Content marketing ROI is something every business owner should talk about. Do you know what that is? And most importantly, do you know how to track it? This article explains everything you need to know about content marketing ROI, including how to track your ROI. 

Content is king in Internet marketing these days. It comprises literally everything you can see online, be it in the form of video, blogs, images, emails, social media content, audio, and more. And, content marketing, as a whole, has made a name for itself over the past few years as an effective method of brand promotion and lead generation. 

But there’s a trick there that doesn’t seem to be so easy to understand for all businesses: successful content marketing must be synonymous with good ROI (return-on-investment). In other words, your content marketing strategy is successful only if it’s worth it based on your return on investment. 
 



Content marketing ROI explained
So, what content marketing ROI is, anyway? And why should you track it? 
Well, first, let’s make sure that we’re on the same page about what ROI is. ROI stands for return for investment, and it is a percentage that allows business owners to see how much revenue their business gained from their content marketing strategy to what they invested. In other words, it shows whether or not your investment in content marketing was worth it.

Marketers see ROI as one of the most critical measures of effective and successful content marketing because it is directly tied to the revenue. So, if your revenue greatly exceeds your investment, it is a sign that your strategy was really effective. 

Yet, one thing that all marketers and entrepreneurs need to understand content marketing ROI is that it will not be immediate. It will take months since you start your content marketing campaign before you get some apparent and relevant results.
 
But, here’s the thing, when you measure ROI, you don’t only measure money, especially if your main goal wasn’t to increase your sales. Maybe you wanted to increase brand awareness or to make your customers more loyal. In such a situation, the money figures won’t be that relevant. So, here, you must consider other aspects, such as page views, shares, or visitors. If you get good numbers for such aspects, you’ll likely earn revenue from it anyway. 

6 important metrics to consider when measuring content marketing ROI
So, it is essential to measure your content marketing ROI. In fact, this is one of the ways to boost online ROI for your business. But, what aspects should you consider when measuring it besides revenue? Here are six essential metrics to consider when measuring your content marketing ROI: 

1. Lead quality
Content marketing is key to lead generation. But only great content helps you attract an audience that will eventually generate leads. 

So, to know whether or not your content marketing strategy is effective, you must take a look at the quality of the leads it attracts. Meaning that you’ll see if your content is attracting qualified leads that will later turn into buying customers. How do you measure the lead quality? 

• Consider whether or not the people who reached your content also grabbed your lead magnet, which will show that they might be thinking about doing business with you

• Take a look at whether or not your visitors check out your related resources part of your marketing or sales funnel

• Whether or not your site’s visitors contact your sales team to find the answers to what can be pre-sale questions. 

2. Sales
Money isn’t the only important metric to consider, but it is, after all, the main reason why you even started your business: to earn lots of profit. So, next, you need to take a look at how many of the leads you attract actually turn in sales. Moreover, also take a look at the value of those sales. 

3. Web Traffic
Next, you may want to take a look at your web traffic because, after all, web traffic is the key to marketing success. In other words, if there’s no traffic on your website, you get no revenue. 

Although it sounds really dramatic, it couldn’t be any truer. If no one is looking at your content, no one will buy anything from it. 

So, it would help if you found out how much traffic your content generates. How do you do that? You can use Google Analytics to understand better how much traffic your content marketing strategies are generating. 

4. Onsite engagement
When starting a content marketing campaign, your primary goal is to get your people on your website. Yet, this is by far the only goal your campaign should have. After attracting these people on your website, you must also keep them there, or keep them coming back because that’s the way to generate leads and sales using your content. 

If people reach your content but leave it after a few seconds, there’s a problem with your content. Yet, if your analytics show that your leads spend more time with your content, and eventually take the action you wanted them to take, be it subscribing to your newsletter or checking out more of your content, your content marketing strategy is effective. 

5. Social Media ROI
Tracking your off-site engagement is as important as tracking the onsite one to assess your content marketing ROI. Why? Because if your content is so effective and engages people so much, they’ll likely share it with their peers on social media. 

So, you must also take a look at your social media engagement and referral traffic to see how effective your content really is. 

Remember that today’s customers use their peers’ recommendations for their purchase decisions. So, the more your content is shared, the bigger the chances that you’ll attract more customers.  

6. SEO success
SEO is directly linked to your website traffic. As you succeed to get your website page to rank higher in search engines, the bigger the chances to get more visitors, leads, and, eventually, paying customers.