Calculating Content Marketing ROI is never an easy or clear undertaking. And, while there are several publications on the internet emphasising the significance of content marketing, very few of them provide any concrete guidance on how to achieve it.

So, what are the most crucial things to think about when calculating the ROI of your content marketing strategy?

What is your definition of content marketing?

To begin, what exactly is content marketing? Because this is frequently contested, it may be easier to limit it to any on-site material for the purposes of this article. That is, material on your website that exists only for the aim of attracting, educating, and converting your audience.

Why is it critical to assess the efficacy of your content marketing ROI strategy?

Any spending, including content marketing, should be justified.

Measuring the return on your content marketing expenditure is important whether you report to the head of marketing, the CFO, or just your own company. Because only by doing so will you be able to determine how to build your firm most successfully.

Why is content production not considering a marketing expense?

When it comes to content development, there is a significant difference between spending and investment.

“For example, if you pay $5,000 in a given month on Google AdWords, the only thing you are purchasing are the consequent clicks of your advertisements displaying against the crucial words people search on to locate your business. However, once you stop paying, your clicks stop as well. This is a textbook example of a marketing cost.

However, if you pay $5,000 in a given month to employ a freelance writer to produce a series of intriguing blog entries linked to key terms people use to locate your business, you will have assets that will attract visitors to your content from search engines for years to come. The material will be valuable long after it has been paid for.”

How to Calculate the Return on Investment in Content Marketing

Now that we’ve established that any effort in meaningful content marketing is an investment rather than a cost, how can we truly measure its impact?

“There are two significant hazards when it comes to deciding how your firm will define and assess the ROI of your content marketing,” warns marketer Michael Brenner.

• One, getting buried in the data by focusing on too many key performance indicators, making it difficult to see the impact of your content
• two, focusing on the wrong KPIs to calculate ROI for your organisation.

“Performance measurements will expose what you need to know, as long as you apply them to your company goals,” he continues. That implies you won’t be focusing on the same KPIs all the time. The figures you employ will alter as your business goals and, as a result, your content marketing priorities change.

Other elements to consider while assessing content effectiveness

Enhanced customer involvement

To all intents and purposes, your website traffic and Twitter followers are vanity metrics. Because they provide very nothing about who these people are and, more crucially, what action they take as a result of your material. Consider measuring conversions such as email subscriptions, email engagement rate, time on site, and event registrations – all of which may be considered useful indicators.

Increased visibility in search engine results pages

Improved organic placement on search engine results pages (SERPs) may be compared against the expense of such traffic via Google AdWords.

Inbound hyperlinks

Consider the importance of incoming links, preferably from sites with a greater domain authority than yours.

Lead generation has improved

Leads generated by involvement with your content may be quite significant in terms of creating new business.

Conclusions

Calculating Content Marketing ROI is never an easy or clear undertaking. To begin, what exactly is content marketing? Because this is frequently contested, it may be easier to limit it to any on-site material for the purposes of this article. That is, material on your website that exists only for the aim of attracting, educating, and converting your audience. Measuring the return on your content marketing expenditure is important whether you report to the head of marketing, the CFO, or just your own company. Because only by doing so will you be able to determine how to build your firm most successfully. “For example, if you pay $5,000 in a given month on Google AdWords, the only thing you are purchasing are the consequent clicks of your advertisements displaying against the crucial words people search on to locate your business. However, once you stop paying, your clicks stop as well. However, if you pay $5,000 in a given month to employ a freelance writer to produce a series of intriguing blog entries linked to key terms people use to locate your business, you will have assets that will attract visitors to your content from search engines for years to come.