How to Use Attribution Insights to Improve Your Content

Attribution reporting can help you prove and improve your content’s results. But the raw data alone won’t get you better content—you have to know how to act on the information. 

In this guide, we explore five steps to help you use attribution insights to improve your content:

1. Pinpoint the content that gets results
2. Learn why certain content performs better
3. Optimise your existing content
4. Address what isn’t working
5. Personalise your content by audience and region

These are the same techniques we use at Eleven Writing to help our clients grow conversions, boost return on investment (ROI), and identify valuable new revenue streams. 

Let’s dive in!

5 Steps to Improve Your Content Using Attribution Insights

1. Identify what content drives conversions

Attribution reporting enables you to tie content to real outcomes, like free sign-ups, demo requests, or paid plan upgrades. And you’ll find that different types of content work better for particular results. Some content types may drive newsletter sign-ups, others boost demo requests or sales call frequency, and some increase shares and brand mentions.

To see this in action, look at this example from a report:

Here, four main product features—Timekeeping, Scheduling, Attendance, and Payroll—are being highlighted across a series of blog articles. The company is tracking two outcomes: free sign-ups and paid upgrades. 

At first glance, Scheduling content looks like the top performer, with 74 free sign-ups and 33 paid upgrades. But when you calculate the conversion rate per view, you get a different outcome:

You can see that Timekeeping content generates more upgrades per view, suggesting it offers more ROI potential.

This is exactly the kind of insight attribution data delivers: not just what is performing but also how well and in what ways.

2. Investigate why certain content performs better

Once you know which content is performing well, you’ll want to understand why. Here are four ways you can investigate: 

Collect user feedback

Exit surveys or post-conversion emails can reveal valuable insights (and new ideas for content). Ask questions like:

• “What on our website influenced your decision to [sign up for a trial/upgrade your plan/book a demo]?”
• “Which feature convinced you to [sign up for a trial/upgrade your plan/book a demo]?”
• “What doubts did you have before [signing up for a trial/upgrading your plan/booking a demo]?”

Audit your content

Closely evaluating your content is an excellent way to see if any editorial factors—like clarity, structure, tone, voice, etc.—contribute to differences in content performance. 

Look at your best- and worst-performing pieces side-by-side, and ask yourself:

• Is one structured more clearly?
• Does one use stronger calls to action (CTAs)?
• Are the tone, format, or visuals more effective in specific articles?

For example, perhaps the language used in some articles is easier to read or more compelling. Some articles may be better structured than others or answer the user’s question earlier. Or, different CTAs may be more visible or use more persuasive language.

Test with factorial analysis

You can also use statistical methods to zero in on what’s really driving behaviour. Factorial (or factor) analysis is an excellent option for this. Simply put, it involves grouping variables into fewer factors to see how different components impact outcomes.

For instance, you could create pairings like:

• Topic × Funnel stage—e.g., “timekeeping” and “bottom of the funnel.”
• Tone × CTA language—e.g., “persuasive” and “casual.”
• Content format × Author—e.g., “comparison post” and “Author A.”

Factorial analysis can reveal insightful patterns, such as a specific topic of content performing well only when paired with a particular type of CTA.

Benchmark competitors

Lastly, you can use competitor benchmarking to see if the differences are down to your content or an industry-wide phenomenon. There are a few ways to figure this out:

• Use SEO tools (e.g., Ahrefs, Semrush, Similarweb) to compare how competitors rank for, e.g., topics like timekeeping vs. scheduling. Look at their top keywords and which pages drive the most traffic.
• Conduct a narrative audit to understand how competitors discuss topics. Focus on the language used in CTAs, the tone, and how they position value (e.g., productivity, ease of use, compliance). Are they appealing to urgency, cost-savings, or team empowerment?
• Run a social listening analysis to see how people discuss these topics online. For example, when people talk about timekeeping, are they more interested in how it helps them hit deadlines or track performance? 

If the differences turn out to be industry-wide, you can capitalise on this by investing more in this particularly hot topic. If they’re unique to your brand, you can double down on what’s working and investigate why your other content isn’t performing as well. 

3. Optimise high-performing content

After you identify which content is performing best, you can take action to replicate that success. Ask yourself and your fellow marketing team members these key questions:

• Can we repurpose this content for other formats or platforms? For example, if a blog is doing exceptionally well, could you turn it into a LinkedIn carousel post? (Find more repurposing ideas in our blog, How to Maximise ROI From Your Existing Blog Content.)

• Can we create a repeatable formula for success? For example, you could:

• Feature the same writer on similar topics.
• Use an attention-grabbing title or heading structure to engage readers.
• Adjust content format or tone to better serve your audience.
• Employ the same CTA placement or layout in future content.
• Build internal templates and train your content team on what works.

4. Address content that isn’t working

Learning the “why” behind content performance also helps you address what’s underperforming.

However, not all content underperforms the same. Some pages attract a lot of organic traffic but fail to convert, while others convert well but struggle to get enough traffic. 

