Stop 04 · Content Marketing & CopywritingTopics · 9/9

Content Performance Metrics

In short

Views feel good, but they don't pay salaries. Good content metrics show whether people read, cared, and took the next step toward becoming customers.

Measuring whether content actually worked — traffic, engagement, time on page, and (most importantly) downstream conversions — rather than just publishing and hoping.

The blob on a small stage takes a bow as an audience claps and a few students wave.

Think of it like this

A play in the college auditorium

Counting people who walked in is one thing. Did they stay till the end, clap, and come backstage to join the drama club? Those later numbers tell you if the play really worked.

Watch it happen

One blog post's numbers, from reach to result

Engaged 2,600

Scrolled 75% 1,400

CTA clicks 300

Sign-ups 60

1/5A month of data for one blog post, from GA4 and the sign-up tool.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Reach metrics

Views, impressions, reach. They show how many people saw the content.

Engagement metrics

Engaged sessions, time, scroll depth, saves and shares show if people cared.

Conversion metrics

Sign-ups, leads or sales from the content show business impact.

Compare like with like

Compare blog with blog and reel with reel. Formats have different normal numbers.

See it in code

Walk through the code

excel

1=E2/B22=D2/B23=AVERAGEIF(F2:F50,"Reel",E2:E50)

1/3Conversion rate: sign-ups per view for each piece.

B is views, D is CTA clicks, E is sign-ups, F is content type. Format the first two as percentages.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Judging content only by views or likes.

Do this instead

Look at engagement and conversions too. A small post that brings sign-ups beats a viral one that brings none.

Oops

Checking numbers a day after publishing.

Do this instead

Blogs and SEO content grow over weeks. Review them after a month or more.

Your mission

Analyse content in the GA4 demo

~30 min

Quick check

Post A: 20,000 views, 10 sign-ups. Post B: 3,000 views, 45 sign-ups. Which helped the business more?

Go deeper

1Define 2-3 success metrics before publishing your next piece of content.
2Learn why engagement metrics alone (likes, views) can be vanity metrics without conversion data.
3Practice writing a short performance summary for a piece of content, real or hypothetical.