Product descriptions often lack lobby in e-commerce. They tend to be seen by management as a necessary accessory - and as a cost factor. Product copy in general is often overlooked in the big mix of pricing, buying strategy, market analysis and marketing. This is not because it is ineffective. Product copy can be a very powerful tool in e-commerce - provided it is of the right quality.
If product copy is not a high priority, all the content team can do is go through the copy as quickly as possible and quickly revise existing content. In many cases, this is driven by the requirements of search engine optimisation. However, with this less goal-oriented approach, there is a risk that quality will be compromised and effectiveness reduced.

Start the optimisation cycle

The first step out of this self-reinforcing negative spiral is to measure the success of product copy and use the results to demonstrate the value of product content to management. Measuring shows where content can be improved, which then leads to better results - thus starting a positive cycle of improvement.
But what indicators can be used to prove the impact of product texts? And what measurements can the content team use to make their work and optimisation efforts visible?

Differences between content KPIs and general online shop KPIs

Most e-commerce companies measure their success and evaluate the performance of the shop using certain indicators. Can the content team now adopt these measurements and derive the impact of the copy? 
At first glance, there is some overlap in terms of measurement, but general online shop KPIs and content KPIs have different objectives, focuses and levels of analysis: Shop KPIs look at the entire customer journey, from first contact to conversion and customer retention. Content KPIs, on the other hand, focus specifically on the performance and impact of individual text elements.

Impact on SEO

SEO performance is an important aspect of evaluating the impact of content and is usually already targeted by the SEO team, where measurement and analysis are part of the day-to-day tasks. However, the results are also of interest to the content team in terms of content quality.

SEO indicator: Visibility

How do the relevant pages perform for specific keywords? Are they displayed frequently enough and in good positions on the Google search results page? A good content strategy and well thought-out keyword management are crucial to the performance of pages - and both are conveyed through text. Google acts as a quality checker, assessing whether your content is relevant to search queries and useful to users.

SEO indicator: Click-through rate (organic)

This measures the ratio of impressions (i.e. how many times your page is displayed in the search results) to the number of clicks on that result (i.e. how many users come to your shop from Google). 
Of course, the position of the page is important here - the content that has an effect here is the SEO-specific content, such as the title and meta descriptions.SEO Indikator: Click-through Rate (organisch)

How well does a text perform?

When developing a content strategy, the content team can derive key indicators from the main communication objectives of product descriptions or similar texts on filter-, category- and product detail pages. 
Obviously, the main objective is for the content to lead to a purchase (conversion rate). However, using the conversion rate as the sole measure of the text's impact is often not enough. 
In most cases, the communication goal of product copy is not just a purchase decision, but the right purchase decision.  And here there are a number of indicators that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of copywriting:

Conversion rate / Add to cart rate

The conversion rate is the key metric in e-commerce - and product descriptions play an important role in this, as they should inform visitors to the online store about the product and persuade them to buy it. If the texts do their job well, this will be reflected in the shopping basket and the conversion rate.
However, the conversion rate depends on so many factors that it is difficult to single out the text factor.

Interaction with text: Dwell time/Bounce rate on a page

Text is only effective if it is read - and that takes time. High and fast bounce rates indicate that customers are not reading the text or are only skimming it.
There are many reasons for this, but one factor may be the relevance of the content to the customer: Creating relevant content that adds value to your visitors will increase their potential time on the page and the likelihood of conversion.

Return rate and support effort

Service metrics are the most straightforward indicators of good content quality. A low return rate indicates the right purchase decision, and this is often based on the product content: the better an offer is described, the lower the likelihood of a bad purchase and therefore a return. In an e-commerce shop, the description should be able to replace a sales pitch in the shop.
Support costs are also directly affected by the quality of product content. Good product content provides important information; if the description answers all the important questions, visitors will need to contact support less often.
A content team that can show that its work and text optimisation have reduced the number of returns and support cases will have the key argument of cost savings on its side.

KPIs in the content team

Product content KPIs need not be limited to the impact of text. A content team can also analyse the effect of its own work processes and, for example, innovations such as the use of AI or other automation.
An interpretation of the results can then lead to decisions to change strategies and processes, ideally resulting in both greater efficiency and good content quality.
Here are some ideas for possible (key) indicators for the content team:

• Number of products launched / days to market for products
• Time to content: Average production time per product description
• Number of product descriptions created/published in a given time period
• Product coverage measurement (how many products have product descriptions?)
• Automation rate
• Update cycles

Establishing and optimising content KPIs

Deriving KPIs from business and communication objectives and carefully selecting performance indicators is not without effort. In addition, it is only by regularly analysing and, in some cases, revising these KPIs that improvements in the measured areas can be achieved. To ensure good results, measurement, interpretation and optimisation must be established. 

In this way, KPIs help to continuously evaluate both the quality of the content and the work of the content team. Above all, they help to demonstrate the team's strategic contribution to the company's success.