At least half of Content Marketing has to do with measuring success through Analytics. It can be easy to get lost in the lingo but I promise I have picked the most important terms you need to know. This blog will go over common Marketing Analytics terms I will use often in my other blogs.
Table of Contents
- Goals
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
- Conversion
- Call to Action
- A/B Testing
- Google Analytics Terms
- Google Search Console Terms
- Keyword Research Terms
Goals
We are starting very easy, setting goals is the first step to creating a strategy. When we make a Content Marketing Strategy we want to align them with our Business Objectives. Some examples of common Goals:
- Achieve a certain amount of sales per quarter
- Have a successful Webinar
- Increase Sales for a specific product
Once we know what we are working towards we can put a firm strategy in place. With goals you will know exactly what you’re KPI will be. If the strategy doesn’t work you can always change course.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is how we directly measure the success of a goal. If we take the example of hosting a successful webinar. Some KPIs to watch for would be:
- How many people visited the landing page?
- How many sign ups?
- How many people showed up?
- How many people Unsubscribed to our Mailing List afterwards?
Conversion
When we talk about conversions in a general sense, conversion is when we get someone to do something we want them to do. This is usually used as a metric of success. Conversions can apply to many actions on your website and are dependant on your goals. Some examples:
- Filling out a Form
- Going to another page
- Scrolling on a Page
- Clicking on a CTA Button
Conversions can be set up to be tracked within Google Analytics.
Sales Conversion
Sales Conversion is when someone makes a purchase. In E-Commerce or small business, this may be a direct sale on your website. For B2B Businesses a sales conversion is usually a form fill to contact your sales team. It is often used as a metric to decide how well your current strategy is going.
Call to Action (CTA)
We discussed CTA’s from a content perspective in the Content Marketing Buzzwords blog. Now we will talk about CTA’s as a trackable conversion metric. A CTA is how we get customers to take an action to follow a path we have set. Common examples of a CTA:
- Call Now! (Link to call)
- A button that takes a customer to a Service Page
- A Form for the Customer to fill for an Email Subscription
- Comment Below
Each of these CTA’s have a measurable action that we can track: the number of calls, clicks, form fills, and comments.
A/B Testing
A/B testing is a way to test different strategies. For example, you come up with two text variants for a CTA button: Variant A “Get in Contact Now” vs Variant B “Schedule a Meeting Today!”.
- 50% of your website visitors get Variant A
- 50% of your website visitors get Variant B
- Allow the test to run for at least 4 Weeks
- Overall which button got more clicks?
While the two variants look similar you will be surprised that even something as small as an exclamation point can increase conversion. A/B testing can be added to WordPress websites through plug-ins or some SASS products like HubSpot.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool that collects data and provides insight into your website or app. It is the easiest way to track metrics and KPI for your campaigns.
- New Visitors: How many people visited your website for the first time in 3 months
- Sessions: The entire time spent on site from first landing
- Returning Visitors: Week by Week how many people came back?
- Time Spent on Page: On average how long did people stay on the page?
- Bounce Rate: Did visitors automatically leave without scrolling or clicking? A high bounce rate means something is wrong.
- Pages per Visit: On average how many pages did visitors go to in one Session
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google. Search Console provides metrics into how people got to your site specifically from Google Search Engine Organically.
- Total Clicks: How many people clicked on your website from Google
- Total Impressions: How many people saw your website on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
- Average Position: From all your ranking keywords where do most of them sit on average?
Keyword Research Terms
A big part of SEO and Content Marketing is Keyword Research. Different Keyword Tools have varying terminology but they are very similar. While most of my keyword research is done in SEM Rush, I will go over terms used in Moz Keyword Explorer as has free options.
- Keyword Volume: On average how many people google this keyword a month
- Keyword Results: How many other websites rank for this keyword
- Keyword Difficulty: How difficult would it be for you to rank highly for that keyword
Now you Know the Analytics Basics
These are all the most commonly used terms when discussing Marketing Analytics. Analytics is the second half of the Content Marketing puzzle and quite honestly the one I get most excited about. These are the metrics you will be looking for when you start putting together your Monthly Analytics Reports. Are there any terms you think I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments below!