How to Calculate Content Marketing ROI

Despite a huge surge in

adoption of content marketing,

measuring the business impact

of content is complicated.

HOW DO I CALCULATE CONTENT MARKETING ROI?

Is the most common question we hear

from marketers struggling to build their

own business case internally.

“

”

Many are plagued by their inability to measure

the effectiveness of their content initiatives...

but they’re measuring too narrowly...

and vanity metrics such as “likes” and “views”

aren’t enough on their own merit.

Marketers need to be able to measure

things that have a quantifiable value that

they can take to the bank.

In this guide, we’ll map out how to

calculate the impact of content across the business

and the recommended metrics to benchmark your

content initiatives.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BUILD THE BUSINESS CASE

FIND THE BUDGET

MEASURE THE BUSINESS CASE

BRAND AWARENESS

BRAND HEALTH

CONVERSIONS YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE REACHED

PART 1 BUILD THE BUSINESS CASE

All marketing spend should be tied to

quantifiable results the sales team and

executives can understand.

Knowing the costs and

ROI of other marketing

departments will also

help benchmark your content

marketing program and see

how to stack up

in comparison.

If you’re not sure what metrics to ask for, here are some to get you started:

Conversion rate

Average deal size

Marketing-generated pipeline

Marketing-generated opportunities

Marketing-generated deals

Marketing-generated revenue

Average cost per lead

Customer acquisition cost

Marketing % of customer acquisition cost

Time to payback customer acquisition cost

Cost per registration (content or events)

Cost per sale

PART 2 FIND THE BUDGET

Sometimes it can be difficult for companies

to carve out sufficient budget to fund new content

marketing programs.

But we can find this budget if

we look in the right places.

But we can find this budget if

we look in the right places.

(which is probably not here)

First, we need to have a solid understanding

of your organization’s current content costs

and utilization.

Every organization creates content, so start with calculating those content costs.

STEP 1

CONDUCT AN AUDIT FOR A SAMPLE OF THE

CONTENT YOUR ORGANIZATION PRODUCES

CONDUCT AN AUDIT FOR A SAMPLE OF THE

CONTENT YOUR ORGANIZATION PRODUCES

STEP 1

APPLY THE AVERAGE COSTS IN ORDER TO GAIN

A SENSE FOR THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM

STEP 2

Next, we need to understand how much of your content actually gets used.

60-70% OF CONTENT GOES

COMPLETELY UNUSED

ON AVERAGE,

REMEMBER, CONTENT

THAT GETS CREATED,

BUT NEVER USED IS

WASTE.

100%

(That’s a lot of waste)

How much your organization is

wasting on unused content

Amount that gets used

Current content production costs

A planned content marketing strategy would provide a platform to share, reuse and repurpose that unused content in order to grow brand awareness, improve

brand health and drive conversions.

Next, we need to look at opportunity costs

from under-performing digital assets

We know customers are

tuning out advertising…

The average click-through rate of display ads is 0.1%. (DoubleClick) .1%

8% Only 8% of internet users account for 85% of clicks on display ads (and some aren’t even humans!) (comScore)

50% About 50% of clicks on mobile ads are accidental (GoldSpot)

In fact, you’re more likely to be struck by

lightening than click a banner ad.

Source: Business Insider, 2011

Asking for a small percentage of a larger advertising budget for short-lived campaigns is a good place to

start looking for budget donations.

Finally, approach budgeted teams with a partnership opportunity.

There was a team at SAP that had an enormous budget for advertising campaign landing pages. Those pages typically

saw a 99.9% bounce rate, and any traffic that went there was paid. I asked for a small percentage of that budget with the promise of driving organic traffic to the site. It was a win-

win for the both of us.

”

“

-  Michael Brenner – Head of Strategy, NewsCred

Former VP of Content and Marketing Strategy, SAP

PART 3 MEASURE THE BUSINESS CASE

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

PART 3 WE CAN DO THIS A FEW DIFFERENT WAYS


MEASURE THE BUSINESS CASE


BRAND AWARENESS

BUSINESS CASE

1

In other words, how many of your

early-stage prospects are finding their way

to your company website?


Search traffic your site receives from

paid search advertisements versus traffic

due to a high organic search ranking.


