How do you find out whether your content activities are literally paying off? In content marketing in particular, the answer to this question is unfortunately not as easy to find as you might hope. But don't worry: it's not impossible either. In this article, I'll show you how to calculate the value of your content.

Content marketing is not a project

If you invest effort, time and money in your content marketing, then the question of whether it is actually worth it almost automatically arises at some point. So it's all about the return on investment (ROI). There are different ways to calculate this. Ultimately, it always comes down to the question: How much measurable effect do I achieve for the effort I put in?

In some marketing areas, ROI is comparatively easy to calculate. For example, the hoped-for "return" of a landing page for a product is the number of conversions. The "investment" is essentially the cost of creating this landing page for the first time and then optimizing it. There may also be costs for placing an advertisement.

However, this example also shows a difficulty: once you have created the landing page, there may be hardly any new effort required, while at the same time it continues to generate conversions. In other words, the return on investment is not a fixed figure here, but always just a snapshot.

This applies even more to content marketing. After all, you are usually creating content that will remain relevant in the long term. Or, after an initial effort, the main aim is to further improve the content and keep it up to date. A how-to article can continue to attract new users to the website for months or even years.

"Content marketing aims to create an asset that increases in value over time as the cost - in relation to the value the product provides - goes down as a percentage."

Robert Rose, Content Marketing Institute

It is therefore important to understand: Content marketing is not a project. It has no defined end. I always get a shiver down my spine when people talk about a "content marketing campaign". That's exactly the wrong mindset. I understand where it comes from: after all, this is how marketing is planned in many places. But here it is misleading.

Rather, in content marketing you build up a growing and constantly improving range of content. This project may have a more or less clear starting point. But it certainly has no end.

And while advertising campaigns, for example, are often self-contained, your content marketing activities should be as interconnected as possible. They can then even help each other and you can build on previous successes.

What "return" does content marketing bring?

Another important question in the search for content marketing ROI is: What is the actual "return" in this case? After all, the content in content marketing is not used for sales. It therefore does not normally contribute directly to revenue.

This quickly leads to the question: is content marketing optional? Especially in difficult economic times, you should save on activities that don't directly translate into revenue, right?

Anyone who asks themselves this question has not yet understood the value of content marketing. This is because it cannot be easily expressed in monetary units. But that doesn't make it any less important.

In another article I wrote, you can find out more about how to find the right metrics to analyze your content success. It will give you even more tips on the basic considerations that will help you select your most important figures (key performance indicators). And of course you need them to recognize the "return".

I also warn against "vanity metrics": measurements that are easy to record and look nice, but on closer inspection hardly provide any useful information. Example: The number of views for an article on the website is interesting in itself, but falls short for our purposes if it is not linked to a goal. 

The following therefore applies when calculating your content marketing ROI: You need to be clear about your goals. Do you want to increase awareness of all your offers? Do you want to reach a specific target group more? Do you want to highlight one service or product in particular?

These goals should be clearly measurable and have a clear time frame. And, of course, they should fit in with the company's overarching plans. Without such clear goals, you won't find any meaningful metrics. And without metrics, there is no way to determine your success.

The value of your audience

But what is the actual goal of content marketing? Ultimately, it's about building an audience that matches your products and offers. These people become aware of you through this content and over time you build trust.

This should then lead to some of them becoming active in a way that brings you closer to your actual goals. This does not always mean a monetary investment such as a purchase. It can also mean that these people invest time in an article, enter their data or recommend you to others. The value of your audience should also not be underestimated when it comes to market research.

I can explain this using the page you are reading this article on. Raidboxes provides this content because it appeals to people who belong to the company's target group. They become aware of Raidboxes because, for example, they are looking for how to calculate the content marketing ROI.

Or they are here because someone recommended the article. They may have heard about what else this company has to offer in passing. Maybe it's the first time they've heard of Raidboxes.

