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Getting There | parsely.com

Getting ThereContent, the companies that create it

and the data behind it

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Contents

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Introduction

Data access & data literacy

What success looks like

Poor choices: Metrics that miss the point

Diagnosing analytics hangups

Tying analytics to production

Back to the beginning: Analytics and strategy

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IntroductionContent is no longer exclusively the hallowed domain

of the editorial staff. Brands and their agencies have

cannonballed in, and as a result, we’re looking at a

content-rich media ecosystem.

All that content (and the audiences that consume

it) leave behind a footprint: data and the analytics

it produces. But publishers, brands and agencies all

come to the game with different agendas, so how

do each of those groups sift through their troves of

insight to identify success (and turn that into future,

repeatable successes)?

“I like the amount of sophistication that you can

apply to the metrics, to segmenting ad infinitum, to

developing complicated analytical pictures of who

you’re interacting with,” said one publisher we spoke

to, admitting to the sometimes-overwhelming nature

of data. “Then sometimes I get massively frustrated

with that and just go back to very basic things, like

how many people visited the website in the last hour.

Those things sometimes provide more basic levels of

comfort and understanding.”

To cut through the clutter, we surveyed 270 brand-,

agency- and publisher-side content professionals

from Digiday’s audience about their favorite metrics,

the siloed state of their offices when it comes to data

access, and how their analytics end up impacting the

content they create. We then spoke to 8 individuals

through a focus group for a more in-depth look at the

reasons behind the numbers.

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Does data access equal data literacy?The first step in producing data-informed content, regardless of what side you’re coming from,

is having access to the data. Right now, at least brand and publisher content teams largely

have access (77 percent of brands, 87 percent of publishers).

Outside of the content team, however, brands have a slightly more siloed work environment.

“We do interact with business units who don’t have a comfort level with analytics,” said a

brand participant. “They wouldn’t know how to go and do things on a self-serve way, so they

rely more on either us or the web analytics team to come back to them with the metrics and

explain what they mean.”

“Creative is isolated,” said another, though this situation seems largely dependent on the size

of the organization. “The teams I work with generally have been pretty small, so there hasn’t

been a lot of that kind of siloing.”

Are you personally able to access the analytics for thecontent your organization creates? 81+17+2+P

81%

17%

2%

Yes

No

My organization doesnot produce content


But even if brands can access the metrics, can they understand them? The answer seems to

be yes, at least as well as publishers. Both groups see similar rates of comprehension, with 52

percent of publishers and 45 percent of brands reporting understanding.

The difference is negligible, and it can be explained simply: Brands are much newer at this

game than their publisher peers, and they are often trying to interpret their data against more

complicated goals.

“We do internal benchmarking by audience, because the way teens act is way different than the way their parents and teachers act. It’s a lot of work to get all those internal benchmarks, but just to keep the business in the loop on how they’re doing, that seems to be one of the most effective things for us. [Then we] try to beat our personal best all the time.”

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Education-based publisher

Strategy

How well do you understand those analytics?49+47+4Completely

Some of it

Not at all

49%

47%

4%

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What success looks likeThe next step in powering your content with insight is knowing a win from a loss. As it turns

out, this depends on what side of the aisle you’re on. For publishers, the game is all about

getting users to read or view their content.

Forty-five percent of publishers point to page views as a good gauge of success, while 50

percent say it’s time on page, an indication of longer, more engaged readership. As few as 13

percent say that conversion rates accurately indicate high-performing content; this is not a

direct response play.

But when paid content is involved, editors find themselves thinking from two perspectives,

taking on more traditionally business-side concerns. “I’m the editor of a subscription-based

video recipe app,” said one participant in the study. “I have a website; I want conversions. So

on some level, how do we get people into the product and get them to subscribe? This is the

fundamental metric of anything we do.”

Which of the following metrics best determine whethera piece of content was successful? (Please select 2)42+0+50+0+45+0+14+0+9+0+12+0+18+0+9+0+1

48+0+25+0+21+0+52+0+22+0+18+0+11+0+3+0+1Social sharing

Time-on-page

Page views

Conversions

Click-through rate

Impressions

New/returning visitors

Scroll depth

Scroll speed

42%

50%

45%

13%

9%

12%

18%

9%

1%

48%

25%

21%

52%

22%

18%

11%

3%

1%

Publishers

Brands


This is much more in line with how brands view their own content, putting conversion at

the top of their metric hierarchy. “It’s an association directly between a brand and whatever

they’re trying to sell,” said a brand-side participant. “Influencing whomever is making the

decision really ought to be the goal.”

For many brands, content is a new venture. Should they take a page out of publishers’ books

and focus more on content-oriented metrics? They already agree with publishers on the

importance of social sharing (48 percent versus 42 percent of publishers).

“It’s sort of a chicken and egg discussion,” said another brand-side participant. “If the question

is what’s the best metric, you have to lay out what the goal of the particular piece of content is

before you can say, ‘Here’s how it should be measured.’”

But there’s another factor at play: shifts in leadership. “It shifts with whoever is in charge.