WHAT TO MEASURE PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

UNBRANDED ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

ORGANIC SEARCH SHARE OF VOICE


keywords that never mention your brand

name or products.

The percentage of online conversations

in your space that include your brand.



name or products.











HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF:

PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

Content marketing allows you to gain

additional reach, engagement and conversion

without having to pay for it.





You can literally earn your audience’s

attention vs. buying it.


Organic search traffic can be

calculated easily via Google Analytics.


1  Go to Acquisition

2  Campaigns

3  Organic Keywords

You will then see the keywords

people have used to find your

website and the number of visits

and percentage of overall visits you

have received from each keyword.







In this example, the site has received

359,953 visits from organic search

traffic, totaling 25% of overall traffic.


Next we want to see how much paid traffic we’re receiving, which we can also find in Google Analytics’

‘Paid Keywords.’

In this example, let’s say we spend

$100,000 on paid search traffic for 1,078,779 visits.


Based on those numbers and percentages, we can calculate the value of that organic traffic.

In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic.

1,078,779 359,593

$100,000 X

CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X”




1,078,779 359,593

$100,000 X



ALGEBRA DOES COME IN HANDY!



1,078,779 359,593

$100,000 X




PAID ORGANIC

TRAFFIC PERCENTAGE 75% 25%

TOTAL TRAFFIC 1,078,779 359,593

COST/VALUE $100,000 $33,333

ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC IS WORTH $33,333

Any visitor that searches your brand name

already knows where they want to go.


X

Unbranded organic search traffic is important

to calculate because we want to know about

the people who didn’t know where they would

end up.


?

They had a question or need, asked a search

engine for direction, and that interaction

brought them to you.


X X X

“

The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that

must be answered.

- IDC -

”


To calculate unbranded organic search, we need to exclude your brand or products’

name from the search.



name from the search. To do this, create an “Advanced Filter” that will exclude those branded keywords.



name from the search. To do this, create an “Advanced Filter” that will exclude those branded keywords. In this example, our brand and products contain the word “Raspberry.”


Let’s say the results showed that now with

excluding branded keywords, your site’s organic

search traffic accounts for 269,694 visits,

or about 19% of total organic traffic.


Let’s say the results showed that now with excluding branded keywords, your site’s organic search

traffic accounts for 269,694 visits, or about 19% of total organic traffic.

We go back to our table to calculate the value of this traffic.

1,078,779 269,692

$100,000 X



Let’s say the results showed that now with excluding branded keywords, your site’s organic search

traffic accounts for 269,694 visits, or about 19% of total organic traffic.

We go back to our table to calculate the value of this traffic.

1,078,779 269,692

$100,000 X



PAID ORGANIC


TOTAL TRAFFIC 1,078,779 269,692

COST/VALUE $100,000 $24,100

ORGANIC UNBRANDED SEARCH TRAFFIC IS WORTH $24,100


HOW TO CALCUALTE THE VALUE OF:


This essentially measures how much your brand or product is talked about compared to your competitors.


COMPETITOR 2

COMPETITOR 3

COMPETITOR 1

This essentially measures how much your brand or product is talked about compared to your competitors.


COMPETITOR 2

COMPETITOR 3

COMPETITOR 1

YOU

First you want to choose a group of words

based around your brand’s product or service.


When choosing your words, be sure to stay within a common theme. In this example, we’ll use a dance brand.

Source: Moz, How to Calculate Share of Voice for Organic Search


Keywords:

•  Dance Shoes

•  Dancing Shoes

•  Cheap Dance Shoes

•  Affordable Dance Shoes

•  Ballet Shoes

In general, it’s better for your

SEO strategy to focus on a specific topic.


Think narrow and deep,

instead of broad and shallow.


Next, choose your competition.

Who do you want to compare yourself against?


Be sure to know what URLs you’re

wanting to track of your competitors.

Some may use off-branded URLs for

their content marketing efforts.

For example, ConAgra’s content

marketing is done on an off-brand

site, Forkful.

The site provides time-saving kitchen

tips and advice for cooking with kids.


Now record the rankings for each keyword you selected for yourself and your competitors.

If you do rank, record in what position.

