Different metrics are used to evaluate the effectiveness of content marketing.
And here the questions arise: Where do you get the data to evaluate these metrics, and what analytics system is better to use? That’s what we’ll talk about next.
Analysis of traffic and engagement
Although traffic itself is a secondary performance metric, it is the basis for estimating cost per click and conversion rate. Even the simplest statistic counter is suitable for its estimation. However, evaluation of traffic quantity in isolation from other indicators does not play an important role. That is why we recommend installing the following analytics system on your site: Google Analytics.
Analytics lets you track not only the total amount of traffic and sources of conversions, but also segment your audience by gender, age, geography, interests, operating system, and devices from which they come to your website. In addition, data is available here about user engagement – the time spent on the site, the depth of viewing, abandonment, and returns.
It would seem that the data for analysis is more than enough, but in practice it is more complicated. Content can be placed on your own site and on external sites. No problem with your own site – you published an article, users found it in a search using a key phrase and came to your site. The analytics system recorded the transition and identified its source (in this case it will be a search engine Google, Bing or another).
Tracking conversions
Efficiency monitoring is not so much about the amount of traffic as it is about the number of targeted actions, i.e. conversions.
At first glance, tracking conversions is not that difficult. You can count the number of sales, requests, referrals, and other targeted actions and compare them to traffic. However, this will be a general conversion, which will not answer the question: what is the most effective channel of attraction? Without this information, it’s impossible to know how to rationally allocate your budget.
Traffic can come from organics, contextual advertising, content marketing placements, offline advertising and other sources. What’s more, there will be different channels within each source. For example, content marketing includes blog postings, YouTube videos, and social media posts. So how do you figure out which channel had the most impact on conversions?
This is where a tool from Google Analytics called Multi-Channel Sequences can help. To use it, you need to set up goals and decide on an attribution model.
Monitor external links and mentions
Content marketing is not just about traffic and conversions. It solves a wider range of problems, such as building external link mass and increasing brand awareness. And these aspects should also be monitored.
Link building
Imagine that you’ve published an interesting article on your site, and other blogs have started linking to it. This is how new external links appear.