Some new person comes on and says, ‘This is our prime metric. This is what we’re shooting

for.’ And then they go off and work somewhere else and someone else comes in.

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“Why did that work? Why was it successful? Then repurpose the hell out of it and use it in as many different places as you can, trying to recreate that effect.”

Strategy

“You have to lay out what the goal of the particular piece of content is before you can say, ‘Here’s how it should be measured.’”

Brand marketer

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Poor choices: Which metrics miss the point?So much for the good, but how about the bad (and the ugly)? Both brands and publishers are

in agreement about some metrics that should be ignored based on (lack of) utility. Fleeting,

ephemeral signs of engagement or exposure like impressions and scroll speed lose their value

when used to measure content performance. Does this hint at a tacit understanding that

content is not the same as advertising and shouldn’t be evaluated as such? Maybe.

But both parties are still subject to the whims of their masters (be they clients or management,

or both). This means that, though the people on the ground find the impressions metrics

“useless,” they’re still being asked to report on them (33 percent of publishers and 46 percent

of brands are asked for this).

Clients and managers align on some metrics that publishers and brands value, however.

Publishers are being asked to report page views (57 percent) and social sharing (33 percent)

while brands are asked for conversions (42 percent) and CTR (35 percent).

Which of the following metrics are the least useful? (Select 2) 14+25+39+15+20+24+48+5+10

Conversions

Click-through rate

Impressions


Page views

Scroll depth

Scroll speed

Social-sharing

Time-on-page

Which of the following metrics are you most often asked to predict or report? (Select 2)29+34+42+12+42+1+1+29+11

Conversions

Click-through rate

Impressions


Page views

Scroll depth

Scroll speed

Social-sharing

Time-on-page

14%

25%

39%

15%

20%

24%

48%

5%

10%

29%

34%

qqq 42%

12%

qqq 42%

1%

1%

29%

11%


One metric that could still benefit from more industry-wide education? Time on page.

Currently, only 18 percent of publishers are being asked for it, despite their clear belief that

it indicates the success of their work. This frustration around constantly nudging clients and

managers in the right direction metrics-wise was felt by many participants.

The conversation might need to stay away from “the right” metrics and lean more towards

what success means. “They’re so determined to just get likes on posts,” said one brand

participant. “It’s [about] understanding what’s the business objective, the marketing objective.

What are the behavioral outcomes that you want to see from the audience based on those

objectives? A lot of my job is really level setting and resetting goals.”

“This is an educational process for all the people we deal with all the time,” said a publisher

about which metrics matter and which aren’t worth their weight in salt. “This is new to

everyone. Some of us have been doing it for a few years, but if you’re not immersed in it every

day, then you have no idea.”

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“[Certain stories] are not going to do well. You do them because you know there’s some segment of your audience that’s going to appreciate that and it’s going to help define who you are. Rather than just being analytics-driven, it’s analytics-informed. That worked well: having an awareness that traffic is the overall goal, but not the only goal.”

Publisher

Strategy

“They’re so determined to just get likes on posts.”

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Diagnosing the analytics hang-upsWhile it’s slightly easier for publishers to bring their insights to bear on content production

or distribution than it is for brands (47 percent say it’s “easy” to “very easy,” as opposed to 42

percent for brands), each group has its own challenges.

For publishers, issues like lack of proper tools or dashboards, too much information with no

clear direction and an unwillingness on the part of some legacy editorial departments to play

along make the task more complicated than it needs to be.

Finding the signal through the noise can feel like a Sisyphean task without the right platform,

according to one publisher participant. “You often have to find the most junior person in the

room to task them with [making] some spreadsheet that should be readily available.” And once

an answer is found, it can differ wildly from how others in the industry found it.

“Everyone calculates things differently,” said an agency participant. “There’s no industry

standard, so I’ll get a deck from an old agency and I’ll look at the numbers [and it] makes

zero sense because I’m calculating it very differently. Saving us a lot of time by providing the

standard for us would be much more helpful than everyone doing it [for themselves].”

Are you able to use insights from your content analytics to inform the production or distribution of later content?15+28+39+14+3Very easily

Easily

Somewhat easily

Not too easily

Not at all

15%

28%

39%

14%

3%


Brands’ issues come more often from a dearth than a glut of good data. “Usually, I don’t have

as much information as I want about the content,” said a brand participant. “Sometimes

you’re stuck with just really basic reach and engagement metrics that don’t actually tell you

how it’s influencing who you’re trying to influence.”

One factor that’s different is how deep brands are into their content operations compared to

publishers. Most are just setting up shop and getting their studios off the ground, and they

definitely feel a lack of data that can show them how the rest of the industry is approaching

the same digital problems.

“I’m always more concerned with how my operation fits into the big picture of the web,”

said another brand participant. “Is there an industry standard for this kind of thing? How is

it working for everyone else? Are we ahead of the curve or smack in the middle? It’s cool to

know when it’s a slow news day for us if it’s a slow news day for everybody. Is everybody down

today? Is Facebook failing everybody?”

For now, most brands just have to guess.