(Note: You can rank more than once)

KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3

DANCE SHOES 1 2 3

DANCING SHOES 2 3 4

CHEAP DANCE SHOES 2

AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5

BALLET SHOES


Now record the rankings for each keyword you selected for yourself and your competitors.

If you do rank, record in what position.

(Note: You can rank more than once)


DANCE SHOES 1 2 3

DANCING SHOES 2 3 4

CHEAP DANCE SHOES 2


BALLET SHOES

When doing this, keep in mind there is no point in looking at more than the top 10…


…because only 2% of users travel to

the 2nd page of Google.

Source: Eyetools Inc.


2014 GOOGLE CLICK THROUGH RATES

POSITION CTR

1 31.24

2 14.04

3 9.85

4 6.97

5 5.5

6 3.73

7 0

8 0

9 0

10 0

Source: Moz, Google Organic Click-Through Rates in 2014.

Now that you have your rankings, calculate your share of voice for each keyword using the chart to

the left.


DANCE SHOES 1 2 3

DANCING SHOES 2 3 4

CHEAP DANCE SHOES 2


BALLET SHOES


2014 GOOGLE CLICK THROUGH RATES

POSITION CTR

1 31.24

2 14.04

3 9.85

4 6.97

5 5.5

6 3.73

7 0

8 0

9 0

10 0

Source: Moz, Google Organic Click-Through Rates in 2014.

Now that you have your rankings, calculate your share of voice for each keyword using the chart to

the left.


DANCE SHOES 31.24 14.04 9.85

DANCING SHOES 14.04 9.85 6.97

CHEAP DANCE SHOES 14.04

AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5.5

BALLET SHOES


If your rank more than once, simply add the click through rates

to find that keyword’s total share of voice.

KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 SOV

DANCE SHOES 31.24 14.04 9.85 55.13%

DANCING SHOES 14.04 9.85 6.97 30.86

CHEAP DANCE SHOES 14.04 14.04%

AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5.5 5.5%

BALLET SHOES

55.13 + 30.86 + 14.04 + 5.5 + 0 / 5 = 26.38


To find your overall share of voice, average the share of voice for all your keywords.

KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 SOV

DANCE SHOES 31.24 14.04 9.85 55.13%

DANCING SHOES 14.04 9.85 6.97 30.86

CHEAP DANCE SHOES 14.04 14.04%

AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5.5 5.5%

BALLET SHOES

TOTAL SHARE OF VOICE 26.38%

55.13 + 30.86 + 14.04 + 5.5 + 0 / 5 = 26.38


If there’s a gap between your market share

and your share of voice, that means your competition

is wooing your prospects before you!


If you don’t want to go through the manual trouble, there are a few

tools that will help you calculate this:

QUICK SPROUT: Allows you to enter up to 3 competitor sites and get a

ranking on key scores for each

SEMRUSH: Offers free search analysis for your site and your competitors



BRAND HEALTH

BUSINESS CASE

2

If you’re like most

brands, you probably

promote yourself too much.


(and we tune you out)


David Beebe Vice President of Global Creative + Content Marketing, Marriott International

Content marketing is like a first date.

If all you do is talk about yourself, there

won’t be a second date.

”

“ BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS


LET PEOPLE GET TO… 1  KNOW YOUR BRAND



2  LIKE YOUR BRAND


2  LIKE YOUR BRAND

3  TRUST YOUR BRAND ENOUGH TO BUY FROM YOU


Brand health measures how your

digital audience feels about you.


The percentage of

visitors who enter your

site and then leave,

rather than continuing

to view other pages.


WHAT TO MEASURE : ENGAGEMENT

TIME ON SITE BOUNCE RATE

The amount of time visitors

spend on your site.

REPEAT VISITORS SOCIAL LIKES SUBSCRIPTIONS

The number of times

someone engages with

your brand.

Which content is resonating

most with your audience.

People giving your

brand exclusive access

to their inbox, opening

the opportunity for you

to market to them.

The percentage of

visitors who enter your

site and then leave,

rather than continuing

to view other pages.

WHAT TO MEASURE : ENGAGEMENT

TIME ON SITE BOUNCE RATE

The amount of time visitors

spend on your site.

