Brand awareness, rather than engagement, metrics are the primary KPIs used to measure content marketing.

According to a survey from the World Media Group – an alliance of media brands including

The Economist

, Reuters and

The New York Times

– 26% of brands use increased brand awareness as the primary KPI to measure their most recent campaigns, followed changes in brand perception (25%). Engagement metrics only come in third place, with 20% of respondents using ‘time spent with content’ as their main performance measure.

However, nearly half (49%) of the advertisers, agencies, media brands and consultants believe brand engagement is content’s key strength – rising to 60% for advertisers – with changing perceptions and building awareness only considered the major quality by 28% and 17% respectively.

Content marketing on the rise

The research also found 78% of marketers expect content marketing to grow over the next 24 months. Some 71% said getting the environment/platform right is the biggest contributor to a content campaign’s success.

Looking at the next 12 months, the survey shows short form video is the content marketing trend respondents expect to use most in the year ahead, but virtual and augmented realty is the trend marketers are most excited about.