The more time you invest in your content marketing efforts, you realize how much work goes into it all.
From writing blogs to filming and editing videos or touching up photos for thumbnails.
And that’s only the beginning of it all.
You most likely don’t want that effort to go to waste because you weren’t paying attention to what was working and what wasn’t…… that’s where content marketing analytics comes in handy.
Analytics makes it easy to better understand who your reader is and see how your site is being used.
More importantly, it’s always nice to see what your readers enjoy and engage with so you know what content you should continue to make for your audience.
Today, we will discuss content marketing analytics and why understanding them will improve your content marketing strategy and provide a better experience for your users.
What Is Content Marketing Analytics?
Content marketing analytics is the process of collecting and understanding data around the media you produce.
You can track all of the metrics that are important to you and your businesses growth like:
- Gender
- Age
- Behavior towards your content
- location
- Pageviews
- Page view time
- Traffic source
- Scrolling on pages
- Social shares
- Conversion rates
- Revenue
- Who is a returning customer
- How long do people stay on the site
Most platforms give you a breakdown of these metrics if you have a business profile set up already.
The more information you have on your content’s performance, the better you will be able to cater your content to your audience.
Having this information will give you the ability to pivot effectively and quickly with your marketing strategy adjustments.
Over time and depending on how big your audience is, your analytics will tell a story and give you a clearer image of the map your content model should follow.
Why Do Analytics And Metrics Matter In Content Marketing?
At the beginning of your content marketing journey, you make decisions based on rough data and research of what “should” work for your business.
But the problem is that not all businesses are one size fits all.
Something could work well with one type of business and not another.
When you have your own proven set of metrics from your actual audience, you possess a direct pulse that will tell you if they prefer one type of content over another.
As your audience grows more and more, you will have more factors to go off while making business decisions.
Things become less of a guessing game and more of a pivot with the information you have type of game.
Over the long haul, making decisions based on collected analytics and data will be more profitable and, most importantly, help you build an even larger audience.
Using analytics gives you more power when you want to test things out and experiment outside your normal content production zone.
Do you want to try out new forms of content to see if your audience will like the direction you are going?
Do it and let the data speak for itself.
If you get many people clicking away from this new way of production, drop it and A/B test with the following things you are curious about.
It’s that simple, let the data help you decide what’s best and then move on.
What Content Marketing Metrics Should You Watch?
There are so many numbers and data points being tracked, and it can seem a little challenging to keep a close eye on all of them.
Plus, not all metrics are created equal.
Earlier, we emphasized how important it is to use analytics as a decision-making tool for making new content and exploring different medium production outlets, but what are you supposed to watch?
Traffic
When you know where your customers are coming from, you can hammer down on that particular source of acquisition to grow its traffic potential.
If you get a majority of your website traffic from your youtube channel, then it’s simple.
Produce more videos so that more people with similar interests can find you on the platform.
Are people finding you organically through google searches?
Do they get referred to your content through your email newsletters?
Create more of what people are already showing signs of liking and grow that snowball.
Keep an eye on where people are coming from so your content promotion efforts are maximized, and you are ultimately in control of what happens.
Keyword Ranking
Keywords allow you to be found within organic search results from Google and other search engines alike.
You want to know what keywords are being searched for people to get to your site.
Check out Google search console monthly to validate you’re aiming in the right direction with your content marketing efforts.
Leads Generated
Your revenue is directly correlated to the number of leads you bring in with your content or ads.
Keep track of how many people flow through the pipeline month after month.
No leads mean no money.
You know what happens with no money.
Google Analytics allows you to monitor exactly how many people come to your website and convert into a customer.
It will also let you see which pages are converting the most amount of people into leads.
Maybe your blog brings in the most leads, which tells you that you should dedicate more time and resources to writing more engaging content like the already working stuff.
User Behavior
The main goal of any page on your website is to help people solve their problems effectively.
Understanding user behavior and what people will be doing with your site will better prepare you to make better content for the future.
here are some of the things that you can keep track of:
- Time on Page
- Bounce Rate
- Pages/Session
- New/Returning Visitors
A lot of these metrics are indicators of what works and what does not.
