Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing Reporting

Not definite however to hole your contented report? I get it — excessively galore metrics to report, and what should a study look look successful the archetypal place? I committedness this volition alteration by the extremity of this guide.

In this guide, you’ll larn the 3 champion practices of reporting and 8 types of accusation that marque a coagulated contented report, including the existent KPIs utilized by contented marketers.

From my experience, I’ve learned that having 3 cardinal features successful a contented study makes each the difference: data-led, actionable, and function-driven. It keeps everyone connected the aforesaid leafage and ensures our enactment counts.

Let’s unpack this.

1. Data-led

Instead of relying connected gut feelings oregon assumptions, a data-led study is based connected quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (observations) information to supply a clear, nonsubjective presumption of contented performance.

This way, each proposal oregon penetration is grounded successful verifiable facts, making it a reliable instrumentality for decision-making.

2. Actionable

At the aforesaid time, a bully contented selling study doesn’t conscionable drown the scholar successful numbers and charts; it interprets the information to supply clear, actionable insights.

This means circumstantial recommendations travel the numbers connected what tin beryllium done to amended performance. Whether it’s tweaking the contented strategy, focusing connected antithetic topics, adjusting organisation channels, oregon choosing antithetic SEO tactics, actionable reports alteration information into a roadmap for amended outcomes.

3. Function-driven

In reporting, signifier needs to travel relation — the contented and operation of the study request to beryllium tailored to the circumstantial needs of the idiosyncratic you privation to stock it with. You could besides deliberation of it this way: reports should beryllium bully capable to service their purpose, but everything supra that would beryllium overkill.

Don’t overthink, overcomplicate, oregon over-design your reports. Pick the KPIs that you tin really influence, adhd immoderate really utile commentary, and take the signifier that won’t marque your brag oregon lawsuit deliberation that you’re spending excessively overmuch clip connected “paperwork”.

To illustrate, a emblematic bureau oregon freelance study is astir ROI oregon generating worth for the client. They travel successful the signifier of an full document, nicely designed with a batch of information and insights (similar to this SEO report). It could adjacent beryllium accompanied by a live dashboard similar the 1 beneath created successful Google Looker Studio:

On the different hand, in-house reports are typically astir documenting show and progress. They are overmuch much streamlined. For example, the monthly blog study astatine Ahrefs is simply a short, nationalist connection connected Slack with 3 types of information: the fig of published articles, notable keyword movements, and immoderate notable stuff. That’s it.

In this portion of the guide, we’re discussing contented selling KPIs and qualitative feedback that volition let you to physique a coagulated report. These are based connected our poll connected metrics really utilized by marketers and a fewer tried and tested suggestions from us.

Keep successful caput that your last metrics whitethorn disagree depending connected your strategy. We promote you to customize your reports.

Summaries are designed for stakeholders who conscionable privation to cognize the astir important points. They whitethorn not person the clip oregon the involvement to dive into information and enactment unneurotic an wide representation of your performance. These radical volition beryllium expecting thing like this:

It’s a bully signifier to adhd summaries astatine each times, but you’ll find them particularly utile successful ample teams and erstwhile moving with clients.

Summaries are enactment successful the beforehand of the study but written last. Don’t constitute them earlier collecting and analyzing the data.

This conception details the quantity and benignant of contented published wrong a circumstantial timeframe. This volition archer your brag oregon lawsuit however businesslike you/your team is.

It tin see blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, and societal media posts.

You tin simply measurement the measurement of contented produced and categorize it by benignant to measure productivity and diverseness successful your contented strategy.

Traffic shows however bully the contented is astatine attracting clicks to the website.

Typically, stakeholders privation to cognize the maturation of postulation alternatively than conscionable the fig of clicks successful a fixed period. A 1000 much clicks successful a period whitethorn beryllium exceptional for 1 website but a mediocre effect for another.

It’s besides a bully thought to interruption down postulation maturation by:

• Source: successful the lawsuit of content, that volition mostly beryllium organic, email, referral (but lone from the sources you influenced), and societal media. Include nonstop postulation lone if it really correlates with content. Paid postulation is typically the domain of show marketing, but if you’re moving immoderate ads for content, adhd that, too.
• Target: this depends connected whether your extremity is to thrust postulation to the full tract oregon its parts, specified arsenic merchandise landing pages, pricing, contact, etc.

Traffic is casual to measure. Free tools specified arsenic Google Analytics oregon Matomo should beryllium enough. For organic traffic from Google, marque definite you usage Google Search Console, though.

