Content Marketing KPIs: Why Not All Indicators Are Created Equal

1. What is content marketing anyway?
2. What are KPIs in content marketing?
3. King factor ROI? Economic KPIs in the content marketing context
4. How can relevant content marketing metrics be determined and measured?
5. 10 important content marketing KPIs and how to interpret them
6. Measurement of relevant content KPIs: Important tools at a glance
7. Content Marketing KPIs - Success Measurement on Your Channels

Did you know that many marketers do not realize that different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set in at different levels of success measurement? It becomes particularly serious when it comes to special marketing disciplines, such as content marketing. Especially with content – especially those of a textual nature – success measurement is somewhat different.

What makes the evaluation of a content marketing strategy and the corresponding KPIs so difficult is the diversity of the channels played. In social media, other content KPIs apply than in email marketing, in search engine optimization (SEO) again others than in digital PR. Sounds quite complicated at first glance for all measures to work towards the same goals:

• Generate reach
• Generate leads and increase the traffic of your own website
• Improve conversion rate
• Increase sales

At OMR Reviews you can find out how you in six steps to your content marketing strategy comes.

But one thing at a time: Let's go together from the big to the small and unlock the microcosm of content marketing with its KPIs. Because only the understanding of the mode of action of this special marketing discipline leads to the understanding of the interpretation of relevant key figures.

What is content marketing anyway?

Content marketing is a communication strategy in which companies use valuable content to attract the attention of potential customers. Exactly where the added value lies, depends strongly on the channel as well as the respective target group and their intentions. It is important that it is not simply advertising or pure paid campaigns. Popular formats for strategic measures are:

• Whitepapers / e-books
• Blog posts in your own corporate blog
• Guest articles in trade media (online and offline)
• audiovisual content (e.g. via social media)
• Infographics

Touchpoints of potential customers with relevant content marketing channels on the way to the purchase decision (source: suxeedo)

A Definition of content marketing you can also find in the OMR Glossary.

But the creation and distribution of content is not done yet in content marketing. Content optimization and success measurement are also “part of the process”. This is where the content KPIs help.

What are KPIs in content marketing?

Basically, KPIs in content marketing are also about key figures that are used to measure company performance or a strategic measure. In this case they are used to assess a content marketing strategy.

KPIs in content marketing are sometimes easier to measure than those in conventional advertising, where for example vague details on the thousand-contact price or impressions are sufficient. In performance marketing, on the other hand, they are harder to measure, since the KPIs there can sometimes show real-time ROIs.

Most of the content marketing is based on organic measures, the success measurement of which takes place rather medium-term. Therefore, the effects on the ROI cannot be detected immediately. Why this a) nothing bad and b) long-term even an advantage is, you will learn the same.

In principle, all metrics in content marketing help you to perform a comprehensive content performance analysis. Thanks to the knowledge gained, you can draw corresponding conclusions for the further course of the ongoing or the next content strategy.

Figure 2: The Content-KPI Pyramid (Source: suxeedo)

For a better overview of the interdependencies of different content KPIs, we recommend you take a look at the Content Performance Pyramid, which suxeedo has developed based on the measurement of over 500 campaigns with Fortune 500 or DAX companies. It helps in prioritizing the metrics within a strategic measure.
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At the same time, it shows that an overall successful strategy is based on various factors that all depend on each other. In principle, the lower two building blocks of the pyramid in combination lead to the top, with the lowest level, the qualitative KPIs acting as a proxy for the higher levels.

But what does that mean exactly?

Revenue-relevant KPIs

At the top of the pyramid are the revenue-relevant content KPIs, because here all the underlying factors come together. They are the economic key figures and finally give information about the ratio of effort and return.
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⁠Depending on the goal of the content strategy, one or more of these KPIs will be heavily focused. They are the last instance of success measurement and show you e.g., how effective the lead generation was or how high the return on investment turns out.

However, they are also hardest to measure directly, because content marketing measures first have to be developed for a certain time before they produce measurable results. That's why we usually start measuring traffic-relevant KPIs first.

