As a content marketer, you probably have no shortage of ideas. The problem is figuring out which ones are actually worth pursuing—and then getting the budget to support them. Content marketing analytics can help you land on some answers.
Learn why content marketing analytics matter, how to get started, and what analytics platforms and tools to consider.
What is content marketing analytics?
Content marketing analytics is a process where you track your content’s performance data (like views, likes, and time on page), monitor that data for trends, and then turn those trends into actionable insights. While “content marketing success” looks different for every business, the main goal of analytics is to make sure your creative efforts deliver tangible value.
That’s what differentiates content marketing analytics from basic data tracking: It’s not just about measuring content marketing efforts to understand what’s working (or not) right now. It’s about using these valuable insights to evolve and improve your content strategy long-term. The more you learn, the more you can adapt, experiment, and refine your marketing efforts to drive results.
How to use analytics to improve content marketing
Here are a few strategies to turn your insights into strategic impact:
Align metrics with business goals
To ensure your content strategy aligns with your overall business goals, identify content marketing metrics that ladder up and tangibly contribute to those key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, if you just started your business and increasing brand awareness is your primary objective, you’ll want to look at boosting site visits and social media impressions.
Here are common metrics that content marketers report on:
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Website traffic. Analyze how your content marketing campaigns influence paid and organic traffic, which you can track by growth in total visitors, unique visitors, and pageviews.
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Lead generation. Consider how content marketing is used to generate cold or warm leads, such as email addresses from gated guides, that you can further push through your sales pipeline.
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Conversion metrics. Track how content marketing efforts influence desired customer actions, such as clicks, form submissions, sign-ups, or purchases.
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Engagement metrics. Report on data on engagement metrics, such as scroll depth, time on page, bounce rate, and social shares, to understand how visitors interact and respond to content.
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Cost metrics. Measure the impact of paid content marketing campaigns by tracking how much money is spent to achieve your marketing goals, such as cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per lead (CPL), or cost per click (CPC).
Segment your audiences
Customer segmentation involves separating your target audience into distinct groups. Segmentation allows you to tailor content creation for each segment—making your content more impactful for each audience—while also gathering more specific data to fine-tune your content strategy in the future. The four main types of segmentation are demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral.
Conduct A/B testing
A/B testing involves measuring how the style, content format, and/or length of content impacts performance data to figure out what works best for your company. This strategy allows you to send a few different variations to your target audience, so you can measure the winner based on key metrics, such as conversion or engagement metrics, depending on the purpose of your content marketing campaigns. Then, you can use this information to inform future campaigns.
Measure ROI
A strong content marketing strategy requires people, time, and resources. Content marketing analytics can help you demonstrate your content marketing ROI, or return on investment. By connecting your content to key business outcomes like website traffic, the sales pipeline, or revenue, you can show existing impact and find ways to make your content marketing efforts even more impactful to the bottom line.
6 content marketing analytics tools
There are a variety of tools to track content marketing performance across platforms and audiences. Here are six popular tools to consider depending on your content strategy, distribution channels, and goals:
1. Semrush
Originally a tool for managing and improving search engine optimization (SEO), Semrush has expanded into a comprehensive platform for growing your brand’s online visibility through strategic keyword rankings, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, content creation, social media marketing, and more. Its integrated AI-powered tools can help you create engaging content for various platforms—from blog posts to social media posts—while its in-depth competitive analysis allows you to measure content marketing effectiveness compared to other businesses in your industry.
Pricing: SEO plans start at $139.95 per month, with social media plans starting at $20 per month. You can get a discount by paying annually, and Semrush also offers a seven-day free trial.
2. Buffer
Buffer is designed for content marketers focused primarily on social media marketing. The product supports your content marketing efforts on social platforms, like TikTok and Facebook, from start to finish. You can create posts, collaborate with colleagues or clients, plan calendars, schedule content, engage with existing and potential customers, and track social media engagement. Buffer also helps connect your target audience to your work outside of social media platforms. With its Start Page feature, you can build and design a custom link-in-bio page for showcasing relevant products, links, events, and more.
Pricing: Buffer offers flexible pricing with three main options: free, $5 per month, or $10 per month.
3. Shopify Email
If your business runs on Shopify, you have access to several built-in content marketing analytics tools, including Shopify Email. If your content marketing strategy relies heavily on email newsletters, this tool can help you create, track, and analyze email campaigns. It incorporates performance data at each stage of the content marketing process—from built-in copy advice based on top-performing subject lines to actionable reports on open rates and sales after sends—so you can improve content marketing performance with each campaign.
Pricing: Included in Shopify plans, with the ability to send up to 10,000 emails for free each month. After that, you only pay for what you use: $1 per 1,000 emails sent (or 0.1¢ per additional email).
4. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a tool for understanding your own website or app’s performance and user behavior. The intuitive interface makes this tool approachable for both beginner and veteran content marketers. As a tool that seamlessly integrates with other Google business tools, it provides valuable insights into how content marketing campaigns relate to other key metrics for your business. With first-party data, you can learn what types of user engagement deliver content marketing ROI (e.g., a higher scroll depth on a page drives more lead generation for your sales pipeline) and improve your content strategy accordingly.
Pricing: Google Analytics offers both free and paid plans. The free plan meets the needs of most small to medium businesses, and the custom paid plans are primarily for enterprise-level companies.
5. Similarweb
Similarweb provides a peek behind the digital curtain with valuable insights on market trends, competitor performance, and target audience behavior. While a tool like Google Analytics gives you insight into your website, Similarweb provides insights into websites across your market. This tool allows you to see how your business’s most important metrics—such as web traffic or keyword rankings—compare to your competitors, so you know which KPIs to use as proof of your content marketing strategy’s success.
Pricing: Similarweb’s Starter plan is $125 per month with a free seven-day trial. They also offer a Professional plan for $333 per month, or custom plans for additional costs.
6. Reporting Ninja
Reporting Ninja consolidates content marketing metrics from multiple analytics tools in one place. If you spend hours combing through various tools and apps to track performance or build reports, Reporting Ninja can save you time by pulling all of your key metrics into custom dashboards. It also offers a white-label client portal, allowing you to create reports for customers with your branding, logo, and colors (giving the impression of a proprietary tool). This tool integrates with all major content marketing platforms.
Pricing: Reporting Ninja’s plans start at $20 per month, and it also offers a free 15-day trial period.
Content marketing analytics FAQ
What is content marketing analytics?
Content marketing analytics is more than tracking performance data: it’s about turning that data into actionable insights and impact. By connecting your content to key metrics for the business—like website traffic, the sales pipeline, or revenue—you can demonstrate return on investment and find ways to make your content marketing efforts even more impactful to the bottom line.
What is the 70-20-10 rule in content marketing?
The 70-20-10 rule for content marketing recommends dedicating 70% of your effort to tried-and-true content types that have proven to work for your brand, 20% to collaborative content partnerships, and 10% to experimental pieces that carry more risk.
Which tool is used for content marketing analytics?
There are a variety of tools you can use to track content marketing performance across platforms and audiences, depending on your content strategy, channels, and goals. Some tools are built for specific content platforms, such as Buffer for social media platforms or Shopify Email for email content marketing, while others can integrate across platforms and channels, such as Semrush and Reporting Ninja.