Tip

Google Search Console volition springiness you the astir close integrated click data, but SEO tools similar Ahrefs volition springiness you the means to amended it. For example, you tin spot however a tract stacks up against competitors (and interruption down their strategy) oregon spot which pages gained and mislaid the astir postulation successful a fixed period.

Organic competitors study successful Ahrefs showing a month-to-month performance change.

For postulation reporting, you volition besides find Ahrefs’ Portofilos diagnostic helpful. You tin way integrated postulation and different SEO metrics for immoderate postulation of pages. For instance, a acceptable of your client’s websites, competitors, oregon each contented directories.

SEO (search motor optimization) metrics assistance you recognize the visibility and ranking of your contented successful hunt engines.

There is simply a assortment of metrics you could study here, but according to our insights, marketers usually study these:

• Impressions: however often a tract appears successful hunt results.
• Rankings: what pages fertile for a fixed keyword. The higher the rankings, the much integrated postulation you can get.
• Share of voice: percent of each imaginable integrated clicks (from SERPs) for the tracked keywords landing connected your website.
• Backlink growth: refers to the summation successful the fig of inbound links pointing to a website implicit a circumstantial period. Worth tracking if you’re creating link bait contented oregon doing link building.
• Organic traffic: already covered successful the erstwhile paragraph. It overlaps with the SEO metrics class because, mostly speaking, integrated postulation maturation is the result of effectual SEO.

You’ll request 2 types of tools to study these metrics: Google Search Console for integrated postulation (i.e., clicks) and impressions and an SEO instrumentality similar Ahrefs for everything else.

If you consciousness that the recipient of the study volition beryllium funny successful top-level metrics only, see reporting conscionable the stock of dependable and integrated traffic.

You tin find the stock of dependable metric in Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker.

The benefits of being disposable successful Google are evident adjacent for non-marketers, truthful you’ll nonstop a wide and beardown connection if you beryllium with these metrics that your contented makes the marque basal retired successful Google, and due to the fact that of that, you’re capable to pull much visitors.

On the different hand, if your assemblage is SEO-savvy and that transmission is simply a large portion of your strategy, you tin marque your study radiance with further metrics explained successful this guide to SEO reporting.

This measures the summation successful your content’s assemblage implicit time, including caller subscribers to newsletters, video/podcast channels, and societal media followers.

Tracking these metrics helps measure the effectiveness of your contented successful attracting and retaining a increasing audience. In different words, assemblage maturation shows the request for much contented similar the 1 you’re already making.

For example, astatine Ahrefs, we way the subscriber maturation connected AhrefsTV YouTube channel, and we simply usage YouTube’s autochthonal metrics for that.

An existent screenshot of our YouTube transmission assemblage growth.

Engagement metrics gauge however actively your assemblage interacts with your content.

Here are immoderate communal engagement metrics tracked by marketers:

• Likes and comments connected social media: you tin way them easy with autochthonal societal media level analytics oregon by utilizing a instrumentality similar Buffer to cod each information successful one place.
• Email database engagement: these typically see however galore radical unfastened your emails (open rate), however galore click connected the links wrong them (click rate), and spikes successful unsubscribe rate. All email selling tools are equipped with these metrics.
• Time connected page: how agelong radical walk speechmaking oregon interacting with a circumstantial leafage connected your website. Tracked by default successful GA4, needs mounting up successful Matomo.
• Scroll depth: however acold down a leafage a visitant scrolls. In galore cases, deeper scrolling should bespeak the contented is engaging capable to support readers interested. GA4 and Matomo tin beryllium acceptable up to show an lawsuit erstwhile a pre-defined scroll threshold has been reached (e.g., 10, 25, 50%). But if you privation a spot much information without the request to dabble with technicals, usage Hotjar oregon Microsoft Clarity.

Scroll extent study successful Microsoft Clarity.

It’s astir ne'er atrocious if you get precocious numbers connected those metrics. In an perfect world, they bespeak that radical truly bask your content, but successful reality, these metrics are rather nuanced. For example, immoderate types of contented are little apt to get likes connected societal media, and a abbreviated clip connected leafage whitethorn mean that radical recovered what they wanted and near immediately.

Therefore, it whitethorn beryllium champion to usage engagement metrics successful the close context.

• Use likes and comments to comparison content. You tin besides usage it to gauge involvement successful caller types of contented oregon topics.
• Use engagement rate on Twitter alternatively of full engagement: (Likes + retweets + replies) / (total fig of followers)
• Use scroll complaint and clip connected leafage lone for long-form content, i.e., pages meant to support the idiosyncratic a spot longer.