Traffic-relevant KPIs

Especially with internet content, traffic and its quality play a crucial role, that's why they are called the traffic-relevant factors. If some KPIs here do not perform well, you can still change levers in the lower levels of the pyramid in such a way that the traffic is not only increased, but also improved in quality.

If content marketing measures generate good traffic quality, this has a direct influence on the economic outcome of a content strategy. Accordingly, it is important to keep a close eye on the relevant KPIs here, so that you can adjust measures if necessary.

User-relevant KPIs

The KPIs defined in the lowest level of the pyramid primarily refer to user behavior. They capture the reception and reactions of users to the content. The better and stronger the interactions with the content, the more relevant it is to the target group. They are also a strong indicator of the quality of the content, which is why they are also called qualitative metrics (in distinction to quantitative KPIs such as e.g. pageviews for the traffic-relevant factors).

The user-relevant KPIs are at the very bottom, because the quality and success of a content marketing strategy stand and fall with them. If relevant metrics are rated negatively here, successful evaluation of content KPIs higher up in the pyramid is extremely unlikely.

King factor ROI? Economic KPIs in the content marketing context

Normally, KPIs in the classic sense always have a strong monetary reference to the overall company goals. Content KPIs are a little different: Because of the often very heterogeneous strategic approach, the value contribution for a company in content marketing can hardly be taxed to a particular influencing factor.

You can find an overview of helpful softwares on OMR Reviews in the Content Marketing category.

The influence of content marketing measures is rather created by the generation of attention, the communication of knowledge and the influence on the behavior of the target group. Nevertheless: a certain economic success measurement is of course necessary, but is the aimed success measurable?

As with any other marketing measure, the interaction with the content should increase sales at the end also in content marketing. Not least for this reason, the Return on Investment (ROI) is at the top of the pyramid of content KPIs. Here, the ratio of all content-strategic measures and the achieved sales culminate in the most important of all content KPIs.

The roles of ROI as a success KPI in content marketing

Looking at the ROI, companies face a seemingly big challenge when using content marketing: They have to learn not to look at the Return of Investment as a success KPI alone or at least not at first. This is different from measures that rely heavily on buying ads (such as via Facebook or Google), as this only sets in at a medium-term level in organic content marketing.

You can find an article about the eight challenges in content marketing on OMR Reviews.

Sure, with Performance Marketing you have a precisely calculable ROI in customer acquisition. But the platform through which your marketing runs, you will never own yourself. Organic marketing is different: The ROI grows systematically and above all sustainably, because you invest in your own platform and your communication channels. We illustrate this using two metaphors.

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Figure 3: Performance Marketing vs. organic marketing as a house (source: suxeedo)

If you are between the decision for a performance marketing or an organic marketing strategy, it behaves somewhat like the selection between a rental house and a own home. With the rental house you can use the house (i.e. the respective advertising spaces on social media or search engines) immediately, but you will never own them. With the construction of a own home (own platform like the company website, own social media channels etc.) you make a medium-term investment to own the house yourself and live cheaper in the long run.

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Figure 4: The performance and organic marketing curves in comparison (graphic: suxeedo after an idea of Rand Fishkin, Sparktoro)

Another metaphor is the curve. It becomes clear that in the paid ads curve the way to success is initially flatter than in the organic marketing. In the long run, however, it becomes significantly steeper. The steep entry of the organic curve is due to the lack of own platforms, which are supposed to be formed by means of content marketing measures. Simply through SEO-optimized content, you bring a lot of traffic and links to the platform, which greatly facilitates future growth.

