How can you track Content Marketing ROI more effectively?

In my experience, tracking ROI on content marketing can be difficult as content can do so many things and be used in so many different ways. That’s why it’s important to clearly define the goals of the campaign at the very beginning. What are we trying to achieve? Do the deliverables being created align with these objectives? And, perhaps even more importantly, how will we define success? Once you have the answers to these questions, you’ll be much closer to proving ROI.

Many marketers underestimate the importance of "time spent" when determining the ROI of their content marketing. You need to add up all internal and external costs related to strategizing, brainstorming, group meetings, content generation, agency fees, and time put into promoting the content itself. By accurately calculating your costs with "time spent", you can evaluate whether your content marketing efforts are delivering a positive return and meeting your SMART objectives and KPIs.

Content marketing seems very straight-forward, but it isn't. Start by asking questions. For e.g: "How do I deliver it based on my brand vision"? Which content and team do I need? Which channels? Timeline etc. You create blog posts and videos to create awareness, and track qualitative goals. For this example, you need Google analytics and Youtube analytics reports to count comments, shares against initial time and investment to get your ROI. To launch a product, you'll measure social shares, number of engagements, mentions, page visitors. To grow a sales new channel you must connect crm and count indirect channel revenue. And follow the principle, measure against goals, time and initial investment.

When selecting your metric, look beyond vanity metrics (views or likes) and put your focus on metrics that support your overall business goals and objectives. This can include metrics such as conversion rates, engagement rates, or even customer feedback and testimonials. By analyzing these metrics, you can determine what type of content is engaging your audience and impacting your bottom line.

For most B2B teams, content doesn't exist in a vacuum. That means your metrics are inherently tied to the KPIs of whoever is serving up or using your content. Keep asking "...but why?" about what your content is supposed to achieve until you get to the larger business goals. No one creates content purely for clicks or views. If the bigger goal is some kind of conversion, go there. At the same time, remember to get qualitative feedback however you can. You might not have numbers to state that customers made a purchase because you had an insightful content journey and built a reputation for thought leadership, but if you're able to squeeze some questions into customer surveys regarding content, you might get some very telling responses.

Long before you begin to nail down the metrics and KPIs that have the most meaning, do your best to make sure that the business goals you are trying to achieve are in alignment across the organization— including C-Suite and cross- functional teams. Consult sales: sales and marketing make a powerful combination when they collaborate instead of isolate. With content, there is so much you COULD do— but planning and getting buy in across teams will go a long way toward showing what you NEED to do. This eliminates a lot of wasted spend in dollars and time.

Effectively tracking content marketing ROI requires assigning value to your metrics. Not all metrics hold equal importance; their impact on your business goals determines their value. Once key metrics are identified (e.g., impressions for brand awareness or email signups for lead generation), assign them a monetary value. This involves analyzing your sales funnel to determine the worth of each action. For example, if an average $100 purchase comes from 10% of email subscribers, email signup is worth $10. This process helps accurately measure ROI and the economic impact of your content marketing.

The most important thing you can do once you have your KPIs and values, is to make sure you have a measurement plan in place. Strong measurement requires forethought, because then you know exactly what outcome you're looking for. Make sure you do these three things when creating a measurement plan: - Determine the source of truth: What analytics tool or spreadsheet will you use to track your performance? Once you choose this, stick to it. - Choose the priority KPI you're following, and set a target outcome: If you normally do 100 clicks, then your target should be 150 clicks. - Write the story as it happens: Don't wait until the end of your campaign to start tracking. If you watch the daily ebb-and-flow you'll know your data better

Collaboration between marketing and sales teams is crucial for accurate and effective content marketing ROI tracking. While not everything has a set start and end date, there are instances when ROI can only be calculated over a longer time horizon. By integrating your content marketing efforts with your sales team data, you can trace how content interactions impact the sales pipeline, identify high-converting content, and refine your strategies accordingly.

So many companies severely underinvest in content marketing for two very fundamental reasons: 1. Leadership is in massive denial about how much buyer preferences have changed. (Gartner found that about 83% of most B2B buyer's journeys are over before sales contact.) 2. Leadership thinks of content marketing very one-dimensionally.. as a function of the marketing team. In reality, helpful educational content can make a massive impact throughout your entire GTM not just in marketing -- but in sales enablement, onboarding / customer success, product marketing, channel partner marketing, and even internal training and alignment.

Very few marketing strategies embody the marketing flywheel as much as content marketing. So if you don't give it time, you'll never see a return. However, if you stick with it and focus on what people are responding to, you will build a community of people that are waiting for your marketing content and asking to see more of it. Once you have those followers you will have a measurable and reliable way to launch new projects, promote sales, educate your community on the value of your offer, and figure out EXACTLY what your market wants by hearing directly from them. All of this is to say: you can't even begin to calculate ROI until you put in the time to build your community. The job is to communicate the long-term value.

As we rapidly move towards a privacy-first world, where third party cookies are history, content marketing attribution becomes even more challenging. While I've always been a proponent of using multiple conversion tracking tools (even though and because they so strongly differ on strengths weaknesses and conclusions, starting about a year ago we brought back a conversion tracking tactic that had been sunsetted for the better part of 10 years; Simply adding a write-in field on most of the forms: How did you hear about us? The reality: In a digital buyer's journey, there can be literally dozens of touch points between awareness and purchase. Rarely do more than two or three of these show up even with multi-touch attribution.

Consider looking at the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) of the consumers you engaged through your content marketing initiatives to better track the ROI as you develop relationships with customers and nurture them along the customer journey. CLV gives you a more thorough understanding of your content marketing ROI because it considers the long-term value a client delivers to your business.

Never give up and always show up. If you're delivering the best quality content you can and are being consistent, it will all pay off in the end. Just make sure you're marketing your content to the right audience and/or where they congregate. Stay away from AI and be yourself.

Keep a track of qualitative feedback and results as well. This means client feedback, responses, stories, mentions - while data tracking and management is essential and gives a solid base to compare and analyse; content marketing is also working when data is not trackable.

Content marketing ROI tracking can be simplified and, here’s how in 5 ways. 1. Google Analytics: Gauge user engagement and action on your content. 2. Set Goals: Define what success means, such as traffic, engagement, or leads. 3. UTM Parameters: Use them to identify the source of your website traffic. 4. Customer Acquisition Cost: Divide marketing spend by new customers to find the cost per acquisition. 5. Customer Lifetime Value: Learn each customer’s long-term value to assess your marketing’s true worth. Stick to these and improve ROI tracking. The key to success is consistency, patience, and adaptability. Use your findings to refine strategies for even better results.