Content Marketing KPIs to Track in Client Reports and Dashboards

Content may be king, but there’s no crown jewel without marketing KPIs.

Assigning a numerical measure to creative output may not seem intuitive, but it’s the only way to assess performance (which is why you’re probably reading this article).

At the end of the month, clients likely have questions about the traction and ROI of that meticulously created content you spent hours or even days on. Or perhaps they’re being pressed by senior management or executives on the board level about the low social media engagement on a recent post.

How do you reiterate ROI in these scenarios, break it down in tangible terms, and demonstrate content performance?

The answer is simple–content marketing KPIs.

This article will uncover all the key insights you need to create a solid content marketing strategy and make informed decisions.

What Are Content Marketing KPIs?

What is a KPI? Before we dig into content-specific KPIs, let's start with the basics. A KPI, or Key Performance Indicator, quantifies an organization's success in reaching key objectives. It provides a clear metric for performance evaluation and strategic alignment, enabling businesses to measure progress and make informed decisions.

Marketing agencies and content marketers take great pride in their work and strive to create content that’s effective month after month. But when it comes to tracking content performance and demonstrating the long-term benefits of SEO, it’s not as simple as snapping your fingers to shift from ‘creator’ to ‘analyst’ mode. Not to mention the challenges of viewing content objectively when you’re the one creating it.

But after you’ve finished that fantastic piece of content and uploaded it based on your client’s posting schedule, how will you know what resonates or should be improved?

That’s why content marketing KPIs are needed.

KPIs keep us accountable. KPIs provide the client transparency into what work we deliver, and most importantly, KPIs demonstrate that we are on track and achieving mutually agreed upon goals - this is our agency's true north–results for clients.

–David Krauter, SEO Strategist, Websites That Sell

Remember the golden rule for all things marketing–you can’t improve what you don’t track, which is where content marketing objectives come in.

These quantifiable marketing metrics reflect how content has performed (e.g., how your client’s audience received it, if at all) and what direction you should take to create content that really resonates. Therefore, the benefits of data-driven insights are undisputed. In a nutshell, content marketing key performance indicators help you:

• See what topics and content formats resonate with your client’s target audience

• Monitor which distribution channels are most effective

• Evaluate how content efforts align with your client’s long-term goals (e.g., increased website engagement)

• Find opportunities to capitalize based on well-performing content (e.g., repurposing content, exploring backlink opportunities)

• Reach your client’s target audience, drive website traffic, increase brand awareness by publishing high-quality content. It also helps your client to meet other marketing goals (e.g., generate sales leads, drive business growth)

• Increase the chances of getting inbound links from credible sources

• Create a content strategy that delivers results

Not only do these KPIs prove your worth and reiterate your agency’s ability to deliver results, but they also steer your client’s strategic ship in the right direction.

Repeat after us—content marketing KPIs are friends! They guide us towards content marketing success once we heed their insights.

What Makes a Good Content Marketing KPI?

We’ve all heard the term SMART goals. That trusty acronym stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.

Although there are other goal setting frameworks to consider, a good content marketing KPI embodies these qualities and ensures you aren’t shooting in the dark or aiming unrealistically.

Here are some key questions to remember when coming up with those critical content marketing KPIs:

Is This Content Marketing KPI Specific to What My Client Is Trying To Achieve?

For example, if your client wants to measure the number of page views for a newly developed blog post, total website visitors won’t provide the level of specificity required. If the post was created specifically to generate leads, page views do not align with the goal. The KPI in this case should be the form conversion goal.

Find out exactly what they’re looking to track, and be wary of casting the net too widely. That way, you’ll be equipped to tailor and measure content performance with precisely what they want to achieve. And if the client doesn’t know exactly what the KPIs should be, use your expertise to guide them.

“During the sales process, we ask the client what KPIs they want to track; often they're unsure, and so we make recommendations based on their overall goals.”

–Paul Morris, Managing Director of Superb Digital

Is This Content Performance Measurable?

While an abundance of digital data is available, everything has limits. For example, consider a client with a free e-book download that’s gone viral.

Users may download an e-book page and forward it to their contacts on another messenger platform (such as WhatsApp), which could be considered a social media share that increases brand awareness. However, because these shares happen externally to your client's website, you may not be able to track and quantify this as a content marketing KPI and is happening in a digital realm that’s out of your control. 

"Going Viral" is not a measurable KPI, partly because it's difficult to quantify exactly how many shares it takes before your client would consider it viral. Also, the entire concept of going viral is that the content takes on a life of its own beyond its original placement, making it nearly impossible to measure.

Is This Content Marketing KPI Achievable? 

Let’s say your insurance client launches an educational blog series to increase article views and subsequently attract qualified leads through a call-to-action button. 

If there’s an average of 50 leads coming in per month currently, a content marketing KPI of 10,000 new leads/month is likely not achievable–let’s be real. As a result, it’s in your agency’s best interest to advise your client to adjust those insurance sales quotas (especially if they’ve assigned an unrealistic target for content marketing efforts). 

To avoid any unpleasant inquiries a few months down the road, have a frank discussion about what’s achievable and why some expectations can’t realistically be met. 

Is This Content Marketing KPI Relevant to My Client’s Goals?

Say a client’s exclusive goal is increasing organic traffic to a webpage about recent social corporate responsibility initiatives. In this case, having ‘revenue generated’ as a content marketing KPI isn’t relevant to the marketing campaign.

While a conversion performance indicator may be applicable later, it won’t reflect their current objectives.

