Content marketing is more than creating engaging material – it’s about understanding what works and what doesn’t. Tracking content marketing metrics lets you gain valuable insights to make informed decisions and optimize your marketing strategies.
Taking a data-driven approach and analyzing key metrics can improve engagement, conversion rates and your business’s bottom line.
In this article, you’ll learn about the 19 most important content marketing metrics and how to use them to ensure that every piece of content drives measurable success.
What are content marketing metrics (and why are they useful)?
Content marketing success metrics track the performance and effectiveness of your content marketing strategies. They help you understand whether your content is hitting marketing goals, providing insights into engagement, conversion rates and overall impact.
Tracking content marketing metrics brings several benefits, including:
Data-driven decision making. Metrics provide objective data to make informed decisions about content strategies. By seeing what’s working and what isn’t, you can adjust your approach for better results to reach your business goals.
Better resource allocation. Understanding which content performs best enables you to manage resources better. You can direct efforts toward your most impactful content types and channels.
Stronger audience insights. Metrics reveal audience preferences and customer behavior, helping you tailor and personalize content to your target demographics. For example, Gen Z customers spend most of their time streaming online video.
Enhanced ROI. Tracking metrics can improve your return on investment for content marketing efforts. With better, more targeted strategies, you’ll bring increased revenue from your content.
Imagine a mid-sized e-commerce company that’s struggling to boost its online presence. Shifting gears, it implements a data-driven content strategy focused on audience impact and conversions.
Discovering that sustainable fashion posts get the most engagement and that its Gen Z audience shows the highest interest, it creates informative video marketing content tailored to these customers. As a result, it sees a 30% increase in conversion rates.
19 essential content marketing metrics
This section explores 19 vital content marketing metrics divided into operational, traffic, engagement, conversion and keyword categories.
Operational metrics to track productivity
Operational metrics measure the efficiency and productivity of your content creation process. They help you identify bottlenecks and streamline operations to maximize output and impact.
Let’s explore three essential operational metrics together with applicable workplace scenarios.
1. Content production rate
Content production rate measures the volume of content produced daily, weekly or monthly. It provides a snapshot of your content team’s output. Tracking the production rate helps you see if it meets demand or if you need to increase efforts or streamline processes to get more content out.
Count the number of content pieces (articles, blog posts, videos, etc.) completed within the chosen timeframe to track your content production rate.
Example: your marketing team sets a monthly goal of 40 blog posts to boost your online presence. They only complete 30 posts and realize inefficient processes slow down content approvals.
Action: streamline the review process with detailed checklists and see whether it improves the production rate.
2. Content turnaround time
Turnaround time is the time it takes to finish each project. The metric highlights the efficiency of your content creation process from ideation to publication. Knowing the typical turnaround time for each content type can help you plan better, increase output and manage deadlines.
Record the dates when each content creation phase begins and ends to track turnaround time. Find the average time for each content type to determine the typical timeframe. Break this up into drafting, editing, approval and publication to get more granular insights into which phases slow down production.
Example: your team aims for a one-week turnaround on blog posts, but analysis shows an average turnaround of 10 days. Looking deeper into the data, you realize the bottleneck occurs in the design phase.
Action: to improve efficiency, invest in design templates and speed up the process.
3. Resource utilization
Resource utilization metrics track how effectively you manage personnel, budget and tools throughout the content creation process. The data helps you optimize resource use, optimize workloads and prevent workplace stress or burnout.
To track resource utilization, monitor the time and budget each team member spends on various tasks. At the end of each project, closely analyze the data to see whether you’re underutilizing or overworking certain employees or spending too much on particular tasks.
Time-tracking or project management software makes resource tracking much more straightforward – you assign tasks and the software automatically measures how much time your team spends and where.
Example: you’re concerned that some of your content team is taking on too much work. You implement time-tracking processes to see how long each task takes, looking for signs of heavy or light workloads, bottlenecks and other problems.
Action: to balance bandwidth, reassign duties to members with lighter loads.
Traffic metrics to track audience engagement
Traffic metrics help you understand how many people visit your content, how they interact with it and where they come from. They enable you to see how effectively your content attracts and engages an audience.
Let’s look at the main metrics with some actionable examples.
