Creating relevant content is one thing that matters in content marketing, measuring success is another. But which KPIs are central to this? In the following article, we'll show you which content marketing metrics you should be evaluating for your B2B business
Content marketing is one of the most important success factors for B2B companies. But: Just because a company is successful, does not mean that its content marketing is as well.
Because at the end of the day, only the numbers will tell you if your content is successful or not
In doing so, it's important that you focus on the numbers that really matter
So let's take a closer look at 10 content marketing KPIs. Are you ready to measure the performance of your campaigns and make the right decisions for your B2B business? Great, because tracking metrics is the foundation for optimized content marketing - your key to success.
Below are all the metrics we want to look at:
Unique Pageviews (Unique Pageviews)
Location of visitors (Location)
Conversion rate (Conversion Rate)
Source of visitors (Source)
Average time on page (Average Time On Page)
Page views per session (Pages / Session)
New and returning visitors (New vs Returning Visitors)
Bounce rate
Brand mentions (Brand Mentions)
Devices
All of the metrics mentioned have great potential, but many companies focus too much on output goals like a certain number of weekly blog articles instead of focusing on the outcome, which is content engagement. You shouldn't make this mistake, which is why we encourage you to track the KPIs listed here. Let's go!
Unique Pageviews show how many people have visited a website page. This means that repeated views of individual pages by the same person are not counted. The metric is important because it gives you an overview of the reach of your website as a whole, as well as the individual pages
If your pageviews increase steadily over the months, you probably don't need to optimize and you can continue with your existing content marketing efforts. If, on the other hand, your page views continuously decrease, you should take measures to optimize your content. For example, you could focus more on search engine optimization (SEO).
Especially internationally operating B2B companies should attach great importance to the location of their visitors and for this reason the location is also one of the most important content marketing metrics
If you know where your visitors are coming from, you can tailor your content accordingly, prioritizing companies from those countries
However, it is important that you interpret carefully, especially with few page views, in order not to hit the "wrong" target groups in the end. Especially since they could also be competitors who only want to analyze your company.
If you have enough page views, you can find out from which countries the most traffic comes and adjust your content accordingly. Furthermore, it may be a good idea to consider targeted performance marketing measures in these countries.
The conversion rate is a metric that shows you how many of your visitors have taken an intended action. A successful conversion can be, for example, a contact, the subscription to a personnel management software or a cooperation request - it depends on your company and its goals.
The conversion rate is similar to the unique pageviews and if the conversion rate increases over time, your content marketing tactics will achieve the desired success. If, on the other hand, the opposite is the case, you should carry out optimisation measures and test what has an effect on the conversion rate and how. Conversions can usually be improved by making your call-to-actions clearer or by designing your forms differently.
As a company you use several marketing channels to make other companies aware of your services and products. By looking at the visitor source, you can see how many visitors were generated through certain channels. In particular, keep an eye on the conversion rate from visits to contacts.
Once you know which marketing channels generate the most traffic, you can prioritize them and develop strategies tailored to them. This way, you won't waste time on channels that bring little or no traffic anyway.
With the average time on page you can see how long visitors stay on your website on average. However, the Average Time On Page is only of limited use, as visitors who bounce and the time spent on the last page are often not recorded.
Through the average time on page you can find out which content is best received by your visitors and analyze it. Through the knowledge gained, you can then adjust the rest of the content.
Pages / Session shows you how many pages your visitors have viewed during their stay on your website. This doesn't automatically mean that your content marketing is good, because visitors might just have trouble finding the information they are looking for
How you optimize your page views per session depends on the individual situation - sometimes less is more. In any case, you should attach importance to meaningful headlines and internal links.
This metric shows how many new and how many returning visitors your website has. Especially in B2B, the percentage of returning visitors is crucial, as you want to build a loyal customer base. However, this metric is usually falsified by the use of cookie disclaimers, as visitors who do not accept your cookie are always indexed as new visitors.
If the percentage of returning visitors is conspicuously low, you should take action if necessary. However, it also depends on what services and products you offer.
The bounce rate shows you the percentage of visitors who leave your website after a visit. However, the metric must be taken with a grain of salt and put into context, as it also includes visitors who spend minutes reading every single word on your homepage and then don't click on any other page. In general, it can be said that especially visitors from organic traffic often have a higher bounce rate, because they were simply looking for specific information - and hopefully found it on your site.
When the bounce rate is problematic depends a lot on the type of content you have and the industry in question. For blog posts with a high organic traffic share, you can be happy with 80-90%. For the home page of your website, however, the bounce rate should be significantly better.
Brand mentions refer to all brand mentions on other websites, social media channels, etc. They are usually an indicator that your content and your services / products are well received. However, you should pay attention to whether they are mostly positive or negative brand mentions.
Brand mentions in B2B come about primarily when another business was satisfied with your offer. As a result, the best optimization is one that is also based on other metrics. After all, brand mentions don't happen by accident; you have to attract the attention of other companies first.
This KPI is only of limited relevance, as the number of mobile users is now increasing sharply in virtually all areas and, as a result, optimizations should almost always be made.
If the share of mobile users is not infinitesimally small, SEO optimization for mobile devices is practically always a good idea. So check whether your content is also tailored to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Companies always want to achieve overarching goals with their content marketing strategies and content marketing KPIs are also essential for measuring success in the B2B sector
The metrics will help you make necessary optimizations and do better content marketing.
All of the content marketing metrics mentioned here have great potential in this regard, but it's important that you always look at them in context, as each metric has a lot of room for interpretation. You should therefore always consider your KPIs in context, otherwise you might make wrong conclusions. Furthermore, the relevance of metrics also depends on your content marketing strategy
Content marketing metrics are a must if you want to get an overview of the performance of your content marketing strategies. Through them, you'll gain insights that can help you make important content marketing decisions to increase your company's reach, strengthen its image, or achieve other goals.
Content marketing metrics are relevant to companies in all industries - including yours
If you interpret B2B content marketing KPIs correctly, you'll have a much easier time making business-relevant content marketing decisions and moving your company forward. Ready to track?