Conversion metrics measurement however efficaciously your contented prompts users to instrumentality a desired action, specified arsenic signing up for a free trial.

Examples:

• Revenue/signups correlation with traffic: the much radical sojourn your site, the much opportunities to person visitors into subscribers oregon paying customers.
• Conversion maturation from the bottommost of the funnel content: conversion tracked lone for visitors that whitethorn beryllium considering buying (comparisons, achromatic papers, lawsuit occurrence stories, etc.).
• First leafage seen to paying customer: if your contented is the archetypal leafage a visitant has seen and past converted into a customer, that means the contented works.
• Content downloads: precocious download rates tin awesome that your assemblage finds your contented valuable.
• Leads: radical who permission interaction accusation successful speech for entree to content. Marketers typically way MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) and SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads): radical who person shown involvement and whitethorn beryllium acceptable to bargain successful the aboriginal and contacts who are apt acceptable to beryllium contacted by the sales team.

Leads, downloads, and adjacent gross vs. postulation correlations are rather casual to way (and prove). Most tools that let you to make a pb seizure signifier volition person built-in analytics, portion esoteric information investigation worldly similar correlation tin beryllium handled by ChatGPT successful a breeze these days.

 Correlation analysis done wholly by ChatGPT.

But if you privation to beryllium that a circumstantial portion of contented generated X fig of income oregon Y magnitude of monthly recurring revenue, that’s going to beryllium tricky. Essentially, you’ll beryllium trying to beryllium the ROI of contented selling — thing everybody wants to know, but cipher tin truly beryllium without utilizing the connection “probably”.

It’s precise apt that the radical who volition work your report, oregon adjacent yourself, mightiness similar to cognize the “return connected investment”, truthful let’s halt present for a little moment.

The occupation with ROI successful contented selling lies wrong imperfect attribution models and non-linear lawsuit journeys. Ryan Law explains it successful his guide to calculating contented ROI:

Did idiosyncratic person due to the fact that of an nonfiction oregon successful spite of it? When they work aggregate articles, which had the biggest impact? If idiosyncratic buys due to the fact that of an advert, should we inactive recognition the blog station they work beforehand?

Customer journeys are besides seldom arsenic straightforward arsenic we’d hope. One idiosyncratic mightiness work 50 articles and ne'er bargain anything; different mightiness work a azygous article, vanish for a year, and instantly buy. What relation did contented play successful those journeys?

That said, the ROI of contented is not a taxable you should avoid. You fundamentally person 2 choices here:

• Try to cipher ROI by utilizing imperfect but tenable methods. Ryan explains 3 of them successful his guide.
• Assume affirmative contented ROI based connected its strategical role. Essentially, ROI is an fantabulous statement for pursuing contented marketing, but it’s not the lone one. Content selling plays a strategical relation due to the fact that it has aggregate benefits that are truly hard to accidental “no” to. Think astir it. If each competitors bash content, tin you spend to beryllium the exception? In what different mode volition you show to the assemblage however the product/service solves their problems? If your brag oregon lawsuit doubts successful the precise thought of content, it’s a bully thought to sermon it and negociate expectations earlier you spell all in.

Finally, decorativeness your study with thing worthy mentioning that goes beyond earthy information oregon beyond the ordinary.

These could be:

• Mentions successful newsletters and different contented roundups.
• Social media praise.
• Feedback connected contented prime from the audience.
• Content mentioned by prospects successful conversations.

For example, I usage Ahrefs each period to find sites featuring my articles. This illustration shows 2 manufacture influencers linking to my caller SEO study.

This is besides a bully accidental to notation operational feedback:

• Roadblocks, similar debased availability of the plan team.
• Projections, for example, aiming to retrieve mislaid integrated postulation by focusing connected updating aged content.
• Opportunities for improvement, specified arsenic aligning contented much intimately with sales goals.

Final thoughts

No study tin beryllium effectual without enactment from stakeholders. Rather than insisting connected a circumstantial study format, amusement a illustration of the report, explicate the worth of it, and inquire for feedback. You’re the expert, but they’re the client, truthful beryllium unfastened to uncovering a mediate ground.

As for reporting frequency, the norm is monthly, quarterly, and annually. Additionally, reports whitethorn beryllium prepared for circumstantial campaigns, which tin alteration successful duration. Again, this is thing worthy discussing with the recipient of the report.

Got questions oregon comments? Let maine cognize connected X oregon LinkedIn.