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The Content Marketing Metrics That Actually Matter (And the Ones to Ignore)

The goal isn’t to track everything. It’s to track the right things—consistently, in a way that informs decisions.

Most content marketers are measuring the wrong things. Here’s how to tell the difference.

By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR · Strategic Communications, LLC

Content marketing metrics are the quantitative and qualitative measures used to evaluate whether a content program is achieving its intended business objectives. They include audience growth, lead generation, search visibility, and revenue attribution. The distinction between meaningful metrics and vanity metrics is critical: vanity metrics (page views, social media likes, follower counts) may look impressive but reveal little about business impact, while meaningful metrics connect content activity directly to outcomes that matter to the organization.

Every content marketer I’ve worked with has felt the pull of the vanity metric. The blog post that got 2,000 views. The LinkedIn post with 150 likes. The social media following that crossed a round number.

These numbers feel like progress. They’re easy to report. But they’re often meaningless.

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The GEO Revolution: What Every Content Marketer Needs to Know Right Now

A growing percentage of searches—particularly for informational, advisory, and how-to queries—are now answered directly by AI engines.

SEO gets you a spot on a list of links. GEO gets you cited by an AI. Here’s the difference and why it changes everything.

By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR · Strategic Communications, LLC

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring and presenting content so that AI-powered search engines including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, and similar systems are more likely to surface, cite, and reference it when answering user queries. Unlike traditional SEO, which aims to rank content in a list of links, GEO aims to make content the direct source of an AI’s answer, appearing not as a link to click but as the authority being quoted.

Something has changed in how people find information online. Most content marketers haven’t caught up yet.

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The Human Touch: What Content Creators Can’t Outsource

AI-generated content is often dull, repetitive, and prone to inaccuracies.

AI is a powerful content tool. It’s not a content strategist, a storyteller, or a brand voice. Here’s the distinction that matters.

By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR, Strategic Communications, LLC

Human content creation is the development of original content drawing on lived experiences, domain expertise, audience empathy and understanding, and brand judgment. These are human capabilities that AI tools can approximate but not replicate.

Yes, generative AI (GenAI) has great value and application for content creators. But it’s not a replacement. As GenAI is used more and more in the content production and distribution process it’s important to understand where it’s best applied—and where humans still have an important and unique role to play.

I’ve been writing since I was a child and writing for publication since I was 18. I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years. Most recently, of course, the rapid advancement of GenAI and tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude (my current favorite).

GenAI does have a place

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Why Storytelling Still Wins in the Age of AI

The brands that are succeeding in this new AI-fueled reality aren’t succeeding because they have better AI tools. They’re succeeding because they’re telling better stories. — The story you tell—your perspective, your experience, your voice—is something no AI can replicate.

The most powerful marketing tool you have hasn’t changed. Here’s how to use it.

By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR – Strategic Communications, LLC

Storytelling in content marketing is the practice of structuring marketing content around narrative—a relatable situation, a turning point grounded in real experience, and a clear takeaway—rather than around information or promotion alone. Research consistently shows that narrative content is more memorable, more persuasive, and more likely to build the kind of audience trust that drives long-term brand authority than factual or list-based content.

Let’s address the elephant in the room right out of the gate: AI. In the age of AI content creators are feeling stressed, questioning their worth, even questioning the likelihood that they will be able to continue to practice their craft.

But here’s the thing.

The brands that are succeeding in this new AI-fueled reality aren’t succeeding because they have better AI tools.

They’re succeeding because they’re telling better stories.

Storytelling is not a soft skill. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s the engine of every piece of content that has ever actually moved an audience. And in 2026—with AI capable of producing technically competent, grammatically correct, utterly forgettable content at scale—the ability to tell a real, human story has never been more valuable.

Why stories work when information doesn’t

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Best Practices for Finding, Connecting With and Engaging “Shadow Buyers”

Are invisible prospects costing you sales?

Today’s digital commerce environment means that marketers can learn a lot about consumers who are interested in their products and services. But while that can be a boon for marketers, it’s not something that all prospects feel favorably about.

In fact, a rising number of consumers are actively taking steps to avoid being detected. They don’t want the bother. They don’t want the intrusion. And they don’t relish the feeling of violation that comes from being served up offers immediately after checking something out on your website.

How to bring them out of the shadows

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Evaluating New Entrants to the World of Gen AI

GenAI Tools You Need to Know About

ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) tool, was released by OpenAI, and that tool was soon quietly followed by other entrants to the space, including Perplexity and Claude. Then DeepSeek burst onto the scene, far from quietly, in January 2025. Almost immediately, tech companies started to worry because DeepSeek supposedly represented a low-cost option, but now experts are saying that may not be the case.

But DeepSeek isn’t the only disruptive entrant in the space. There are a continually growing number of tools and features that content creators need to know about.

Staying on top of a continually evolving GenAI landscape

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A Step-by-Step Process for Gen-AI Search Optimization

Preparing for the World of GenAI-Driven Search

As more and more consumers are turning to tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity instead of Google when they’re looking for answers to questions, or doing research, brands are taking notice.

Long-term reliance on Google search, and traditional approaches to search engine optimization (SEO), aren’t necessarily relevant in this rapidly changing search environment. Google search isn’t going away, but GenAI-driven search is having a growing impact.

What do you need to know, and do, to make sure your website doesn’t fall into oblivion?

Key Recommendations a One-Year Plan

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Future-Proofing Your Search Strategy

The Future of Search is Now

The search landscape will continue evolving as AI capabilities expand and user behaviors adapt, requiring strategies that remain effective across multiple scenarios.

Raju Dandigam, engineering manager at Navan, predicts the next evolution: “The upcoming evolution of generative AI search will introduce text and voice and image and video as fundamental input methods. Businesses need to develop content that sounds right because AI agents now merge voice assistants with smart devices.”

AI-generated content with a human touch

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Risk Management and Adaptation in the GenAI-Search Era

AI Search Brings New Risks

The AI search landscape presents new risks that require proactive management strategies while maintaining resilience in traditional search channels.

Pankaj Kumar, founder of Naxisweb, warns about a fundamental shift affecting established content: “There’s no such thing as SEO being replaced, but it’s certainly getting widened in scope.”

Adapting to new search paradigms

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Measuring Gen-AI and Traditional Search Success

Measurement Challenges in the Gen-AI Search World

Traditional SEO metrics require expansion to capture performance across dual search ecosystems, but many AI-specific measurement tools don’t yet exist.

Jordan Stevens, with Jordan Stevens Digital Marketing Consulting, outlines the measurement challenge: “Visibility is the key, but measuring it will be hard in the near term. We don’t have the tools for this yet. Keep your eyes on your business revenue as a whole. SEOs and marketers no longer have significant control over the output and what people see on the screen.”

Methods of measurement

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