fbpx

5 crucial metrics to measure your content marketing campaign

by | Jun 6, 2022 | Analysis, Public Relations

There’s nothing like working hard on a content marketing campaign only to be rewarded with a low return on investment (ROI). From facing your ad spend losses to cringing at the content marketing labor you paid for in vain, facing a low ROI is every marketer’s nightmare.

In other words, whether you’re a PR manager, digital marketing executive, or business owner, you can’t afford to ignore your content marketing campaigns’ ROI.

To plan campaigns that convert, you have to understand which key metrics impact your brand’s long-term vision. If you’re stuck trying to figure out which metrics to track for your future content marketing campaigns, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll show you three ways to get better results when tracking metrics—and of course, which metrics to pay attention to. Ready to discover what they are? Let’s begin.

3 ways to get better results when tracking metrics

While the metrics you measure are important, there are still a few things you need to do to get the best results when tracking them.

Here are three ways to get better results when tracking your metrics:

1. Data, data, data

The data you collect is pivotal to having quality insights—or lack thereof.

Here are two ways to make the most of your data:

  • Back up your data so you don’t lose valuable insights

Implement data replication to gain faster access to your data, support for real-time analytics, and recovery in case of a disaster.

  • Use automation to streamline data analysis

Use marketing automation to automatically receive in-depth insights from your campaigns in real-time. Never sweat over manual data mining again.

2. Get clear on your vision and values

Get clear on your vision and values to create campaigns in line with your brand’s mission. Implement your vision and values into your campaigns to spark engagement and relatability.

For instance, this vision and values section by YUPLAY could easily be repurposed into behind-the-scenes or meet the team campaigns—or integrated into product descriptions and landing pages:

5 crucial metrics to measure your content marketing campaign

(Image Source)

3. Customize your metrics by campaign

If you wouldn’t plan an email marketing series the same way you’d plan a social media campaign, then why would you use the same metrics to track both?

To really understand a campaign’s success, choose metrics that make the most sense for the type of content you’re creating.

For instance, if you’re running an email marketing campaign, then you might choose to measure email subject line performance, open rates, and subscriber churn rate.

If you’re running a Facebook ad campaign, then you might choose to measure ad impressions, cost per result, and relevance score.

5 crucial metrics to measure your content marketing campaign

As previously mentioned, the metrics you choose to measure will depend on the type of campaign you’re running.

In this section, we’re taking a look at five of the most common metrics marketers use to measure content marketing campaigns.

Metric one: Backlinks

A key metric in content marketing success is the number of backlinks your campaigns receive from other sites.

For example, this article on internet safety tips for kids has 57 backlinks.

5 crucial metrics to measure your content marketing campaign

(Image Source)

This signifies that other sites find this information useful and are therefore happy to link to it. When done right, backlinks can help put your campaigns in front of more eyes and boost your domain’s authority.

Metric two: Web traffic

A second common metric content marketers track is web traffic.

When measuring web traffic, be sure to track:

  • How many people are flocking to your campaign
  • What kind of people are flocking to your campaign
  • How people have found out about your campaign

It’s also important to understand what sparked an influx or decline in web traffic. For instance, did you hop on the latest visual trends and it worked out in your favor? Did you use an online photo editor to make your blog visuals more congruent?

Whatever it is, be sure to notate the top reasons you’re experiencing an increase or decrease in web traffic.

Metric three: Engagement

Tracking engagement is so much more than noticing what kinds of actions users take on your campaigns. Instead, it’s about noticing the quality of actions users take on your campaigns.

For instance, if a user responds “I like this” on one of your blog posts, is that a quality action? Probably not.

What would constitute a higher quality action would be if the user responded with thorough feedback, made a purchase based on a CTA you included, and shared the post on social media. See the difference?

Metric four: Conversions

Speaking of making a purchase, conversions might be the most important metric you can track.

5 crucial metrics to measure your content marketing campaign

(Image Source)

Why? Tracking conversions is one of the simplest ways to see how successful your campaigns are and what your specific ROI is.

Here’s what we mean:

If you spent $5,000 on an ad campaign and received $20,000 in profit as a result, would you question if you had a low or high ROI?

Bottom line: Always track your conversions.

Metric five: SEO success

SEO is the lifeblood that holds a content marketing campaign together.

It’s what determines your SERP rank, your campaign reach, and your content quality.

To measure your campaigns’ SEO success, use tools like Ahrefs and MarketMuse to track your:

  • Content score
  • Page ranking
  • DR score
  • Audience size

If you see an uptick in any of the above, be sure to notate where that success came from and why.

Wrap up

Metrics play a pivotal role in the PR industry.

Not only do metrics measure campaign success, but they also help marketers determine how to course-correct going forward.

In other words, there’s no limit to the number of lessons you can learn by tracking metrics and pivoting when needed. And that’s it.

We hope this quick article has given you the insights you need to choose the right metrics for your next content marketing campaign.

Interested in more articles like this one? Check out our blog to gain more actionable advice for your business.

Vikas Kalwani
Vikas Kalwani leads the Off-Page activities at Simplified. His expertise lies in generating organic traffic via SEO and Content Marketing. He mentors portfolio companies of 500 Global and Techstars.

RECENT ARTICLES