An overview of key concepts, challenges and processes for attributing monetary ROI values against individual content marketing activities

1. Measuring the ROI of
content marketing
@jonoalderson

2. What is ROI?
“The concept of an investment of some resource
yielding a benefit to the investor”
- Wikipedia
@jonoalderson

3. SLIDE #3 NOTES
•
There’s a perception that because digital is highly measurable, that this should be an easy question. It is and it
isn’t.
•
The challenge is the language; it’s a dangerous(ly easy) term to use without thinking about what it means
•
It doesn’t necessarily mean “conversions”, “sales”, or even “ecommerce revenue”
•
It’s multi-faceted, and completely bespoke. It differs by organisation, and by context. We’ll explore this.
•
There are challenges beyond definition; even if you can articulate what it is, how do you break out the ROI of
content marketing from everything else you do? How do you measure the ROI of a piece of content, vs. the
campaign you invested in to send traffic to it? Or vs. peripheral contributions, such as the colour of your logo, or
the physical brochures you sent out? Is content the asset, or the context? It’s where things come together.
•
Measuring it as a whole is impractical; you need to break it up into pieces.
•
Three places where we need to at or for ROI:



Activity or content which improves revenue
…which decreases cost
…or which builds brand – DANGER!
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4. No fluffy stuff
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5. SLIDE #5 NOTES
• There’s a temptation to start talking about halo
effects, branding and intangible value.
• This is equally dangerous, because it takes us away
from data, from metrics, and from business cases
which rely on more than just good storytelling.
• Everything can be measured or approximated and
given a value; but it’s a conceptual challenge
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6. ROI is about value
Image credit: epSos.de, on Flickr
@jonoalderson

7. SLIDE #7 NOTES
• Introducing another intangible concept… Value
• The question isn’t “what’s the ROI”; this masks a bigger business
question, which is always “which levers should I move in order to
make more money / spend time/resource more effectively / build
brand”.
• That’s a better question, it’s the actual question being asked, and
it’s easier to answer.
• In most cases, value == money; but the same principles apply for
non-profits and charities; measure ‘equivalent economic value
generated’
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8. What if this mapped value?
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9. SLIDE #9 NOTES
• Who’s ever looked at or used heatmaps or clickmaps?
• Who’s found them pretty but disappointingly un-actionable?
• …so people are clicking on stuff. Helpful. Not.
• This is useful!
• Typical content analysis focuses on the what.
• More advanced stuff, as our tools and cultures evolve, looks at the
why. None of that matters if you can’t answer the so what.
• How do we get to this?
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10. There are some challenges to overcome
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11. The Funnel
•
•
•
•
•
Zealots
Converters
Prospects
Passives
Haters
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12. SLIDE #12 NOTES
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Paid media (PPC, SEO, Affiliate marketing, etc.) and other mainstay digital activity goes after the tip of the
Prospects group. Grab people who are swayed, go after what works and where there’s volume.
•
This is brute force marketing.
•
Why are paid search landing pages radically different from organic search pages when the consumer generally
doesn’t know the difference? How often do you see paid search marketing on a content page? A blog post? A
research piece?
•
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We live in this ecosystem because people struggle to measure and prove the ROI of content
Challenges around differentiating the effectiveness of the traffic vs. the destination, and ownership of
budgets/performance + channel segmentation
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PPC landing pages etc. don’t “work”, and they don’t tap into a different market; you’re not “removing distractions”
and refining targeting - you’re just refining your filter bubble (global warming, Facebook).
•
“TAKE OUR THING, TAKE OUR THING!”
•
Where does content sit in this? How do you either isolate or integrate it in a channel-centric marketing world?
@jonoalderson