4. Pageviews
Pageviews measure the number of times web visitors load or reload a page on your site, reflecting the overall traffic volume. High pageviews indicate effective content that attracts audiences, while low pageviews suggest your content doesn’t resonate with viewers.
Use a tool like Google Analytics or manually analyze your web server logs to track pageview data. Google Analytics is the easiest to set up and use, breaking down pageviews by page. Web server logs give you raw data for your website, but analyzing them requires technical expertise.
Many content management systems (CMS) platforms, like WordPress, have plugins that track pageviews from a dashboard. While these simplify metrics monitoring, more complex analytics tools like Google Analytics can provide more insights.
Example: your content marketing team produces sales and marketing content, including guides, explainers and listicles. They track pageviews in Google Analytics and find that guides with actionable advice have significantly higher pageviews than other content types.
Action:prioritize topics that offer practical, step-by-step advice for marketing challenges.
5. Unique visitors
Unique visitors track the number of different visitors to your site within a given timeframe, regardless of how many times they visit. Tracking unique visitors shows you what types of content attract new visitors, helping you improve content strategies.
For instance, knowledge base articles might have high pageviews but low unique visitors since most are existing customers learning how to use your product. In contrast, informative blog posts might have much higher unique visitors because they attract organic search traffic.
To track unique visitors, use an analytics tool like Google Analytics that can differentiate between new and returning visitors.
Example: you discover that you had 50,000 unique visitors last month – a 25% increase from the previous month. Beginner-friendly guides attracted the most visitors, appealing to fresh audiences. Many of your new visitors also came from organic search, which suggests successful search engine optimization (SEO).
Action: plan a series of similar pieces to build on your success.
6. Bounce rate
The bounce rate measures how many visitors leave your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate suggests visitors aren’t finding what they’re looking for on your site. That can indicate problems like poor content relevance, slow loading times or a confusing user experience.
Analyzing bounce rates across pages can help you spot patterns and problematic areas. For example, if a landing page has a high bounce rate, you might need to adjust the content or site navigation to make it more relevant and responsive for visitors.
You’ll need analytics tools to track bounce rates unless you have the technical expertise to manually analyze your website’s logs.
Example: you examine bounce rates for your entire website and find higher bounce rates on pages with shorter content, suggesting visitors are looking for more detailed information.
Action: prioritize long-form content and integrate more internal links to relevant guides within your shorter articles, making it easier for visitors to navigate to helpful content.
7. Traffic sources
Traffic sources identify where your site’s visitors are coming from, whether from search engines, direct visits, referral sites or social media. Knowing which channels drive the most traffic lets you understand and focus your marketing efforts in the right places.
Use reporting tools to categorize your traffic into different sources, such as organic search, direct, referral and social. Analyze these over time to see which channels attract traffic and how they change with new marketing strategies.
Example: you examine traffic sources and find that 50% of your traffic comes from social media, while referral traffic from backlinks (visitors arriving via external site links) accounts for only 10%. This data suggests that your social media strategy is strong, but there’s an opportunity to boost visibility through collaborations.
Action: focus on link building to boost your site’s visibility and enhance referral traffic.
Engagement metrics to track interaction and impact
Engagement metrics help you understand how users experience your content. Tracking the engagement rate gives you insight into user behavior and preferences. It shows you what visitors are most interested in and how effectively your content creates meaningful customer relationships.
Let’s explore use cases for three core engagement metrics.
8. Time on page
Time on page measures the time users spend on a specific page. It indicates how engaging or informative your content is to visitors. A longer time suggests visitors find your content helpful and engaging enough to read it thoroughly, while a shorter time shows that your content may be missing the mark.
To track time on page, use Google Analytics or a similar platform and head to the “Behavior” metrics. You’ll see time on page and other content metrics for each webpage on your site. Note the pages that aren’t performing as expected and look for patterns that might explain what’s going wrong.
Example: you explore time on page for your sales blog and notice that visitors spend less time on brief sales tips than detailed sales methodology guides.
Action: create comprehensive how-to guides for strategic sales tactics and enrich shorter posts with detailed examples and step-by-step instructions.
9. Social shares and likes
Social shares and likes measure the number of times people share or like your content on social media platforms. Tracking these metrics helps you analyze and improve your social selling strategy. High numbers indicate that your content resonates with audiences, while low numbers show that viewers scroll straight past without interacting.