REPEAT VISITORS SOCIAL LIKES SUBSCRIPTIONS

The number of times

someone engages with

your brand.

Which content is resonating

most with your audience.

People giving your

brand exclusive access

to their inbox, opening

the opportunity for you

to market to them.


What “they” say about you.

WHAT TO MEASURE : AUDIENCE GROWTH


SOCIAL SHARES/ FOLLOWERS

SHARE OF VOICE/ OFFSITE SEO

Users who have subscribed to updates

on your brand’s social accounts.







TIME ON SITE

NOT ALL TIME ON SITE IS EQUAL. TI

ME

ON

SIT

E

PAGE VIEWS


A HIGH TIME ON SITE,

LOW NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS

B HIGH TIME ON SITE,

HIGH NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS

C LOW TIME ON SITE,


D LOW TIME ON SITE,


A. HIGH TIME ON SITE, LOW NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

THE GOOD THE BAD

GOOD INDICATOR FOR POOR INDICATOR FOR

May indicate a reading behavior pattern Lower number of page impressions may be negative for advertising related websites

Source: Panalysis, How to Interpret Time on Site, 2015

Sites that require a lot of time to read and understand the contents of the site.

(ie: A professional services company)

Sites that sell advertising


ME

ON

SIT

E

PAGE VIEWS






C LOW TIME ON SITE,


D LOW TIME ON SITE,


B. HIGH TIME ON SITE, HIGH NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

THE GOOD THE BAD


May indicate high level of interest and involvement with your site

Could indicate user frustration difficulties navigating your site to find what they’re

looking for


Where a high level of involvement is a key performance indicator (ie: advertising based sites

selling banners based on page impressions)

Where a site is for supporting visitors who should be able to readily access information or perform a

task in a short period of time. (ie: Government and

self service websites such as online banking)


ME

ON

SIT

E

PAGE VIEWS






C LOW TIME ON SITE,


D LOW TIME ON SITE,


C. LOW TIME ON SITE, LOW NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

THE GOOD THE BAD


For sites that only provide a simple response or quick answers

Generally implies disinterest in the site


Sites where visitors are seeking answers (ie: directories)

In this case, repeat visitor behavior is a

crucial contributing factor.

Most websites


ME

ON

SIT

E

PAGE VIEWS






C LOW TIME ON SITE,


D LOW TIME ON SITE,


D. LOW TIME ON SITE, HIGH NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

THE GOOD THE BAD


May indicate success for sites that require visitors to complete tasks quickly

Could indicate that visitors are lost in the site


Sites that require high involvement in short bursts (ie: banking sites, online applications)

Complex websites, such as government agencies

When determining your time on site goals,

it’s important to keep in mind why someone

is going to your site.




REPEAT VISITORS

96% of people visiting your site

aren’t actually ready to purchase from you.

Source: Social Media Today, 2014


So you need to think of other ways to bring

prospects back to your site so that when they are

ready to purchase, they choose you.


Source: Inc, 2 Web Metrics You Should be Watching All the Time, 2014

If your ultimate goal is to sell a product or

service, you're much more likely to sell to visitors

who come back time after time.



Repeat Visitor Ratio (RVR) measures the percentage of visitors who return

to your site after an initial visit during some specific time period.

Let’s say you got 4,000 visitors this month and 800 were repeat visitors.

800/4,000 = 20%



RVR is great way to determine whether you are successfully engaging your

site visitors.

New visitors are fine, but repeat visitors are great since once you "have" a

new reader you don't have to spend time and money attracting that

reader--your content is sufficient. So the higher your RVR the better your

website must be at engaging the average new visitor.


To put a monetary value on RVR, we need to

look at the average amount you’re spending

in advertising to drive net new traffic.


For our example, let’s say you’re spending $5,000 per month on advertising to drive

new visitors.



new visitors. If 80%, or 3,200 visitors are net new, you’re spending an average of $1.56 per visitor. $5,000 / 3,200 = $1.56



new visitors. If 80%, or 3,200 visitors are net new, you’re spending an average of $1.56 per visitor. $5,000 / 3,200 = $1.56 Taking that finding, we can then calculate the value of our 800 repeat visitors.



new visitors. If 80%, or 3,200 visitors are net new, you’re spending an average of $1.56 per visitor. $5,000 / 3,200 = $1.56 Taking that finding, we can then calculate the value of our 800 repeat visitors. 800 * $1.56 = $1,250 Therefore, our repeat visitors are valued at $1,250 per month.


