Content Attribution Metrics to Report for Sales-Led Companies

TL;DR:

• The key metrics to measure are content-influenced opportunities and number of ICP accounts on site. You can also track search traffic and monthly content output, but more as leading indicators
• It's important to track these metrics to show the impact of content on revenue and justify investments in content
• Tools like HubSpot and Salesforce may not provide detailed insights, so consider using specialized software like Letterdrop
• Marketers should focus on proving ROI and understanding the impact of their work on company revenue.

It's notoriously difficult to draw a straight line from content to revenue, especially in sales-led companies with complicated sales cycles. Typically, marketers in these companies focus on leading indicators like impressions and CTR rather than revenue generated.

This is a dangerous place to be, especially as layoffs in marketing are becoming increasingly common.

Marketing teams at sales-led companies are best measured on their ability to create and influence pipeline. The farther reported metrics stray from this, the less they are valued or understood.d

Tracking Content-Influenced Pipeline

There are three content attribution metrics you can measure for content to help you tie content to revenue that fall under content-influenced pipeline.

1. Content-sourced pipeline
2. Content-accelerated pipeline
3. Content-influenced revenue

Here's what the attribution model looks like.

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1. Tracking Content-Sourced Pipeline

Content-sourced pipeline is a model where an inbound demo or signup can be attributed after a prospect has consumed content across any channel or spent more than 30 seconds on it in the last 12 months.

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We highly encourage you to set up a field called “How did you hear about us?” in your demo form. Make it a free text input with no autocomplete or dropdown.

You want your buyer to truly write down how they think they found you.

2. Tracking Content-Accelerated Pipeline

Content-accelerated pipeline refers to consumption of content across any channel in an active sales cycle before the deal is closed.

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3. Tracking Content-Influenced Revenue

Content-influenced revenue refers to closed-won revenue where a prospect consumed content in any form before buying.

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Why Is It Important to Measure Content-Influenced Pipeline?

Ultimately, you want to show your impact on revenue. If your sales team receives an inbound opportunity who read your content, that’s the clearest indicator that your activities build pipeline.

Pipeline impact is the most important thing to track and what you can show to your VP and other departments when people ask why you invest in content —especially in this economy.

Of course, 100% attribution isn’t possible. But you should try to at least show directional impact of what you do on revenue.

It's difficult to get continual buy-in for content, or to find a new job in content, when all you have to share is activity and vanity metrics, not revenue.

Marketers, it's your job to prove your ROI as best you can.

How To Measure Content-Influenced Pipeline

So, how do you measure these metrics to determine content-influenced pipeline?

Unfortunately, most tools — including HubSpot and Salesforce — are not tools that are able to tell you the specific content articles or headlines that are impacting revenue. This still leaves you in the dark.

We use our own software at Letterdrop to measure content-influenced pipeline. It takes all three of these primary metrics into account to give you a detailed view of the revenue impact your content has.

Here's a demonstration.

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Tracking the Number of ICP Accounts on Site

The number of ICP accounts on your site, also known as accounts in orbit, refers to the number of identified accounts that fit your buyer profile currently engaging with your content.

Why Track ICP Accounts on Site?

At any point in time, only 3-5% of the market is ready to buy.

Most buyers will immediately think of a single vendor when a problem arises. They will shop around between an average of three vendors, according to Wynter's B2B buying journey report.

Visitor behavior on site is a strong indicator of openness to a demo. Your goal is to be in this consideration set.

This also gives you a source of leads for your SDR or BDR team to go after.

How to Measure ICP Accounts on Site

Companies used to only be able to get a vague idea of ICP accounts on site using de-anonymization tools like 6Sense and Clearbit.

These days, you can combine those tools with Letterdrop to understand exactly what content people from an account are consuming, label them, and understand what else you can send to them to initiate a conversation.

This applies to your social media pages, too.

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Other Metrics to Consider

Search Traffic from Content

Search traffic refers to the number of visitors to your content pages that aren't direct branded searches. For example, "{company_name}".

This is one of the most common ways to measure content success, although this emphasis is misplaced.

Why Track Search Traffic?

The amount of search traffic you generate doesn't reflect how many of those visitors are a) qualified or b) converting.

However, it's a leading indicator or upstream number you're moving to influence more downstream metrics, such as pipeline and revenue.

Tools like Google Analytics and Semrush can help you determine trends in your organic traffic.

Content Activity or Output

Content activity refers to:

• The amount of new pages published
• The amount of pages updated
• The amount of links built

Here's an example of a staged report generated by Letterdrop.

Why Track Content Pipeline Activity?

Just like search traffic, this is not that important of a report.

A good leadership team will trust you to take the necessary actions to move the output. They won’t try to micromanage you on activity. Only report this to help them understand how you’re spending your time.

You can do this manually each month, or use paid tools like Letterdrop to automate this for you.

Learn What Content Is Influencing Revenue Automatically

The time for guesswork in marketing is long over. Know exactly what content is driving pipeline so that you can iterate and showcase the true value of your marketing efforts to leadership.