As a content creator or digital marketer, you know how important data-driven insights are to understanding your audience and optimizing your content strategy. Google Looker Studio is a free data visualization tool that allows you to gain valuable insights into how your content is performing. According to reports, there are currently 22,321 companies using this tool. Let's dive in and see how you can measure content performance in Looker Studio.
Understanding Content Performance Metrics
To properly measure how your content is performing, you need to understand some key metrics.
Traffic Sources
Track where your visitors are coming from, whether through organic search, social media, email campaigns, or other channels. This shows you which content is driving the most traffic and engagement.
Engagement Metrics
Look at metrics like pageviews, time on page, bounce rate, and exit rate. High pageviews and time on page indicate engaging content. A high bounce rate means visitors left quickly, signaling the content may need improvement.
Conversions
For content aimed at lead generation or sales, track how many visitors took a desired action like submitting a form or purchasing a product. Compare conversion rates across content types and topics to determine what resonates most with your audience.
Shares and Backlinks
The number of social shares, likes, and backlinks a content asset receives demonstrates how impactful and useful your audience found it. Assets with high shares and quality backlinks tend to rank higher in search engines.
Setting Up Content Dimensions in Google Analytics
To properly measure content performance in Looker Studio, you must first set up content dimensions in Google Analytics.
Adding Content Dimensions
To enable content dimensions in your Google Analytics account:
Log in to Google Analytics and select your website profile.
Navigate to Admin > View Settings.
Under the View columns, enable Content Dimensions. This will allow you to create and manage content groupings.
Create content dimensions for your key content types like blog posts, videos, podcast episodes, etc. You can name the dimensions of whatever is most useful for your needs, e.g. Blog Posts, Videos, Podcasts.
Apply the newly created content dimensions to your website tracking code to collect data.
In Looker Studio, you can now build reports using your content dimensions. Drag the Page dimension to the page level of your report. Then add your content dimensions as page attributes.
Connecting Google Analytics to Looker Studio
To connect your Google Analytics account to Looker Studio and access your content metrics, follow these steps:
Authorize Looker Studio
In Looker Studio, select "Add a connector" and pick Google Analytics.
Follow prompts to authorize access (no changes to GA account).
Choose View and Metrics
Select your desired GA view (usually default "All Website Data").
Pick content metrics like pageviews, unique pageviews, bounce rate, and average time on page. Metrics can be adjusted later.
Connect and Populate
Click "Connect" for GA data to appear in the Looker Studio report editor.
Building a Content Performance Dashboard
To measure your content's performance, build an insightful dashboard in Looker Studio.
Once you've connected your data sources, create metrics to track how your content is performing. Focus on metrics like pageviews, unique pageviews, bounce rate, and average time on page. Next, build interactive charts and graphs to visualize your metrics over time.
Finally, build scorecards highlighting your key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, have a target of 5,000 page views per month and display your actual page views versus that target. Scorecards provide an easy way to track how you're progressing toward your goals.
Analyzing Key Content Metrics in Looker Studio
In Looker Studio, you have access to key metrics that provide insight into your content's performance. Analyzing these metrics regularly can help optimize your content strategy.
The number of page views shows how many times your content has been viewed. Higher page views indicate your content is resonating with readers. Compare pageviews over time to see the impact of content changes.
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of viewers who navigate away from your content after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate suggests your content may not be engaging readers or providing value. Consider revising the content with a bounce rate of over 70%.
The average time on the page reveals how long readers spend viewing your content. Longer time on the page is better, as it shows your content is capturing attention. A short time on page could indicate your content needs improvement to become more compelling or useful.
Finally, the exit rate measures the percentage of pageviews that exit your content. Lower exit rates are better, demonstrating your content is keeping readers engaged. High exit rates may mean your content is not satisfying or could be improved.
Final Thoughts
Google Looker Studio is most often used by companies with 10-50 employees and 1M-10M dollars in revenue. While this tool offers a lot of functionality out of the box, don't be afraid to customize your dashboard by adding new metrics, filters, charts, and color palettes to suit your needs.
With regular use, your content dashboard can become an indispensable part of your workflow and key to creating content that delivers real value to your audience. Keep optimizing and keep improving - the key to content success is in the data.