We all know how important content marketing, social media, ad campaigns and a litany of other factors that accommodate SEO efforts can be for brands and businesses. The underlying element that connects all of these components to each other from the manager’s end is metrics. Without metrics, it becomes impossible to truly know how your efforts are paying off, or whether they are paying off at all. Because of this, knowing which metrics in particular are the most important to track is crucial to long-term success. Content marketing is perhaps the most important component to monitor on a regular basis, so we’ll lay out which metrics you need to be focused on in the present and in the future.

Engagement Rates

Content marketing’s main focus is to put your content in front of audiences that find it valuable, but that is useless if they do not choose to engage with it. Engagement rates show what percentage of users are liking, sharing, commenting and engaging in other meaningful ways with your content. This metric will more or less indicate the quality of your content and how it is being received by the targeted audience. If you are doing poorly in this regard, then it may be time to refine the target audience or revamp the content’s main elements.

Clicks

While engagement rates – particularly through social media – may measure more superficial forms of engagement, clicks are the hard-core currency of an engaged audience. Many people may be willing to like a post they see on social media, but how many of those are clicking on the content and following it to your website? You can take this metric into account when measuring conversion rates as well, pinging servers for the numbers necessary to calculate what percentage of visitors are actually buying, subscribing or engaging in the most meaningful way specified by your campaign goals.

Cost Per Click

If you are engaging in paid efforts for your content marketing strategies, then understanding the true cost of your campaign is essential. Cost per click metrics will shine light on how much each visitor to your site through an ad is costing your bottom line. By running a variety of content marketing ad campaigns, you will be able to use this metric to compare each in order to determine which are performing well and which are not. This can help you maximize your ad dollars.

The Main Criteria to Consider

There are several other metrics to consider important for your own content marketing campaigns – depending on the objectives – but how can you identify them? It’s important to focus on metrics that are easily documented and that are pinging servers with concrete, tangible stats. It’s important to focus on metrics that measure actionable activities. Finally, it’s important to ensure that your targeted metrics always indicate how effective your campaigns are in relation to your goals.  By following these three important elements when assessing what to track, you’ll always be focused on relevant stats when determining your brand’s success.