Why organic content marketing is good for the ROI

Whoever takes a large budget for marketing measures into their hands, understandably wants to get the best out of it for their business. Accordingly, as the central economic KPI, the ROI is rightly in focus. The development of the ROI is especially in organic marketing, i.e. without paid ads, a special one. But the courage to take risks is worth it, as the following arguments prove:

• Establishment of own customer acquisition channel (keyword Owned Media compared to Paid Media) to acquire customers permanently and systematically without giving any advertising budget to third-party platforms such as Google or Meta.
• Effective ROI for your marketing campaign, as you need to invest less in the medium term. The Cost-per-Acquisistion (CPA) in Performance Marketing is relatively stable, while it drops in organic marketing.
• Better scaling of marketing activities by exploiting organic marketing channels

How can relevant content marketing metrics be determined and measured?

The selection of the relevant KPIs always depends primarily on the goals of the content marketing strategy. Another serious factor is the type of content, because: Podcasts and videos are captured with other KPIs than for example blog posts in your own corporate blog.
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⁠Because content marketing is such a diverse field, choosing the metrics is not always easy. In most cases, companies pursue several goals with their content marketing strategy, so they have to keep an eye on many KPIs at the same time.

In order for you to better classify which content KPIs are most relevant to you, we put together a small top 10 of content marketing metrics. They are all common metrics in the context of content strategies. But note that different KPIs can become relevant at different times of a campaign.

10 important content marketing KPIs and how to interpret them

1. Unique Visitors / Page Visitors
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   ⁠Content Marketing mainly works with online content and is therefore mostly received via websites or social media. Especially on websites, the KPI “Unique Visitors” is essential, as you measure the success of the content with it. In the case of blog posts, it shows you how many readers an article has. Especially with little experience in the analysis of content KPIs, you should make sure to only consider the unique pageviews here and not the total number of views.
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2. Bounce Rate / Dropout Rate
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   ⁠The bounce rate gives you insights into whether readers* lose interest in the respective content. The higher the bounce rate is, the more boring the target group finds your content. As a rule, a bounce (dropout) is triggered when users visit exactly one page of your website and then leave it.
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   ⁠Especially with very long texts on websites, it is helpful to define the bounce rate or the trigger for a bounce in the respective tool a little differently. This way you ensure that it does not flow into the bounce rate if users leave the site only after a certain time, after all, reading a longer text can take some time.
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3. Time-on-Site / Dwell Time
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   ⁠Especially from an SEO perspective, the dwell time plays a significant role in measuring the success of content. Because it has a direct impact on the ranking in search engines. The dwell time counts among the so-called user signals and signals Google and Co.: Visitors stay on this site for a long time, so this content must be delivering them value.
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   ⁠As a KPI in content marketing, the metric shows how relevant the content is for the target audience. Therefore, if the value for dwell time is very low, the content does not seem to deliver the added value it should. But with a few tips and tricks, you can improve the dwell time in no time: Use more images or videos, even infographics or embedded quizzes help and also listicles are a measure to increase dwell time.
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4. New subscribers / followers / subscribers
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   ⁠In order to make the success of a campaign, in which social media or newsletters are used, visible, new subscribers are an essential metric. The metric shows you how many new subscribers your content has earned you. In this case, be sure to consider the initial number and put it in relation to the new value after the campaign.
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5. Downloads of Content Pieces
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   ⁠The number of downloads shows you how willing visitors of your website are to interact with your content. Especially when using whitepapers and e-books as lead magnets, you must keep this content marketing KPI in view and react in time if desired goals are not achieved. Is the content leading to the lead magnet not attractive enough? Does the landing page need to be structured differently + or the content changed? These and other questions you need to clarify for sure with too low download numbers.
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6. Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
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   ⁠It shows the proportion of users who have come to your website via the search results. Especially for SEO, the CTR a huge important KPI, as it shows which pages in the search results are clicked often and which are rarely. With a low CTR, a first point of action helps a look at meta titles and descriptions, as they are the first touchpoint of potential visitors with your website.
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7. Traffic Source / Visitor Source
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   ⁠Especially if you are scattering content across various channels and platforms in your content marketing strategy, a look at the visitor source helps with success measurement. This way you find out whether visitors have found their way to your website via social media, search engines, newsletter etc. Build on these insights: LinkedIn works particularly well? Do more on LinkedIn! Is not so much traffic coming in via search results? Optimize your content!
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8. Conversion Rate
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   ⁠Content marketing helps to turn normal users into lasting customers. For this, the evaluation of the KPI conversion rate is indispensable. In the overall context, it indicates how many users have signed up for e.g. for a newsletter or downloaded a white paper or even a step further already bought a product or contacted you because of a certain service.
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9. Lead Generation
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   ⁠Generating leads, is often the ultimate goal of a content marketing strategy, especially in B2B. The number of generated leads directly affects the ROI, so both KPIs are in a close relation to each other in success measurement. It is important that you clearly define beforehand when a lead is actually one.
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10. Sales / Sales Figures
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    ⁠In addition to generating leads, the sale of products and services naturally stands at the top of the goals of a content marketing strategy. As KPI you draw on the sales figures here, which allow a direct conclusion on the ROI. Through them, you recognize in what ratio the content and the investments for it stand to the actual successes achieved.