How do you improve your RVR?


1.  Better target your marketing 2.  Provide great content 3.  Ensure site navigation is streamlined and intuitive 4.  Constantly create new content to keep the site fresh and relevant.



How do you improve your RVR?

Don’t forget that while you want to increase the

percentage of repeat visitors, you also want to

increase the total number of visitors…


Don’t forget that while you want to increase the

percentage of repeat visitors, you also want to

increase the total number of visitors…

Otherwise you’ll be preaching to the same choir.




SOCIAL LIKES

Social “likes” are a light indicator

for whether or not your audience is

resonating with your content.


While many have tried, it is difficult to assess

real value in a like. However, it is important to track

social shares over time to ensure your content is

reaching baseline or increasing

level of engagement.




SUBSCRIPTIONS

Source: AMEX Open Forum, What’s Your Email List Worth (In Actual Dollars)?, 2013

Your email list is an asset,

and should be valued as such.


Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014


FIRST THING’S FIRST:



POSITIVE RETURN

DIMINISHING POSTIIVE RETURN

MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE

COST

FIRST THING’S FIRST: You must know your maximum allowable

cost threshold for getting a new subscriber,

otherwise, you’re spending in the dark.

NEGATIVE RETURNS!


FIRST THING’S FIRST: You must know your maximum allowable

cost threshold for getting a new subscriber,

otherwise, you’re spending in the dark.

or, worse yet, to the point of negative returns.


POSITIVE RETURN

DIMINISHING POSTIIVE RETURN

MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE

COST

Knowing your cost to obtain a new list member is the only way to determine how much you can actually afford to invest in growing your list sign-up…



Knowing your cost to obtain a new list member is the only way to determine how much you can actually afford to invest in growing your list sign-up…

And what your maximum allowable cost to obtain a new subscriber should be.



As a rule of thumb, your list sign-up cost per acquisition (CPA) should be well under your average sale amount from a new

customer and within range of what you pay to obtain other valuable actions, such as webinar sign-ups, free content

downloads or even direct sales.




METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA)

FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30

TWITTER 400 $1.00

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00

WEBINAR 100 $0.10

First, calculate what it actually costs you to get a new subscriber from each

list-building method.



Now we need to determine your maximum allowable CPA for acquiring a new list

member, and continue to invest in the methods that fall at or below your CPA.

First, calculate what it actually costs you to get a new subscriber from each

list-building method.




TWITTER 400 $1.00


WEBINAR 100 $0.10


Let’s say you’ve tested a few tactics and

decided that your maximum allowable CPA for a new email address is $1.50.

MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE

COST

$1.50




TWITTER 400 $1.00


WEBINAR 100 $0.10

Moving forward, you’ll want to continue pursuing all methods

costing $1.50 or less.


METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS)

COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA)

UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR)

AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV)

FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100

TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150

WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200

Over time, we need to also measure the quality of the subscribers on your list

by monitoring things like average sale value and unsubscribe rate.






FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100

TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150

WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200

When you analyze the data, you’ll easily be able to spot the methods that produce the

best quality and quantity of subscribers within your allowable CPA.






FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100

TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150

WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200

When you analyze the data, you’ll easily be able to spot the methods that produce the

best quality and quantity of subscribers within your allowable CPA. The higher the quality of subscribers you attract, the more likely they are to convert to becoming not only customers but also your best customers-resulting in more

revenue from which to raise your CPA.






FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100

TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150

WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200

To calculate the value per subscriber, we need find the difference between the sale value and cost per acquisition for the subscribers. To do this, we use the formula below: VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER = ( QOS * ASV * ( 1 – UR ) – QOS * CPA ) / QOS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS

(QOS)

COST PER ACQUISITION

(CPA)


AVERAGE SALE VALUE

(ASV)

TOTAL VALUE

(TV)

VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER

(VPS)

FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 $13,540 $67.70

TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 $37,600 $94

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 $37,650 $125.50

WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 $18,990 $189.90

We’ll use Facebook Ads as an example: VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER = ( QOS * ASV * ( 1 – UR ) – QOS * CPA ) / QOS VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER = ( 200 * 100 * ( 1 – 0.30 ) – 200 * 2.30 ) / 200 Therefore, the value of each Facebook subscription is $67.70



(QOS)


(CPA)


AVERAGE SALE VALUE

(ASV)

TOTAL VALUE

(TV)


(VPS)

FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 $13,540 $67.70

TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 $37,600 $94

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 $37,650 $125.50

WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 $18,990 $189.90

Based on these calculations, we can see that paid search and webinar methods

return the most value per subscriber.


Based on these calculations, we can see that paid search and webinar methods

return the most value per subscriber.

However, since paid search’s CPA is more expensive than our maximum allowance of

$1.50, we should defer to webinar and Twitter tactics.


(QOS)


(CPA)


AVERAGE SALE VALUE

(ASV)

TOTAL VALUE

(TV)


(VPS)

FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 $13,540 $67.70

TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 $37,600 $94

PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 $37,650 $125.50

WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 $18,990 $189.90



BOUNCE RATE

Your site’s bounce rate is a metric that

indicates the percentage of people who land on

one of your web pages and then leave without

clicking anywhere else on your site.


Source: Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014


A high bounce rate is a reason for concern since it indicates that your website visitors

aren’t looking for more content on your site, clicking on calls-to-action, or converting

into contacts.

A high bounce rate is a reason for concern since it indicates that your website visitors

aren’t looking for more content on your site, clicking on calls-to-action, or converting

into contacts. Since attracting and converting visitors into qualified leads is the main objective for

content marketing, this is an important metric to measure and improve.



How should your site stack up? Here are some good bounce rate benchmarks:



CONTENT WEBSITES

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 %

LEAD GENERATION

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 %

BLOGS

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 %

RETAIL SITES

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 %

SERVICE SITES

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 %

LANDING PAGES

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 %

40% - 60%

30% - 50%

20% - 40%

10% - 30%

70% - 90%

70% - 98%

Why do visitors bounce? Two reasons:

1  They didn’t find what they were looking for 2  The page wasn’t user-friendly



So what can you do to

improve your site’s bounce rate?


Attract the right visitors

•  Choose the right keywords to match your content

-- not just to attract the most number of visitors

•  Maintain top rankings for branded terms

•  Write attractive, useful meta descriptions for search

engine users


ATTRACT THE RIGHT VISITORS

Choose the right keywords to match your content, not just attract any visitors

Create multiple landing pages with unique content and

keywords for different types of visitors

Write attractive, useful meta-descriptions for search engine users

Maintain top rankings for branded terms.

Improve targeting of online advertising campaigns.

Source: Small biz trends, 2014 + Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014


Enhance usability

•  Make your text readable through sensible organization

and the use of larger fonts, bulleted lists, white space,

good color contrast, and large headlines

•  Use well-organized, responsive layouts that allow for

quick and easy navigation on all platforms and browsers

ENHANCE USABILITY

1 6

3 4

2 5

GOOD COLOR CONTRAST

LARGE HEADLINES

SENSIBLE ORGANIZATION

BULLETED LISTS

LARGER FONTS WHITE SPACE MAKE TEXT READABLE




Use a good layout

•  Quick navigation

•  Easy to find search

•  Content in sections

•  Responsive layout for multiple platforms and browsers

USE GOOD LAYOUT

Responsive layout for multiple platforms and browsers 17.4% of views from mobile devices

EASY TO FIND SEARCH

QUICK NAVIGATION

CONTENT IN SECTIONS


Speed up page load

•  Use little or no self-loading multimedia content.

•  Set external links to open in new browser windows/tabs.

•  Don’t let ads distract from your content: Place static ads to

sides, and avoid pop-ups and self-loading multimedia ads

SPEED UP PAGELOAD

USE LITTLE OR NO SELF-LOADING MULTIMEDIA CONTENT.