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Whether it’s within a team or across companies, they’re usually some level of misunderstanding when

analytics are involved. “As awful as it is to say, the higher the title, the more education seems to be

required,” said a brand participant. “I don’t know if it’s because [they’ve] been at it for a long time and a

technique from 15 years ago is probably a little different than it is today, [but] you can never anticipate the

CEO to delve into what can or can’t be accomplished with the metrics.”

For those working with clients, lack of education can flow in the opposite direction in terms of seniority.

“A lot of junior people don’t quite understand what’s available to them,” said another brand participant,

though at other times, pushback can come from insecurity. “It was more of the day-to-day clients being so

protective of their roles and not wanting to rock the boat by doing it differently.”

Lost in translation

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Tying analytics to productionBut, in the end, it’s not really about how well your organization or your clients understand the

metrics and analytics; it’s about what you do with them.

Publishers’ entire companies are centered on content and content production of some form,

so it makes sense that insights gleaned from content analytics would have a strong effect on

future production. As a result, 43 percent of publishers say they act on their analytics “all the

time.” “The team I manage is very hands-on with data,” said one publisher.

Brands’ content objectives are often subject to sales, marketing and product directives that

set (and reset) the editorial agenda. While content analytics insights are useful, they’re likely

moderated by those other influences. In general, 35 percent of brands act on them “all of the time,”

though this may also be affected by brands’ lower level of access to the analytics in the first place.

A look at where these analytics flow within each type of company further emphasizes the

different priorities. With publishers, editorial rules the roost, at least as far as the content is

concerned. They have the most access to analytics, though all departments have much more

even access within a publisher than those within a brand or agency.

Which of the following departments have access to thecontent analytics within your company?63+0+44+0+71+0+44+0+60+0+57+034+0+44+0+40+0+64+0+22+0+21Ad Ops

Creative department/ brand newsroom

Editorial

Media buying/strategy

Product/development

Sales

63%

44%

71%

44 44%

60% 60%

57%

34%

44%

40%

64%

22%

21%

Publishers

Brands


Brands tend to defer to their media buyers and planners (64 percent of which have access,

according to results). They’re charged with keeping their eye on the dial since they’re the ones

placing the content on partner platforms, and in the end, they’re also beholden to the sales

team. Content performance here often means sales performance.

But it’s not about these carrots and sticks everywhere. According to one brand content

participant, “They never tell us what to push. It’s only when it’s special or case scenarios where

something’s performing really bad sales-wise, and they tell us, ‘Hey, can you try to push this

one a little bit more?’”

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“But even with the best-laid plans, there’s always something that can be tweaked for the better, even if it’s the premise that everything rests on. You go through a campaign and get to the end of it, or halfway through, and you find out, ‘Oh, actually there’s another thing that you really should be looking at.’”

Strategy

“They never tell us what to push. It’s only when it’s a special case scenarios where something’s performing really bad sales-wise, and they tell us, ‘Hey, can you try to push this one a little bit more?’”

Brand marketer

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Back to the beginning: Analytics and strategySo much of media today (including content marketing) is about operating holistically. This

means making analytics a vital piece of the overall content strategy and creating some form

of feedback loop. Impressively, 94 percent of publishers and 79 percent of brands have done

just that.

Publishers may have had a head start by learning the ropes and charting a course (even if it’s

not the right one) over the past few years. Brands are slightly lagging behind, but this is only

natural given the nascency of their content programs.

“There’s always room for improvement,” said a brand participant. “What we know today is

going to be different than what we know tomorrow or a week or year from today.

“That gets tricky with some of the clients we interact with. They’re like, ‘Wait a minute, last

year you told me this is what I should pay attention to and that was best practice.’ That

algorithm has changed and then the platforms evolved. We have to keep them up to speed on

what’s changing and what the new norm is, the new metric.”

Does your organization’s content strategy involve analytics?

Yes

No

I don’t know

94+0+1+0+579+0+11+0+10 94%

1%

5%

34% 79%

11%

10%

Publishers

Brands

Looks like everyone still has something they can learn, but here’s to staying ahead of the curve.

Need to get there faster?This report was commissioned and distributed by Parse.ly, and researched and written

by CUSTOM, a Digiday Media Agency.

About CUSTOM

CUSTOM is a creative content agency that understands the people, business and

culture of tech-disrupted industries. We’re part of Digiday Media, so we know our

audience isn’t just a collection of “decision makers” or “users.” We don’t drown them

in vectors, specs and jargon. We talk to them like we talk to each other: like people.

And we’re here to help you do the same. Visit www.thecustomagency.com.

About Parse.ly Parse.ly partners with digital publishers to provide clear audience insights through an

intuitive analytics platform. We believe that the modern equivalent of the Gutenberg

Press in the web era is a keen understanding and application of data.

Clients use our content and video analytics dashboards to quickly understand their

readers and make better decisions about their site and content. Writers, editors, site

managers, and technologists from companies including Huffington Post, NBC, Conde

Nast and hundreds more rely on Parse.ly everyday to do amazing things with their data.

Experience the Parse.ly Dashboard yourself.

Visit www.parsely.com/start or learn more about our

dashboard and data offerings at www.parsely.com/tour .

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