4 Types of Metrics for Measuring Content Performance

Famous business management expert Peter Drucker once said, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

For content creators looking to grow their audience, measuring content performance helps you understand what is working so you can double down on creating more of that successful content.

And while taking a metrics-driven approach to your content creation and promotion is helpful for all creators, measuring performance is critical for creators who monetize their content. Whether you're just building out your side income streams or creating content as your full time job, it's important to know the foundational sales and business metrics that are key to the health of your creator business.

Sales metrics

When you’re selling products in an online store, measuring and optimizing the performance of your store items is critical to driving sales and making more money. Here’s what to look for:

• Views: Shows you how much top-of-funnel attention your products are getting. You can increase views by finding new ways to market and promote your products.
• Unique customers: This metric is another good indication of how widespread your store’s reach is.
• Sales: Pretty simple—the total number of sales is a good baseline metric to keep track of.
• Total earnings: How much revenue are you making from your sales? Keep a bird’s eye view of your total income through your online store by tracking total earnings and helps you understand if you need to make changes to the prices of your items.
• Conversion rate: Your conversion rate shows you how effective your products are at driving sales. Conversion rate is calculated by the total number of purchases divided by the total number of views. To improve conversion rate, you can improve the setup of the items in your store.

Using a store platform that provides this data for you will save you a lot of time and help you get insights you wouldn’t find anywhere else on how to increase sales. Beacons’s Store is connected to your Link in Bio (and other creator tools) and calculates these statistics for you automatically.

Revenue metrics

Many creators are entrepreneurial powerhouses—they’re not just getting the bag, they’re getting the bag from multiple places.

If you have multiple income streams, it’s essential that you track the overall state of your business and finances across all revenue streams. Here’s what to measure:

• Total month over month income: The total revenue you make across all income streams on a month-by-month basis shows you how your overall business is growing.
• Income by source: In addition to measuring your total income, you should also track your income from each individual revenue stream to understand where you’re making the most—and least—money and how you can align your time and effort efficiently.

Instead of doing this by hand in a spreadsheet—which, frankly, sounds horrible—use a tool to that will automate this for you and spit out gorgeous, easy-to-read charts.

The Beacons Income Dashboard allows you to do this by connecting and syncing all of your income sources and accounts in one place. Since it’s designed for creators, you can add creator-specific category tags and get custom insights to truly accelerate your growth (… and make sure you’re filing your taxes correctly). Knowledge is power!

Start measuring content performance automatically with smart tools

Make a plan for yourself: which of these metrics are relevant for you? How (and where) will you track them?

Here’s a tip. Don’t learn a new Excel shortcut, or do it in a spreadsheet, or—for the love of all that is good in this world—do it in your iPhone notes app. Make it infinitely easier for yourself and use tools that are specifically designed to help creators in measuring content performance, tracking metrics, and mkaing informed decisions.

Using a suite of tools for creators, like Beacons, that helps you sync, calculate, and learn from your metrics across all areas of your creator business helps you take the most strategic and data-driven approach to your creator business without needing to do any extra work yourself. What are you waiting for?

And if you're looking to learn about even more metrics for creating and promoting content, check out our guide on Important Growth Metrics for Creators: Creating and Promoting Content!