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Content KPIs to measure performance at each stage of the marketing funnel

What are content KPIs?

KPIs (key performance indicators) and the right tracking tools are essential to your content marketing success. Like with any digital campaign, it will be almost impossible to make significant improvements if you can’t measure performance.

There are KPIs that are relevant to different stages of the marketing funnel, from the awareness stage through to the point of purchase:

The marketing funnel

Each piece of content you share should satisfy a specific type of user intent. We use the different stages of the funnel to match content to a broader yet more targeted audience. 

By matching content to one stage of the funnel, you’ll also be able to identify the metrics that define how successful that piece of content is.

We’re going to look into the different types of KPIs, how to track them and how to align this with your campaign for better results. Let’s start with the first stage; awareness:

Awareness KPIs

The awareness stage is where you want to grab the attention of potential customers. The users you’ll want to drive awareness from are people that likely to be interested in your brand, product or information. These are the KPIs we think you should be looking at for brand awareness:

Organic Impressions

Each time you appear on the search engine results page (SERP), a search user can become aware of your business and something you can offer – whether that’s a product, information or a solution to a problem. The more you show up, the more likely you are to drive interest.

The more high-quality content you produce, the more organic impressions you should receive. You can track your organic search impressions using a Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.

New Users

You track any first-time site visitors using Google Analytics (on the Landing Page view). New users can indicate whether a specific page or piece of content is driving the most traffic. For example, if you’ve published a particularly informative blog, you might find more people are clicking onto your site from this page on SERP. This metric can tell you the type of content that performs well. 

Unique Page Visits

You can measure the success of a piece of content by tracking unique page visits. This metric tells you how many people visit your web page on either a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Again, this can be a good indication of the type of content driving traffic and performing well.

Engagement/ Interest KPIs

The engagement stage is critical as it reveals the users that are interested in your brand and interacting with your content. The people who reach the engagement stage are likely to move forward as long as your content resonates with them.

Clicks

A click is your first indication that somebody is engaging with your content. Without clicking through to your landing page, a user is still in the awareness stage. Clicks don’t always come from the SERP; for example, they might come from social media posts or links on other sites.

Average Time on Page

The time somebody spends on your pages can reveal how interested they are in your content. For example, let’s say you’ve created an ‘Ultimate Guide’ or shared a 5-minute video – if a user is only on your page for 10 seconds, then it’s clear they have decided not to engage with your content. Google Analytics can reveal the average time spent on individual pages on your site.

Scroll Depth

How far is somebody scrolling down your page? A user actively choosing to scroll suggests that they are keen to find out more. They are likely looking for something in particular, whether that’s a product, video or piece of information. You can measure scrolls using Google Tag Manager or GA.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate tracks how many users are leaving your site before interacting. A bounce is a clear indication that a user is not engaging with your on-site content. You can track your bounce rate using Google Analytics. 

GA provides insights into overall bounce rate as well as bounce rates from specific sources. Specific sources or pages can reveal engagement from different audiences.

Conversion KPIs

Conversions are essentially at the heart of all digital marketing channels. We produce content to encourage a specific action, for example, a purchase, subscription, or a ‘follow’. 

Tracking conversions can help you create new content that is highly valuable and likely to drive those customer actions you’re aiming towards.

Goal Completions

We know that conversions don’t always have to be a purchase; you might want to track things like video views, subscriptions and downloads.

Using Goal Completions in Google Tag Manager and GA means you can measure whatever you are hoping users will do when engaging with your content. Your goal completion will depend on what you want to achieve from your content.

Return Users

Are users returning to your site after engaging with your content once? If people are revisiting your content, then it’s a sign you’re building loyalty. It’s also a good indication that your content is high-quality and relevant. 

You can use this metric to see which content is performing and the type of user revisiting your page, helping you narrow down your target audience. You can easily track your return users in GA using the secondary dimension “Page Title.”

Revenue

You can track revenue to calculate the return on investment (ROI) you’re gaining from your content. You’ll need to know how much budget you put into creating the content and how much revenue was generated as a result. You can track revenue from sessions on a page using GA.

Which content KPIs are you tracking?

What are the KPIs that matter the most to your business? Regularly tracking performance across the funnel is essential to a successful content marketing campaign.

If you’re not seeing the results you expected, you may need to rethink how you’re monitoring performance. Get in touch with us if you need somebody to step in and take a look at your content.