13. The role of content
Risk of damage
Value & Performance
Truly viral
Content Marketing
Boosts conversion
Newsworthy
Pub chatter
Links & citations
Social sharing
Needs compelling
Needs validation
Poor
Average
Good
Needs supporting
Great
Excellent
Outstanding
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14. This should be easy, right?
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15. Challenges from living in a DM
world
But… we use data badly
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16. SLIDE #16 NOTES
•
We use clickstream-level terminology, rather than business terminology. Conversion rates. Bounce
rates. Pageviews. Repeat visits…
•
Because it’s not as easy or joined up as we’ve been told, but we’ve all been in the industry for so
long that it’s embarrassing to admit that it’s not… That it needs as much – maybe more – thought
than the kind of complex econometrics models we see with established and mature brick-andmortar brands. But the tools and the industry tells us it’s easy – just put the code on the page.
Goals, context, and actual understanding are ‘nice to have’ extras. Data is worthless. More is not
better, or more useful. Better is better, and this is something we’re not very good at.
•
Limitations of the tools and processes means that:
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Marketing activities are segmented by channel
We’re limited by visit-centric metrics (conversion rate) and optimisation.
We’re focused on last-click attribution
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Who’s familiar with Google’s ZMOT principle? We need a model which aligns with this.
•
But… PPC works. Channel segmentation works. It all works, because that’s all you’re doing. How do
you pitch in multi-visit, ZMOT behaviour when all of your research says that it doesn’t happen?
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17. Attributing value
image credit: Smart Insights and First10
@jonoalderson

18. SLIDE #18 NOTES
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What’s the ROI of somebody reviewing an eBook? How do you get buy-in?
•
Unfortunately there’s no easy win – you have to do one and show that it works before you can get the big buy-in.
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But the first one rarely works. So work your way through this list in order of most likely to demonstrate any kind of
tangible return. Win on *one* and scale it.
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Which channel or segment of marketing does this belong to? Awkward!
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Survey on conversion influences, reverse-engineer value
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Apply at action-level, e.g., eBook = 1/100th of a £100 conversion, eBook = £1 per click. Or per read? > 1 min, scroll
to bottom; more complex with PDFs?
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Move away from asset segmentation, and work on per visit goal value, cost per visit and value per visit
•
This is out there… This should be normal!
•
What drives change? The competitive landscape. Who goes first? Nobody. Mediocrity rules.
•
Be first to market and actually market. All this stuff we’re doing? It’s still just shouting into the wind.
@jonoalderson

19. Challenges from living in a DM
world
There are two routes
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20. SLIDE #20 NOTES
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You need to understand what’s actually happening.
What happens if somebody follows a link to a blog post from a Tweet, signs up for a
newsletter, comes in three weeks later from an email about a special offer, buys a product, and
three weeks later returns it?
•
You need to understand that behaviour, spot it, and use it to steer your direction – but you can’t
rely on it for tactical or practical decision-making. Join all this up, import/integrate downstream
data, but don’t aim to use it at the ground-level.
•
…what about service- or subscription-based models? Single value? Multiplied by duration? Lifetime
value? Propensity to renew as a percentage of average lifetime value? More and more out of sync.
Time delays, bad decisions.
•
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Day-to-day… Work with approximates, and accept value inflation (multiple overlapping values).
You’re not trying to understand how much money the website makes – that doesn’t make sense
(differentiate site from brand, content, traffic, marketing, etc). You’re trying to understand which
combinations of activity generate value, and do more of that.
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21. Guestimation requires stakeholder buy-in
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22. SLIDE #22 NOTES
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“We’re not going to talk about conversion rates and numbers of sales – we’re going to talk about a
theoretical, abstracted notion of propensity to generate value”
[frame]
•
Needs definitions; objectives process
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This is much bigger than just content marketing
•
…and most organisations don’t have this kind of framework
•
•
HIPPOs
Can’t educate them; but you can trap them. And there’s a process.
•
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They get the concept of content marketing.
They read the blogs and listen to their peers.
•
But if you can’t make a business case, prove the numbers and make a compelling argument for
spending money on content rather than where it “works”, you won’t get buy in.
@jonoalderson

23. Use top-level business objectives
Objective
Goal
Be seen as thought leaders
Get people reading and engaging with our
blog
Increase sales revenue
Double revenue by 2014
Increase customer lifetime value
Provide the best customer service
Create and curate great content that helps
users find the information they need
Achieve and maintain a high conversion rate
to sale
Improve marketing efficiency
Increase self-service actions on the website
@jonoalderson

