Diagnosing Content Performance Issues | Talent Management Best Practices

A common challenge for talent managers is knowing that a talent’s content is underperforming — but not having the knowledge to identify the underlying cause and resolve bottlenecks to growth on social platforms.

This article walks through a clear, operational method to diagnose performance issues using data, so you can guide talent confidently. No guesswork, no vague feedback — just structured, evidence-based analysis that drives results.

—> We will first explain how to use a variety of metrics to analyse content performance.

—> Then we zoom out, applying this method to analyse performance of wider content strategy components.

Together, this gives you a powerful toolbox with which to guide your talents’ growth on social media platforms.

Step 1: Identify Insights From Your Analytics

Identify core insights for your talent over the last 30 days:

• Views

• Accounts reached

• Interactions

• Watch time
  

From here, we can begin to evaluate where your talent stands.

Accessing This Data: Talent Management Software & Solutions

A key challenge is accessing this data for your talent. There are a few software solutions on the market that help to give you access to your talents’ insights and metrics. This includes general influencer marketing software, which can help but is not built for talent management specifically.

IconDesk.co is a talent-manager-specific software, designed by William Soulier (founder of Talent Village) with help from Dom Smales (founder of Gleam Futures) — which provides unique metrics designed for talent managers that you won’t see on social media platforms or other software. This is an effective way to tap into your talents’ social media metrics while also helping shape social media growth with data-driven oversight.

Other options include asking talent for screenshots of their insights, which become outdated quickly, or logging in directly to their social media (which may not be an option depending on your contracts with your talent).

IconDesk View of TikTok Analytics

Step 2: Diagnose Using Analytics

Start by reviewing the analytics for underperforming posts. Focus on three core metrics together, rather than in isolation:

• Views

• Accounts reached

• Engagement

• Watch time / retention
  

The relationship between these metrics reveals the root problem — and what to do next.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking helps you understand what “good” looks like for each talent. Start by comparing recent content performance against their typical averages — views, reach, and interactions. This gives you clear context on what levels of views, reach, and engagement are standard or good for a particular talent.

From here, there are some specific metrics to analyse when diagnosing performance issues:

Views vs Accounts Reached

Look closely at the relationship between Views and Accounts Reached.

In most cases, views will outnumber reach — that’s a positive sign. If a post’s views are 2–3x higher than its reach, it means people are watching the content multiple times or re-engaging, which is a strong indicator of resonance.

This also signals your content distribution health.

However, if views and reach are nearly equal, that suggests the content isn’t sticking. Audiences may be scrolling past or only watching once, signalling weaker engagement and potential issues with content quality or audience fit.

This simple comparison acts as an early indicator of your content distribution health and how well your talent’s audience is connecting with their recent posts.

Views vs Engagement Rate

Engagement rate is measured by the ratio of accounts reached to interactions. For benchmarking context, 10% is high for engagement rate.

If you have high views and low engagement, this signals that whilst you may have a strong hook (causing distribution), your content isn’t engaging the audience deeply enough to move them. Think of this like curiosity clickbait: strong initial intrigue, but weak delivery on what matters — providing value.

The most important thing to ask here is the fundamentals: is this content genuinely entertaining or teaching something useful that people care about? If not — go back to the drawing board.

Fixes:

• Increase value density (entertaining or educational).

• Use a clean structure: Hook → Value → Clear ending.
  

You can also turn passive consumption into active consumption by adding direct calls to action (comment, save, share) and mentioning a specific moment to save this content for if your content is educational (e.g., “save this for the next time you speak to your talent”).

On the other hand, low views but high engagement signals your content is resonating, but distribution is weak. The algorithm isn’t pushing it far enough.

Fixes:

• Strengthen the hook and thumbnail.

• Improve formatting and clarity.

• Repost at peak audience activity times.
  

(As a talent manager, this is where structured scheduling and reminders help — part of professional creator management.) The IconDesk calendar feature makes this process seamless.

Total and Average Watch Time

This is an easy one to confuse, as they appear similar but actually have different implications for talent managers. Having a high total watch time signals healthy distribution, whilst average watch time indicates the impact of your content and retention strength in your videos.

Step 3: Know When to Pivot the Strategy

Most issues can be fixed post by post. But sometimes, the content format or theme itself isn’t resonating anymore — and it's time to pivot.

To evaluate this systematically, track metrics over longer time periods. For example:

Views ÷ Total engagements (engagement rate)

A consistently strong engagement rate signals that the strategy is working to drive engagement. If that ratio declines over weeks or months, the content approach may need adjustment. You should holistically use engagement, reach, and delivery to assess a content strategy.

You can calculate and assess your metrics across:

• Content formats

• Themes

• Pillars
  

Example: Add total views for a content pillar → divide by total engagements.

This isolates which themes are worth doubling down on — and which to ditch. It gives you a consistent framework to guide conversations with talent, grounded in analytics, not opinion.

Final Thoughts

Effective talent and influencer management isn’t just posting schedules and partnerships — it’s knowing how to interpret creator analytics and coach talent through performance dips with clarity and confidence.

Use this diagnostic process as your operational playbook. Over time, it sharpens your eye, builds talent trust, and reinforces your role as a strategic growth partner — not just a manager.

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