but it is important to track how much you are spending on attracting a new customer. 
15. Lifetime Value. How much revenue can you earn from one customer? Knowing the approximate value of each person you serve can pinpoint ways to target your marketing strategies. 
16. ROI. Is the amount you spend on content marketing worth it when it comes to the profits you realize from sales? Yes? Great. Keep going. No? It’s time to revisit your content strategy and use analytics to identify areas for improvement and new avenues to explore.

Track, Analyze, Compete, Win

It sounds like a lot to track. And it is. When you are utilizing content marketing for goal completion, it is essential that you know which KPIs to consider in order to stay the course, course correct, or get off that track altogether and forge a new one. 

Don’t have time to map out a strategy, take endless measurements, and actually act on them? We’ve got you. Contact THAT Agency for end-to-end content marketing services that are custom-tailored to your brand’s needs and goals.