24. SLIDE #24 NOTES
• Cut down summary of the process; link at the end.
• Get HIPPO business objectives. These will be poorly
defined, ambiguous, some will be radically
abstract, some will be overly-specific and metriccentric. Doesn’t matter.
• Translate these into things which digital does. Get
their sign off.
@jonoalderson

25. Build HIPPO opinion into explicitly defined metrics
Objective
Be seen as
thought
leaders
Goal
Get people reading and
engaging with our blog
KPI
Key Segment
# triggers of time on page > 2
mins on a blog post (per
month)
Category, author
# average comments-per-post
(rolling)
# sales (per month)
Increase sales revenue
Double
revenue
by 2014
Provide
the best
customer
service
Improve
marketing
efficiency
Increase customer lifetime
value
Provide great content and
help users find the
information they need
Performance
Department, channel, product
£ sales revenue (per month)
% of new consumers via the
website making a repeat
purchase within 3 months
(rolling, YoY)
% task completion rate (per
month)
% satisfaction rate (per
month)
Channel, source, campaign,
keyword, gender, geographic
region, entry page
Initiating page, Channel,
source, campaign, keyword
Maintain a high conversion
rate to sale
% visitors to
macroconversions + calls (per
month)
Channel, source, campaign,
keyword, call type
Increase self-service actions
on the website
£ value of microconversions
(per month)
Microconverion, channel,
source, campaign, keyword
@jonoalderson

26. SLIDE #26 NOTES
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Add explicitly crafted KPIs. Don’t use stock. Don’t leave any room for interpretation.
•
•
Specify the unit of measurement, and the framework of reference (total, rolling, proportional, etc.)
Identify key segments to allay fear.
•
Get sign off at this point (they won’t challenge the KPIs)
•
Set sensible targets, thresholds and champagne moments; these won’t exist, and it’ll be a
guestimate.
Get sign off.
•
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All those intangible, fluffy brand objectives the HIPPO committed to? They’ve got content-related
KPIs. And if they’re underperforming against targets, great. There’s your budget signed off.
•
This can take months, because nobody’s ever asked anybody to write down their business
objectives.
@jonoalderson

27. Key Concepts
1. Lower the threshold of success with
microconversions
2. Gain incremental permissions and build a longterm relationship
3. Utilise nurture funnels and marketing automation
@jonoalderson

28. SLIDE #28 NOTES
•
This allows you to…
•
Micrconversions: small actions; a like/share, a comment, a newsletter signup, a
PDF download, a registration, a rating.
•
Permissions: sign up, give details, commit to next steps, reinforce
commitment, etc.
•
Nurture: Progress the user along a bespoke funnel. Entry and exit may happen at
any point. There is no one funnel.
•
Need these in place in order to be doing the kind of activity which drives content
ROI, and you need the kind of buy-in we’ve explored to get to this stage. This
should be your core processes; it’s a constant, evolving and iterative process
@jonoalderson

29. Picking metrics, and driving ROI
It’s all bespoke
(but here’s some food for thought)
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30. Value per visit and cost per visit
Understand how much it costs to bring
them in, and what you get out
@jonoalderson

31. SLIDE #31 NOTES
• This is your ROI!
• Import production costs, marketing spends, even lighting
and heating if it makes sense against channels and
content. You can do this in GA.
• Look at dimensions which are the most profitable;
beyond keywords and pages, look at combinations and
segments and see what works. Do more of that; much
easier than brute forcing areas which under-perform
@jonoalderson

32. Self Service
What’s the cost/value/savings of somebody
reading an FAQ and voting ‘this was useful’ vs.
phoning the call centre?
…or “this resolved my problem” in a help section
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33. Equivalent Savings
What would it cost to advertise to 1m on TV?
What’s the equivalent cost/value of the social reach
and syndication of your content?
…Or of 1,000 watching your 20 minute video end-toend?
@jonoalderson