Here’s what you can do to fix both types of content:

High organic traffic, low conversions

1. Ensure content matches search intent. Are visitors getting the information they expect? If not, align your content more closely with search intent based on keyword and funnel position.
2. Test and improve CTAs. Compare the CTAs in your poorly performing content to those in your top-performing pieces. Are there differences in tone, length, placement, or design? Test multiple versions (A/B testing) to see which works best. Also, ensure key CTAs are higher on the page. 
3. Check engagement metrics. Analyse bounce rate and scroll depth to see whether users are reading far enough into your content to convert—and where on the page you’re losing them. If bounce rate is high and scroll depth is low, try:

• Writing more compelling intros to encourage users to continue reading
• Breaking up long paragraphs to improve skimmability 
• Including images, quotes, or infographics to add visual intrigue and keep users engaged

4. Look at internal links. Check that your internal links aren’t leading readers away before they reach your primary CTA. Also, consider adding links to high-performing pages or related content to increase assisted conversions. 
5. Refine site experience on mobile. It could be that the desktop experience is fine but the mobile experience is clunky, slow, or frustrating, driving users away. Check mobile load speed, image quality, and CTA visibility.

Low organic traffic, high conversions

1. Improve SEO. Fill keyword gaps, enhance schema (FAQs, lists, tables, etc.), and update old information to boost search engine optimisation (SEO).
2. Repurpose content. High-converting content signals that readers are convinced to convert once they get their eyes on the page. So, fixing the issue of low organic traffic simply means drawing attention to the content. One way to do this is by repurposing the content into different formats or for other channels—e.g., taking a blog article and turning it into a YouTube video.
3. Run paid campaigns. If your budget allows, try running paid ads to expand your content’s reach and increase organic traffic.

Pro Tip

💡 For a full breakdown, head to our blog, How to Deal with Underperforming Content: 9 Strategies.

5. Personalise content by audience and region

Just like not all content performs the same across a population, not all audiences respond similarly to the same content. Attribution reporting helps you spot differences across geographies and segments so you can create more personalised content. 

Fortunately, most platforms—like GA4, HubSpot, Meta, and LinkedIn—already collect detailed geographic and audience data. That gives you one piece of the personalisation puzzle. The rest comes from your content plan: the categories, formats, and metadata you’ve used to organise your content.

From there, you can use factorial analysis and A/B testing to see what works best for different audience segments and regions.

Example case study

To see this in action, let’s consider an example case study. 

Company M is a global B2B delivery company with a modest content budget. To make every dollar count, the content team builds an attribution report in Looker Studio. They then start collecting and analysing data, looking for trends that will help them spot opportunities.

Part I: Customer journeys across regions

The team begins by analysing which content directly leads to conversions (last-touch) and which plays a supporting role (assisted conversions) in the customer journey. 

However, when the team switches to a multi-touch attribution model, they notice something interesting: Their “Fleet Optimisation Guide” draws high traffic in North America and Europe but performs differently in these regions. 

• In North America, it’s often the first touchpoint in the buyer journey. Visitors frequently return later and convert after consuming additional content, such as ROI calculators and case studies.
• In Europe, it’s almost always viewed before conversion, often acting as the last piece of content before a customer requests a demo.

In other words, the same piece of content plays different roles in different regions. 

The team decides to adjust the CTAs used based on region:

• For North America, they add retargeting ads and follow-up emails to nurture leads. 
• For Europe, they insert stronger conversion-focused CTAs directly on the guide page. 

Part II: Storytelling and psychology

Next, the team compares performance across content types. 

They find that case studies perform well in the US and Canada. In Germany and France, however, these same case studies underperform. They have higher bounce rates and lower conversions.

After consulting with a local expert, the team learns that European audiences prefer data-backed formats, like white papers and research benchmarks. In the US, though, emotion-driven storytelling works better. Decision-makers respond well to testimonials and compelling brand narratives.

So, the team makes adjustments:

• For US and Canadian audiences, they add video testimonials and direct quotes for a more personal narrative.
• For European audiences, they commission white papers, industry benchmarks, and a series of comparison pieces with competitors. 

The team retests three months later and sees a 25% increase in time on page and demo requests in the European market. 

More ways to personalise content

The example above highlights two ways to personalise content: by different customer journeys and decision-making preferences. But there are other ways, too. Two effective segmentation options are:

• By content consumption. Instead of segmenting by geography or industry, group users by how they interact with your content. For example, you could segment your audience into users who read 2–5 articles before converting vs. 5–10 or users who mostly consume thought leadership vs. product-focused content.
  
  Segmenting this way requires identifying unique visitors, which is becoming more challenging due to privacy laws and third-party cookies. However, GA4 and other platforms still offer basic behavioural segmentation. At Eleven Writing, we use the user_psuedo_id property from events to achieve this.
  

• By local search habits and SERPs. Search behaviour varies by region—even for the same general topic—mainly due to cultural nuances. For instance, users in Germany may research compliance topics differently from those in the UK.
  
  To understand regional search behaviour, use Google Search Console to analyse which queries drive engagement in different areas. Then, use Ahrefs or Semrush to identify regional audience searches for topics you haven’t covered. Also, compare SERP features—such as FAQ, videos, and featured snippets—as these can vary by country and language. 

Partner With Eleven Writing to Power Up Your Attribution

Attribution reporting is most valuable if you know how to act on it. By turning data into clear, actionable insights, you can optimise your content strategy, prove ROI, and unlock new growth opportunities.

If you’d like expert assistance, Eleven Writing can help. Download our free eBook, Introduction to Multivariate Attribution for Content Marketing, to dive deeper into the frameworks we use with our clients. Or, book a free consultation to learn how we can help your team set up effective attribution reporting.