American Marketing Association Professional Certified Marketer (PCM) Content Marketing Practice Exam

To assess the performance of your content, which analytics should you primarily focus on?

1. views and likes

2. watch time and audience retention

3. subscribers gained

4. comments and shares

The correct answer is: watch time and audience retention

Focusing on watch time and audience retention is crucial for assessing the performance of your content because these metrics provide deeper insights into how effectively your audience is engaging with your material. Watch time indicates the total minutes that viewers spend on your content, which reflects the overall interest and commitment to your material. A higher watch time suggests that viewers find your content compelling enough to keep watching, indicating quality and relevance. Audience retention, on the other hand, measures how long viewers remain engaged with your content before they drop off. Understanding at which points viewers lose interest allows you to identify specific elements of your content that may need improvement, whether it's pacing, topics covered, or the way information is presented. High retention rates often correlate with well-structured content that resonates well with the audience, leading to better opportunities for future engagement and sharing. While views, likes, comments, shares, and subscribers gained are all helpful metrics for gauging content performance, they do not necessarily provide a complete picture of audience engagement. For instance, high view counts paired with low watch time may suggest that while many people clicked on your content, they were not interested enough to stay. Similarly, subscriber count reflects your potential audience size but does not reveal how engaged those subscribers are with individual pieces of content