Of course, not every single person reading this article will book a service from Raidboxes. That is fine. The important thing is that the intended target group is also part of the general user base. Ideally, these people will then get a positive impression of the company and will be more open to doing business with it over time. Of course, there is a certain hierarchy with regard to the value of these users. At the beginning, there is an anonymous person who appears in the statistics as a "visit". It becomes more valuable when they subscribe to the newsletter. Even more valuable: they signal concrete interest in a product.

In general, the more engaged and active your audience is, the better.

At the same time, there are companies that monetize their audience directly. After all, the target group reached is also of interest to other providers.

Attribution: Which activities have which influence?

Now that we have a clearer view of the objectives, we can move on to the next step: attribution. This is a huge topic in marketing. The main question is: Which of my activities actually has what influence on my business results?

After all, this is rarely clear and unambiguous. The easiest way to do this is to place an ad that points to a product page. Clicks on the ad and the resulting conversions and sales can be measured quite easily. However, it still remains unclear what role, for example, awareness of the company brand has played. Perhaps the new customer in question only ordered spontaneously because she had already seen the company and product before. 

The B2B sector in particular is known to have very long decision-making processes. The more expensive and complex the product in question, the more extensive the evaluation. And the longer the customer journey.

An example: Perhaps a blog article brings a person to the website for the first time. They then read a second article, download an e-book or sign up for the newsletter. Weeks later, they take part in a webinar. Finally, they click on an ad on LinkedIn and make a purchase. What part does each individual intermediate step play in this turnover?

Sometimes a simple "last click" attribution model is used here. In the example above, everything would be attributed to the LinkedIn ad. Although this is nice and easy to understand, it distorts the picture enormously.

Another option is to assign the same value to all these touchpoints. This is better, as it at least recognizes that there were a number of influencing factors that ultimately led to sales. If you want to go one step further, try weighting these points. 

For this purpose, you also need appropriate measurement tools such as a powerful web analysis tool. You will also want to track clicks in your emails. Logically, all of this must comply with data protection regulations.

You should also be aware that you will never know the complete truth. Because not every person who lands on your website will always reveal themselves. Only when they sign up for the newsletter, for example, can you see better which other content and offers are actually being accepted and how.

Tim Soulo from SEO tool provider Ahrefs therefore provocatively explained in a Twitter thread worth reading: It is impossible to comprehensively calculate the ROI of content marketing. But even if he cannot clearly express the value in figures for each individual element, he continues to invest. Nevertheless, he knows that it pays off in the end to be found, to bring your own target group to the site and to gradually convince them of the value of Ahref's offers.

So there will always be a certain amount of uncertainty. And even if this may be difficult for you to accept, you (or your superiors) will have to learn to live with it. At the same time, however, you will hopefully see that at least a rough estimate of the value of your content activities is possible.

Calculate expenditure for content

Now the expenses are still missing for the calculation of the ROI. Here, too, you will have to work with estimates and generalizations. After all, the costs of an article, e-book or white paper include more than just the author's salary or fee. It also includes, at least proportionally, the website operation or the time it takes to create a newsletter in which the new content is advertised. Other expenses include project management as well as images, graphics and other design elements.

Ideally, you can use approximate values for different content formats. If you combine this with a content audit, you can extrapolate how much has already been invested in content.

Content marketing only works in the long term

But what if your management can't see the value of content marketing? Then it makes no sense for you to continue (for the time being). Content marketing can only be successful if it is supported in the long term. You don't see results after a week or a month. You should assume that you need to plan for 12 to 18 months of consistent work before you start to see results. As described at the beginning: The longer you stay on the ball, the more favorable the ROI usually turns out to be. The proverbial staying power pays off here.

If this is not acceptable, shift your content activities to other marketing topics. Choose areas where the ROI is easier to see and calculate. Once you have received the necessary support for this, you can later consider how you can bring content marketing back in an initially minimal version. This content is always welcome for search engine optimization alone and as fodder for your social media marketing colleagues.