Remember that the four main purposes of content are to educate, inspire, entertain, or convert. It’s important to align the KPIs to one of those relevant purposes.

Does This Content Marketing KPI Have a Timeframe? 

Deciding on a KPI without a timeframe leaves things up in the air. Don’t have content KPIs fall by the wayside–assign a realistic time frame to track progress on a regular and consistent basis. Setting a timeline also sets expectations for delivery and allows your agency to plan effectively. 

How To Choose Relevant Content Marketing Objectives

When deciding on KPIs, always remember that they should tie directly into your client’s strategic goals. 

If there’s a misalignment between the two, think twice about whether it’s really a KPI or metric. Remember that all content marketing metrics aren’t necessarily KPIs–it really depends on your client’s strategic goals.

Are you looking for a quick, general reference for content KPIs? Here are a few important ones to consider.

Content Marketing KPIs To Boost Brand Awareness

Your client’s goals may include building brand authority, driving website traffic, and being a top-of-mind brand. Therefore, you’ll need content marketing KPIs that reflect this.

For content-first brand awareness campaigns, track the following metrics and use them to create a data-driven content marketing program. It is essential to track brand awareness metrics, such as organic website traffic and brand mentions, to assess and improve brand visibility and recognition in alignment with business objectives.

Content Marketing KPIs To Increase Engagement

These performance indicators measure how users interact with and react to your client’s content. Tracking content marketing KPIs is crucial for evaluating engagement, as it provides insights into audience preferences and the efficiency of content distribution channels. During the consideration phase, content marketing KPIs are especially important to track–it gives an idea of where users are on the tipping scale when deciding which brand to go with.

Content Marketing KPIs for Conversion

Understanding and tracking key performance indicators for content marketing is essential to measure the effectiveness of your efforts in driving conversions.

These KPIs provide valuable insights into how well your content resonates with the audience and drives desired actions, such as sign-ups, lead generation, downloads, or purchases. By analyzing these metrics, you can optimize your strategies to achieve better results (aka paying customers), demonstrate ROI, and maintain client satisfaction.

“Ultimately, what is their ROI from our efforts? When you can clearly demonstrate this month over month, it increases your retention rate and keeps clients paying you month after month.” –Jacob Hicks, Owner of Magnyfi

Content Marketing KPIs for Retention

Content marketing doesn’t necessarily stop after leads have passed the conversion phase. Depending on your client’s product offering, there may be a need for onboarding and retention content. For example, a client that offers accounting software may offer support after onboarding, such as help docs, video tutorials, FAQ pages, and tips. 

In turn, these customers have the potential to become brand loyalists and advocate for your client’s business once they’re satisfied with the product and level of support. Don’t turn a blind eye–track relevant KPIs to maximize this potential for your client’s successful content marketing strategy.

What to Consider Before Choosing Your KPIs for Content Marketing

To build a solid bank of content marketing KPIs, there’s some groundwork to do beforehand. 

Organizational structures differ across businesses, and so do budget allocations, business objectives, and resources. Because of this, you will find variations in how clients tie long-term objectives into marketing. Before deciding on content marketing KPIs, understand the big picture and make recommendations accordingly.

For example, take a client in the pharmaceutical industry wanting to generate revenue in the next quarter. As a result, their leadership team may evaluate top-performing products and decide which ones to create more content for, with hopes of driving more sales. 

With this information, your agency will be equipped to provide strategic content marketing and digital ad spend recommendations. In turn, these key factors influence their content marketing KPIs to measure their efforts towards this goal. 

Common Content Marketing Metrics That Should Not Be KPIs

Not everything needs to be reported on. But how do you know where to draw the line? Here are a few things to consider when it comes to content marketing KPIs worth tracking (or not). 

1. Social Media Likes

“Stop worrying about how many likes you have–consumers really don’t care! They don't like you because of how many Page Likes you have. They like you because they believe in what your brand stands for.” –Cheryl Ingram, Managing Director of The Digital Media Collective

While social media likes give you some indication of audience engagement, it doesn’t necessarily mean users aren’t engaging with the content. 

How often have you read an article on social media without actually liking the post? We’ve done it, too. Likes are nice to have, but they don’t paint the overall picture of content performance.

2. Total Number of Backlinks (Without Context)

While many backlinks may look appealing on a monthly client report, it doesn’t mean much if your client’s content shows up primarily on link farms or spammy websites. That’s why reporting on the number of backlinks per month is misleading if it’s not done within context.

To combat this, consider backlink monitoring. That way, it’s much easier to keep track of high authority backlinks and weed out any compromising links. 

3. Number of Comments

Again, take this figure with a grain of salt. It’s definitely useful to see how users engage with your client’s content, and it even provides actionable insights into user sentiments. However, comments don’t necessarily affect your client’s bottom line and won’t give a solid ground for content marketing performance.

Content Marketing KPIs Lead to Client Success

The road to content marketing success is paved with KPIs. It takes a bit more thought and digging deep into what should be reported or included on an agency dashboard, but it’s the only way to evaluate how content is performing. It’s tedious to manually keep track of those content marketing KPIs month after month, especially when you’re in that creative zone.

Wondering what the long-term solution is? Create a content marketing dashboard through AgencyAnalytics and streamline the entire process. With over 80 marketing integrations (including Google Analytics), sending an in-depth content marketing report has never been more intuitive.

It’s as easy as: Create a Campaign > Add Marketing Integrations > Set Up KPIs to Monitor.

Simple, effective, and incredibly time-saving! Create a data-driven content marketing strategy and monitor key performance indicators with ease.