34. Survey on the impact of key assets
“Was our white paper on *x+ influential in your
buying decision?”
Reverse-engineer the value of the consumption of
this asset in terms of its propensity to be part of
the buying decision
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35. Visits or Visitors?
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36. SLIDE #36 NOTES
• Nature of purchase, scale of spend? Impulse or considered? B2B?
• GA metrics are all visit-centric. This isn’t great. Encourages bad behaviour.
• Use your own metrics.
• API, custom dashboards, etc. Perception that it’s expensive and/or
complex; it’s not if you’ve got explicit definitions and know what you need.
You should be able to design exactly what the output looks like. Outsource
it.
• For GA, Analytics Canvas is a great entry-level tool, and also couples as a
good proof of concept visualiser
• Other tools; assess monthly unique visitors vs. visits, etc., and make a
sensible decision
@jonoalderson

37. Big Conversions are still important
Sales. Subscriptions. Revenue.
Don’t overlook these; and grab actual £
metrics whenever they’re available
@jonoalderson

38. GA - per visit goal value
@jonoalderson

39. SLIDE #38 NOTES
• GA does this automatically if you give it goal value; but it’s limited.
• Too big/high; need to account for the little things which add up.
• Conversion rate stops meaning ‘number of macroconversions’ and
starts meaning ‘% of traffic which we gained value from”. At this
level, it doesn’t matter what that action was; what matters is these
are the segments where you should be focusing your marketing
efforts.
• Dimensions can be anything. Channel and keyword are obvious;
what about time of day? City? Recency and frequency? All of these
dimensions start to become useful and actionable with the context
of “value per” metrics.
@jonoalderson

40. Data Import
Upload content production costs
Utilise page-level custom variables and
passive events
@jonoalderson

41. SLIDE #41 NOTES
Content production costs, GA automatically re-calculates
per-visit value, etc.
• Retainer costs.
• Call centre? Actual costs of time spent on phone
answering questions where you have content which
answers that…?
• Lighting and heating? Fewer staff, lower costs…
• This is technically easy. It’s conceptually challenging, and
it needs bravery from high up to implement.
@jonoalderson

42. Variable Events
_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', ‘Value Add', ‘Blog Comment', 'UGC‘, 25]);
@jonoalderson

43. SLIDE #43 NOTES
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If the cost of producing good content is (for arguments sake) £1 per word…
Due to SEO, brand perception, nurture impact, etc… (reverse engineer better numbers, work it out
loosely, refine periodically)
•
Then a 100 word UGC response to a blog post is probably worth 1/4 of that (lower quality, less
editorial, but valuable in pure equivalent content) is worth £25.
•
Tweak the maths so that it makes sense for you, review and refine it periodically.
•
•
Event-based goals, use (variable?) value
Group, categorise and structure
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Dealing with fractional stuff; GA doesn’t allow for fraction values… Use server-side analytics (UA) to
keep tally of tiny events (e.g., individual blog post reads) and fire events at integer increments
@jonoalderson

44. Reaching out
•
•
•
•
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Zealots
Converters
Prospects
Passives
Haters There’s value here
•
Generate value from people who’ll never buy your product or services.
•
Passives and haters can generate value too; UGC example, or links/citations/reviews
@jonoalderson

45. In summary…
• Think about content in terms of value generated
• Lower the threshold for the measurement of success, get
buy-in from commitment to the ideals, and get proof of
concept in order to scale
• Put review points in place to sense-check downstream and
big-picture data to steer understanding, decisions and value
estimation
• Conversion rate isn’t a useful metrics; unless you’re only
marketing to your core audience. Look at value per metrics
@jonoalderson

46. Your aspiration…
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47. SLIDE #47 NOTES
• Anyone from, work with, or use HL?
• Display & retargeting on content
• Various entry levels
• Nurture email campaigns and advancement triggers
@jonoalderson

48. Thanks!
Any questions?
Resources:
• My talk on data driven marketing: http://slidesha.re/16i5rAg
• GA data import/export manipulation with Analytics Canvas: http://bit.ly/1146paB
@jonoalderson

49. Jono Alderson
jonoalderson@gmail.com
@jonoalderson
www.jonoalderson.com
@jonoalderson