Content Performance Report Template

Most content teams either don't report on performance at all, or they report on vanity metrics that don't tell the business anything useful. Pageviews feel good. But they don't tell you whether content is actually driving pipeline, reducing CAC, or helping deals close faster.

This template gives you a reporting structure that ties content performance to business outcomes — and makes it easy to communicate the value of your content program to leadership.

The Right Metrics at the Right Level

Different audiences need different information from a content report.

CEO/Leadership: Content-influenced revenue, CAC impact, growth trajectory Marketing Team: Traffic, leads, pipeline, channel performance Content Team: Individual piece performance, keyword rankings, workflow metrics

Build your report in sections that can be distributed appropriately, or pull the right sections for each audience.

Monthly Content Performance Report Template

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Report Header

Reporting Period: [Month, Year] Prepared By: ___ Date Submitted: ___ Review Meeting: ___

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Section 1: Executive Summary

Write 3-5 sentences covering:

• Overall performance vs. targets (on track / ahead / behind)
• Biggest win this month
• Biggest challenge or gap
• One strategic recommendation

Example: "Content drove 847 MQLs in March, 12% above our target of 756. Our comparison guide published March 8 became the fastest-performing piece in 12 months, generating 312 sign-ups in 30 days. Organic traffic growth was slightly below target (8% vs. 12% goal) due to a Google algorithm update on March 14. Recommend prioritizing content refreshes for pages impacted by the update."

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Section 2: Traffic Performance

Monthly Organic Traffic

Metric	This Month	Last Month	3-Month Avg	YoY	Target	Status
Total Sessions						✅/⚠️/❌
Organic Sessions						✅/⚠️/❌
New Users						✅/⚠️/❌
Pages/Session						✅/⚠️/❌
Avg. Session Duration						✅/⚠️/❌
Bounce Rate						✅/⚠️/❌

Traffic by Channel

Channel	Sessions	% of Total	MoM Change
Organic Search
Direct
Social
Email
Referral
Paid

Top 10 Pages by Sessions (This Month)

Page	Sessions	MoM Change	Conversion Rate
1.
2.
3.
...

Pages with Biggest Traffic Declines (Flag for Action)

Page	Previous Sessions	Current Sessions	% Change	Recommended Action

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Section 3: SEO Performance

Organic Search Overview

Metric	This Month	Last Month	MoM Change
Total Impressions (GSC)
Total Clicks (GSC)
Average CTR
Average Position
Keywords in Top 3
Keywords in Top 10
Keywords in Positions 11-20

New Keywords Ranking This Month:

Keyword	Position	Monthly Volume	URL

Keywords Improved to Top 10 (Quick Wins Captured):

Keyword	Previous Position	Current Position	URL

Keywords Lost (Dropped Out of Top 10):

Keyword	Previous Position	Current Position	Likely Cause	Action

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Section 4: Lead and Conversion Performance

This section is the most important for business justification of content investment.

Content-Generated Leads

Metric	This Month	Last Month	MoM Change	Target	Status
Email Subscribers Acquired
Free Trial Sign-ups (organic)
Demo Requests (organic)
Gated Content Downloads
Total Content-Driven MQLs

Content-Influenced Pipeline

Stage	Deals	Pipeline Value
Deals where content was first touch		$
Deals where content was last touch		$
Deals where content was mid-funnel		$
Closed-Won (content-influenced)		$

Top Converting Content Pieces (This Month)

Page	Sessions	Conversions	CVR	Content Type

Funnel Conversion Rates

Stage	This Month	Last Month	Target
Visitor → Email Subscriber
Visitor → Trial Sign-up
Email Subscriber → Trial
Trial → Paid

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Section 5: Content Production Metrics

Tracking production helps you understand capacity, velocity, and quality over time.