To measure shares and likes, tap into social media analytics tools. Most platforms, like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, have built-in dashboards that help you track important metrics. You could also invest in a CMS with plugins to analyze these metrics directly from the tool.
Example: after checking your social media analytics, you see that punchy video posts outperform text and static images in likes and shares.
Action: change your social strategy to prioritize video content and add animated graphics and interactive elements to your static image posts to boost engagement.
10. Comments and interactivity
Comments show how many people interact with your content and their customer sentiment. Analyzing your comments lets you understand what types of content drive discussions and your audience’s opinions and questions.
You can monitor comments through your website’s CMS or social media engagement dashboards. Look for quantitative (the number of comments) and qualitative insights (audience perspectives, questions and opinions).
Other forms of interactivity to track include how much users engage with your polls, quizzes and clickable elements. Social media platforms track these interactions, telling you how often your viewers click on particular elements.
Example: you find posts prompting discussions about industry developments receive more comments than standard updates, suggesting your audience likes to engage in conversations.
Action: craft more posts with open-ended questions, hold live Q&A sessions and respond promptly to comments, driving real-time interactions and retention.
Conversion metrics to track performance and ROI
Conversion metrics help you see how effectively your marketing efforts turn leads into customers. They show how well different strategies and content drive profits, shedding light on the effectiveness of your customer journey. These conversion insights allow you to optimize your sales funnels and improve your overall marketing performance.
Here are four critical conversion metrics to track.
11. Click-through rate (CTR)
CTR measures the percentage of people who click a link, ad or email content compared to the total number of viewers or recipients. It helps you gauge the overall effectiveness of your calls-to-action (CTAs) and content.
A higher CTR suggests that your ads or content is engaging and motivates users to take the next step. Tracking CTR across content types and CTA strategies helps you identify which ones attract more attention.
To calculate CTR, divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions (or emails sent), then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
Use this formula:
CTR = (clicks / impressions) x 100
So, if you got 30 clicks out of 100 impressions, your CTR would be 30%.
Example: you review the CTR for a recent post titled “10 innovative email marketing strategies”. Noticing a low CTR of 1.5%, compared with 3% for similar posts, you suspect the headline and visual content aren’t compelling enough.
Action: revise the headline to “Unlock success with 10 cutting-edge marketing tactics” and add an eye-catching, relevant graphic.
12. Lead generation
Lead generation tracks the number of potential customers acquired over a given period. Leads are potential clients who have shown interest in your offerings, usually by providing contact information through forms or downloads.
Lead management is crucial for building a prospective customer pipeline and ensuring a steady flow of sales opportunities. Understanding lead sources helps you refine strategies to attract, nurture and convert sales prospects.
The easiest way to track leads is through a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Pipedrive. Here are some steps for using Pipedrive tools to support your lead-tracking efforts:
Lead tracking steps | How to do it |
Step 1: Create lead capture forms | Use lead capture forms or landing pages to automatically push new leads into Pipedrive when they follow a CTA or send you their contact details. |
Step 2: Organize and track leads | Use Pipedrive’s Lead Inbox to gather incoming leads. Customize pipeline stages to fit your sales process – from new lead to qualified lead – and track progression. |
Step 3: Analyze lead performance | Leverage Pipedrive’s reporting software to analyze lead generation efforts. Track key metrics like new leads and the time taken to qualify leads. |
Step 4: Adjust your strategies | Use data insights from Pipedrive to refine your lead generation strategies. Focus on sources and tactics that yield high-quality leads. |
13. Lead conversion rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of viewers who complete a desired action, like making a purchase or signing up for a service. Tracking the conversion rate helps you optimize your marketing tactics and content elements to improve profitability. The higher your conversion rate, the more effective your marketing efforts and CTAs are at leading visitors through the sales funnel.
Here’s how you calculate your conversion rate:
Conversion rate = (conversions / number of leads) x 100
Divide the number of conversions by the total number of leads, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
Example: last quarter, you published a whitepaper, shared it on LinkedIn and created a landing page, resulting in 1,000 downloads. Of these 1,000 leads, the sales team converted 100 into paying clients – a conversion rate of 10%.
Action: capitalize on this success with another whitepaper alongside automated follow-ups to boost your conversion rate even higher.
14. Cost per acquisition (CPA)
CPA measures the cost it takes to generate one conversion. It helps you assess the financial effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. If your CPA is too high, it can cut into your profitability.