SET EXTERNAL LINKS TO

OPEN IN NEW WINDOWS

DON’T LET ADS DISTRACT

Place static ads to sides

Avoid pop-ups

Avoid self-loading multimedia ads



Provide good content

•  Have an obvious main message

•  Use clear headers and subheads

•  Tailor content to intended visitors

•  Use stylish copy and images

•  Make your content error-free

•  Include a clear call-to-action and obvious links to next steps

PROVIDE GOOD CONTENT

1 Obvious main message

2 Clear heads and

subheads

6 Clear call to action

3 Tailored to

intended visitors

4 Stylish copy and

images

5 Few errors

7 Obvious links to next steps





You can literally earn your audience’s

attention vs. buying it.


Organic search traffic can be

calculated easily via Google Analytics.

1  Go to Acquisition

2  Campaigns

3  Organic Keywords







In this example, the site has received

359,953 visits from organic search

traffic, totaling 25% of overall traffic.


Next we want to see how much paid traffic we’re receiving, which we can also find in Google Analytics’

‘Paid Keywords.’

In this example, let’s say we spend

$100,000 on paid search traffic for 1,078,779 visits.




1,078,779 359,593

$100,000 X





1,078,779 359,593

$100,000 X



PAID ORGANIC


TOTAL TRAFFIC 1,078,779 359,593

COST/VALUE $100,000 $33,333

ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC IS WORTH $33,333




SOCIAL SHARES + FOLLOWERS

While social shares can be seen as an

engagement metric, but should be quantified

as a free source of distribution and reach.


Let’s say you spend $1,000 on paid social distribution

and reached 5,000 viewers.





For this campaign, each view was worth $0.20 ($1,000/5000).





Now let’s say a social post was shared organically

by your followers and reached 500 viewers.




Now let’s say a social post was shared organically

by your followers and reached 500 viewers.

Based on the value of each view from our paid distribution,

we can also value our 500 organic views at $0.20 each, or $100 total.


Brands should also track if their social follower growth positively correlates with their total

number of shares.

If it does, this would indicate that your organic social shares are reaching the right audience

for your brand.




SHARE OF VOICE/OFFSITE SEO

Google has stated that it uses more than

200 factors to rank a web page, but which are

the most important?

Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Off-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traffic to Your Site,


There is one thing virtually all SEO experts agree

upon: The number and quality of links coming into

your site is near the top of the list.



So how can you measure your off-site SEO?




•  Measure your inbound links and their value. An easy way to do this is by plugging your site URL into Open Site Explorer. (https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/)





•  With this tool, you can see all inbound links, see your top-linked pages, sort by linking domains, see the anchor text other sites use to link to you.





•  With this tool, you can see all inbound links, see your top-linked pages, sort by linking domains, see the anchor text other sites use to link to you.

•  Do the same with your competitors’ sites and compare





What to do with this data?




•  Scan your highest-authority inbound links for opportunity to get other similar links





•  Scan your competitors’ highest-authority inbound links. Can you get those links too, or do they provide ideas for getting similar links?






•  Inbound links from non-profit (.org) and education (.edu) sites are especially powerful






•  Inbound links from non-profit (.org) and education (.edu) sites are especially powerful

•  Build your inbound links gradually. Google algorithms will notice, and may penalize a quick accumulation of links


CONVERSIONS YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE REACHED

BUSINESS CASE

3

These are prospects who became customers

because of either helpful, useful and/or

entertaining content you provided them.



Percentage of people who take

a desired action.

WHAT TO MEASURE :

COST PER LEAD PERCENTAGE OF LEADS

SOURCED CONVERSIONS

Amount your brand spends

to acquire a lead.

Percentage of leads sourced by content

compared to other marketing programs.


Percentage of people who take

a desired action.

WHAT TO MEASURE :

COST PER LEAD PERCENTAGE OF LEADS

SOURCED CONVERSIONS

Amount your brand pays in

advertising to acquire a lead.

Percentage of leads sourced by content

compared to other marketing programs.



COST PER LEAD

Calculating content marketing’s cost

per lead is crucial in order to benchmark your

program’s effectiveness against

other marketing programs.


Determining this is quite simple. To begin,

we need to know the costs accrued to create

and distribute the content.