Production Summary

Metric	This Month	Last Month	Target
Pieces Published
Total Words Published
Avg. Days from Brief to Publish
% Published On Schedule

Content Published This Month (Full List)

Title	URL	Publish Date	Pillar	Type	Word Count	Author

Content in Pipeline (Next 30 Days)

Title	Target Date	Pillar	Current Status

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Section 6: Social and Distribution Performance

Social Media Summary

Platform	Impressions	Engagements	Eng. Rate	Link Clicks	MoM Change
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
Other

Top Performing Social Content

Post	Platform	Impressions	Engagements	Traffic Driven

Email Newsletter Performance

Metric	This Month	Last Month	Industry Benchmark
Subscribers
Open Rate			21-25% (B2B)
Click Rate			3-5% (B2B)
Unsubscribes
Top Clicked Article

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Section 7: Insights and Recommendations

This section is where you add strategic thinking — not just data. Data without interpretation is just a spreadsheet.

What Worked Well This Month:

1. ---

2. ---

3. ---

What Didn't Work as Expected:

1. ---

2. ---

Content Opportunities Identified: List specific topics, keywords, or formats to pursue based on what the data showed.

1. ---

2. ---

3. ---

Recommended Actions for Next Month:

Action	Owner	Priority	Expected Impact
		High/Med/Low

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Section 8: Monthly Health Scorecard

A quick visual summary of overall content program health. Use a simple ✅ / ⚠️ / ❌ system.

Area	Status	Notes
Organic Traffic Growth
Lead Generation
Content Production Velocity
SEO Keyword Momentum
Email List Growth
Content-Influenced Pipeline

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Quarterly Content Performance Review (Add-On)

At the end of each quarter, add this section to your monthly report:

Quarter in Review:

• Q targets vs. actuals (traffic, leads, pipeline)
• Top 5 pieces of the quarter (by traffic, by conversions, by backlinks)
• Biggest content learning of the quarter
• Pillar performance: which pillars drove the most traffic and leads?
• Channel performance: which distribution channels proved most valuable?

Q[N+1] Content Strategy Adjustments: Based on Q[N] performance, what's changing about your content strategy next quarter?

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Reporting Cadence Best Practices

Weekly (internal, lightweight):

• Traffic vs. last week
• New leads from content
• Any content published
• Any major ranking changes

Monthly (team + leadership):

• Full report as outlined above
• Share in Slack or email; review in monthly marketing meeting

Quarterly (leadership + board):

• Executive summary of content ROI
• YTD performance vs. targets
• Strategic recommendations for next quarter

How Averi Tracks Content Performance

Averi connects your published content to your analytics, so every piece in your Library shows performance data alongside the content itself. Instead of toggling between your CMS, Google Analytics, and a spreadsheet, you can see how each piece is performing — and use that data to inform what to create next.

Track your content ROI in Averi →

Further Reading

• the most important marketing KPIs and metrics to track
• content marketing ROI numbers from real founders
• Averi content marketing ROI calculator
• Averi's Strategy Map to connect performance data back to strategic decisions

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the most important content metric to report on?

For most startups, content-influenced pipeline is the most defensible metric to report to leadership, because it connects content directly to revenue. If you don't have that tracked yet, start with cost per MQL from organic content, compared to your paid channels.

How do I attribute revenue to content?

Multi-touch attribution in your CRM is the most accurate approach. Track which content pieces a contact viewed before converting, using a tool like HubSpot, Segment, or Clearbit. At minimum, use UTM parameters and first-touch/last-touch attribution in Google Analytics.

Should I report on every piece of content individually?

Not necessarily in a monthly report. Call out top performers and notable declines. For operational tracking (what the content team uses), every piece should be logged. For leadership reports, aggregate data and highlight the stories.

How do I benchmark content performance?

Compare month-over-month first (are we growing?), then year-over-year (are we ahead of this time last year?), then against industry benchmarks. For B2B SaaS, organic traffic growing 10-20% MoM in the early stage is excellent; 5-10% MoM for a more established content program is strong.

What tools do I need to build this report?

Minimum viable stack: Google Analytics 4 (traffic, conversions), Google Search Console (SEO), and a spreadsheet. More advanced: add Ahrefs or Semrush (keyword tracking), a CRM like HubSpot (pipeline attribution), and Averi (content operations + performance in one place).