Measurement of relevant content KPIs: Important tools at a glance

Measurement of content and its success is not quite as easy as with other marketing measures. But don't worry: There is a whole range of tools that help you track exactly the content marketing KPIs that are important for your strategy. This small comparison of important content marketing tools also shows you that in addition to functionality, a certain manageability – especially for beginners – is also an important factor.

Another article comparing seven content marketing tools can also be found on OMR Reviews.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an indispensable tool for all website operators and equally suitable for beginners and experienced users. This universal tracking tool shows you various content marketing KPIs and even lets you adjust them if necessary. If visitors to your website agree to tracking, the data collected ends up at Google Analytics.

⁠Important metrics such as dwell time and bounce rate, but also the unique page views you can analyze here. Especially with the bounce rate it helps to adjust the capture of a bounce by Google Analytics in accordance with the respective content type of a page – especially when it comes to long-form content. If costs for tools are a factor for you, then Google Analytics has a big advantage: It is largely free to use, you only need a valid Google account for use.

Semrush

Semrush is a comprehensive tool that accompanies you in the context of a content strategy from SEO and content audit to success measurement. To call Semrush a tool is not quite fair to its enormous scope. Rather, it is a whole toolbox that supports you in five different areas and provides corresponding KPIs: From competitive analysis to content marketing and SEO to social media and PPC – Semrush is one of the most comprehensive tools on the market.

⁠According to its functionality and the fact that you can observe KPIs of various areas with it, the handling for beginners is not quite so easy. Nevertheless: Semrush offers an individual visibility index, based on the actually relevant keywords. This is an advantage over general visibility indexes, which also contain irrelevant keywords. In this way, visibility can become a precise measurement variable.

Meltwater

For more and more companies, social media is becoming a central factor to play out their own content. But those who use social networks also need corresponding instances for success measurement. One of them is the social media monitoring and social listening tool Meltwater. Especially with relevant content KPIs from the social media area, you get both real-time information and historical overview. Especially with regard to Share of Voice benchmarking against competitors, it is a great KPI tracking tool.

Searchmetrics

Searchmetrics offers a large suite with which you can observe all relevant KPIs live in addition to a look at the SEO potentials of your existing content. Part of this suite is the Research Cloud, which includes a content performance analysis. It captures the KPIs on URL basis and therefore no longer only on content or keyword level.
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⁠This gives you an immediate overview of your own content quality. You will also find out if you cannot keep up with your competitors. So you can take countermeasures in time. Here, too, an individual visibility index is possible. In addition, Searchmetrics offers sophisticated benchmarking with competitors, which show the market shares in the search.

Content Marketing KPIs - Success Measurement on Your Channels

The great advantage of content marketing is that you can observe all relevant KPIs during the campaign and counteract in case of negative developments. They show you which measures work on which channels and how users interact with your content. But this requires appropriate monitoring tools and a basic understanding of the interaction of various KPIs. Those who fully grasp the topic of content marketing and are also able to deal with the key figures achieve great success in the long term.