CONTENT ACTIVITY COST

ROI Guide Creation $3,000

ROI Guide Sponsored Email $10,000

Strategy Guide Creation $3,000

Strategy Guide Sponsored Webinar $20,000


In this example, we’ve created two pieces of content:

•  For the ROI Guide, we spent $3,000 to create and invested $10,000 to distribute.

CONTENT ACTIVITY COST

ROI Guide Creation $3,000


Strategy Guide Creation $3,000





•  For the Strategy Guide we also spent $3,000 to create, but spent $20,000 to distribute.

•  Combining these costs, we can see that the ROI Guide cost us $13,000 and the Strategy Guide cost us $23,000.

CONTENT ACTIVITY COST TOTAL COST

ROI Guide Creation $3,000 $13,000


Strategy Guide Creation $3,000 $23,000





•  For the Strategy Guide we also spent $3,000 to create, but spent $20,000 to distribute.

•  Combining these costs, we can see that the ROI Guide cost us $13,000 and the Strategy Guide cost us $23,000.


Now that we know how much our content cost to create and distribute, let’s see

how the content did in terms of lead generation to calculate cost per qualified lead.


CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs

ROI Guide $13,000 550 205

Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130



•  Our ROI Guide generated 550 new leads, 205 of which were qualified leads.



ROI Guide $13,000 550 205





•  To calculate cost per lead, we want to take the total cost ($13,000) divided by the total number of qualified leads (205).



ROI Guide $13,000 550 205





•  To calculate cost per lead, we want to take the total cost ($13,000) divided by the total number of qualified leads (205). •  $13,000 / 205 = $63


CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs CPMQL

ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63

Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177




•  To calculate cost per lead, we want to take the total cost ($13,000) divided by the total number of qualified leads (205). •  $13,000 / 205 = $63

•  Therefore, our ROI Guide cost $63 per qualified lead.



ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63

Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177

To determine an accurate average total cost per lead of content marketing, we’d

want to take a larger sample, but for the purpose of this guide, we’ll simplify and

average these two costs.



ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63

Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177




$63 + $177 / 2 = $120



ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63

Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177




$63 + $177 / 2 = $120

Therefore our average total cost per lead for content marketing is $120.



PERCENTAGE OF LEADS SOURCED

In order to determine the

percentage of leads from content marketing,

we first need to gather total number of leads

sourced from other marketing programs.



Looking at this gathered data, we see that content marketing accounts for 205 of the

total 710 marketing qualified leads.

PROGRAM MQLs

Content 205

Events 300

Advertising 30

Email 100

Public Relations 75

Total 710


Looking at this gathered data, we see that content marketing accounts for 205 of the

total 710 marketing qualified leads. To find the percentage, we take 205/710 to find that content marketing accounts

for 28.9% of total qualified leads.

PROGRAM MQLs PERCENTAGE

Content 205 28.9%

Events 300 42.2%

Advertising 30 4.2%

Email 100 14.2%

Public Relations 75 10.5%

Total 710 100%

EVENTS

ADVERTISING

CONTENT

EMAIL

PUBLIC RELATIONS



CONVERSIONS

Finally, to determine the actual revenue

sourced by content marketing, we need

to look at conversions.



PROGRAM MQLs CONVERSION RATE

AVERAGE SALES VALUE

Content 205 50% $500

For this example, let’s say our content marketing has a conversion rate of 50%

and the average sale is worth $500.



AVERAGE SALES VALUE

Content 205 50% $500



•  To find our total conversions, we need to multiply our total qualified leads by 50%.



AVERAGE SALES VALUE CONVERSIONS

Content 205 50% $500 102.5




•  205 * 50% = 102.5 conversions



AVERAGE SALES VALUE CONVERSIONS

Content 205 50% $500 102.5




•  205 * 50% = 102.5 conversions •  Based on that finding we assume these sales will average $500, so to find the total value we

•  multiply 102.5 * $500 = $51,000



AVERAGE SALES VALUE CONVERSIONS TOTAL CONVERSION

VALUE

Content 205 50% $500 102.5 $51,000




•  205 * 50% = 102.5 conversions •  Based on that finding we assume these sales will average $500, so to find the total value we

•  multiply 102.5 * $500 = $51,000

•  Therefore, our total content marketing conversions are worth $51,000

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How to Calculate Content Marketing ROI

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Transcript of How to Calculate Content Marketing ROI