Tracking CPA helps you manage your budget, ensuring you spend your marketing budget more effectively.
To calculate CPA, divide your total marketing spend by the conversions you achieved.
Look for high-performing campaigns that maximize your content marketing ROI. To reduce a high CPA, look for areas where you can trim costs without sacrificing the effectiveness of your campaign.
Example: you spend $5,000 on quality content creation to drive traffic to a specific product page, resulting in 200 directly attributable purchases at a CPA of $25. Your target CPA was $20.
Action: optimize your landing page with a more straightforward CTA and offer guest checkout options to facilitate buying.
Keyword metrics for enhanced SEO
Keyword metrics evaluate how specific keywords perform in your digital marketing and SEO efforts. SEO focuses on improving your online content to better meet searchers’ needs, helping your site rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive more organic traffic.
Tracking keyword metrics helps you find relevant keywords and align your content with what your target audience is actively searching for online.
Here are some major keyword metrics to focus on and how to monitor them:
Keyword metric | Tracking tools |
15. Search volume: the average number of times users search that keyword monthly. | Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest or Semrush to identify high-volume keywords relevant to your market. |
16. Keyword difficulty: how challenging it is to rank for a particular keyword based on existing competition. | Tools like Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush can provide difficulty scores, helping you choose keywords that are easier to rank for. |
17. Organic traffic: traffic that reaches your website from search engine results without direct marketing. | Google Search Console can track organic traffic, helping you analyze keyword performance and website visibility. |
18. Keyword rankings: pages on your website that rank highest for specific keywords in search engine results. | Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush highlight which pages perform best, guiding your content optimization efforts. |
19. Cost per click (CPC): while not a direct SEO metric, CPC calculates the average cost you’ll pay search engines for each click on an advertisement linked to a keyword. | Platforms like Google Ads provide CPC insights that can guide your paid search campaigns and inform your SEO strategy by highlighting high-value keywords with strong commercial intent. |
Analyzing these keyword metrics helps you align your content with high-search-volume and low-competition keywords, raising your SERP-ranking potential.
Similarly, understanding what keywords your audience searches for helps create content that addresses and solves their pain points, improving your likelihood of attracting relevant visitors.
Some metrics – like traffic volume – can be vanity metrics unless you consider them in context. Tracking traffic alone says nothing about how effectively you drive sales. To get the most insight, compare it with the other metrics listed above.
Tracking content marketing metrics in Pipedrive
Pipedrive is primarily a sales CRM tool, but you can creatively leverage it to track small-scale content marketing efforts like weekly blog articles and social media posts. Here’s how.
Step 1: Set up a content pipeline
Create a pipeline to visualize the stages of content creation and performance tracking.
For example, you might use ideation, drafting, editing and publishing stages. You can then move each piece of content through the pipeline to monitor its progress.
Step 2: Manage tasks and activities
Use Pipedrive’s activities feature to schedule and manage content creation tasks. Set deadlines and assign tasks for drafting, editing and publishing articles or posts.
Step 3: Create custom fields for metrics
Pipedrive’s custom fields can capture key performance indicators (KPIs) like traffic, conversions, engagement and cost.
For example, you could set a custom field to log leads or sign-ups for a specific blog article or social media campaign. When your content results in a new lead, you can update the field and see which content pieces are most successful.
Step 4: Integrate analytics tools
Pipedrive integrates with platforms like Google Analytics to automatically pull in content performance data. You can set up automatic triggers to update metrics in Pipedrive when you receive new website traffic or leads from specific campaigns.
Pipedrive also integrates with Zapier to automate workflows between apps, helping you populate custom fields and track content performance within Pipedrive with less manual work.
Step 5: Create dashboards and reports
While Pipedrive doesn’t offer direct content analytics, you can use it to generate reports on tasks and customer interactions driven by content marketing.
This indirect method helps gauge which content formats or topics drive the highest engagement.
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Final thoughts
Tracking content marketing success through the above key metrics can provide valuable insights into your strategies’ effectiveness. With this knowledge, you can optimize your content for better ROI and audience alignment.
Pipedrive tools can streamline your content tracking processes and help you assess your content marketing performance. Explore Pipedrive’s features with a free 14-day trial to see how you can boost conversions.