If people spend much time on a particular page, you know that that style of content is working, and you should try to mimic it as best as possible for other pieces that you create.
When people start to jump off page fast (bounce rate), I know that it is an indication for you to change things up and run some A/B tests to diagnose the issue.
Shares and backlinks
Getting shares on social media and backlinks to your website raises your level of awareness for new audiences, and it also provides validation.
Pay attention to this metric will help you better understand whether you’re creating compelling content that people want their Network to read or be part of.
Eventually, this may turn into another traffic indicator that you would want to be aware of.
Plus, it is a nice feeling knowing that people enjoyed the work you put into making what is being shared.
Impressions & Click-Through Rate
The main goal of any piece of contact is to get attention.
Therefore you want to know how many people see the things you make and what percentage of those click on them.
Click-through rate is a massive indicator of how well you are doing with your titles and descriptions.
If you get many impressions but not a lot of clicks, maybe you should work on a/b testing your call-to-action headlines to optimize clicks.
Work on putting together more compelling sentence structures that make people want to click through to learn more.
On the other side of the spectrum, if you are not getting enough Impressions, you need to focus on producing more for people to see.
Brainstorm ways to promote your content and get in front of a larger audience.
What Are The Best Content Marketing Analytics Tools?
There are many good tools out there, some of them free, some of them paid.
Using the basics will do the job until you have enough reason ( a lot of data or a lot of website traffic), but it’s always nice to know your options.
Here is a list of some of the best content marketing analytics tools you can use:
Google analytics
Google Analytics is the OG when it comes to content marketing analytics tools.
It’s free to use and has all of the metrics you will ever need to use or pay attention to.
It does take some getting used to, and navigation isn’t perfect, but it is getting better.
At a bare minimum, you should have Google Analytics set up on your paid media channels keep track of everyone going in and out and navigating your website.
you can check out the Google Analytics tool at:https://analytics.google.com/
Google search console
Search console is right there next to Google Analytics, being that it is entirely free to use and a great resource to take advantage of.
Google search console makes it easy for you to see how people find your website.
It will break down the top queries that people are using to find your website through Google.
On top of that, they will display your search rank position whenever someone does search for your related keywords or topics.
The data that the Google search console provides is pretty simple to understand, and it’s broken down neatly.
you can check out Google search console at: https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is it paid tool The Works about the same as Google Analytics and Google search console combined.
It is a third-party service that gives so many insights it’s not even funny.
You can track anything and everything within the platform that is related to the growth of your website.
Use this tool alongside google analytics and google search console to have different data to compare.
As I said, this is a paid tool, and if you have the money to invest in premium analytics tools, check this one out.
You can check out Ahrefs at: https://ahrefs.com/
Crazy Egg or HotJar
Both of the software are great.
They both have their ups and downs, but they provide roughly the same service.
They give you heat maps of your website from how users interact and navigate.
You can install this onto any page of your website, test your design and learn how to improve the user experience.
These tools are great because they allow you to see with your own eyes how your customers are using your website.
They can see where people spend the most time physically on the site using heat signatures to represent the active areas.
There are more tools that they both offer within the plugin, but this is the highlight of their service and my favorite part.
I highly recommend that you check this one out if you’re looking to improve your user experience and learn how to raise your conversion rate.
Both of these software are great and suggest that you check out both of them to see which one you like best.
you can check out crazy egg at: https://www.crazyegg.com/
you can also check out Hotjar at: https://www.hotjar.com/
Conclusion
Content marketing analytics help you understand if you are on track with your content marketing strategy and whether or not you’re going to hit your goals.
They help to ensure that your efforts are not being misused or misguided.
When you decide based on data rather than guesstimating, you are more likely to see actual results.
There are resources out there for you to use for free, and there is no excuse for you not to be tracking your content marketing efforts with analytics tools.
Thank you for hanging out with us today.
We hope you learned something new and enjoyed the read!
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