by Phil Pangalos

In today’s crowded sports media landscape, creating meaningful fan engagement isn’t just about content volume - it’s about content impact. Are fans completing your activations? Are your headlines resonating? Are gated experiences driving registrations, or driving people away?

With Playbook Analytics, sports organisations now have simple, powerful tools to answer those questions and shape smarter strategies.

In this blog, we’ll explore five ways you can use Playbook’s audience interaction insights, like completion trends and voting behaviour, to shape smarter campaigns, better understand your fans, and improve content decisions across your owned and operated platforms.

#1. Learn What Hits: Use Completion Rates as an Indicator 

Completion rate may sound like a basic metric, but when used correctly, it’s a powerful indicator of what’s working – and what’s not.

Across recent activations run by leading sports organisations, we’ve seen completion rates vary from under 10% for speculative or low-relevance questions to over 90% for structured, recurring formats – especially those tied to player recognition or fan-voted awards.

The takeaway? High completion rates signal strong fan engagement and content fit. Low completion rates suggest a disconnect - whether that’s topic, timing, or placement.

Use this insight to:

• Spot the formats your fans complete most often
• Identify which activations underperform (and iterate)
• Establish benchmarks to improve future engagement
  

#2. Test Smarter: Headlines, Formats, and Framing Matter

Playbook’s analytics allow you to compare performance across similar activations, helping you A/B test ideas without running complex experiments.

One organisation saw a near 2x increase in completion rate simply by reframing a question headline. Another saw double the votes on a nearly identical activation that swapped speculative phrasing (“Is X athlete the best?”) for confident, direct wording (“Who is the best?”).

This aligns with wider trends: research from the Content Marketing Institute shows that articles with compelling headlines receive 73% more shares, and emotional titles can drive up to 300% more engagement. The message is clear — wording matters.

When you’re publishing weekly or even daily, these micro-optimisations make a big difference.

Use this insight to:

• Test different headline styles or tones
• Compare question framing over time
• Let the data guide what resonates with fans

#3. To Gate or Not to Gate? Let the Metrics Decide

Sometimes engagement is the goal. Other times, it’s registration. Playbook gives you the numbers to assess which is delivering more value, and when it’s worth introducing friction.

For instance, high-value activations like “Player of the Month” or end-of-season awards often perform well even when gated, making them ideal for driving registrations. On the flip side, lower-value interactions — like casual “Player X vs. Player Y” comparisons — may be better left ungated to maximise completion and reach.

There’s no one-size-fits-all rule. What matters is having the numbers to weigh the trade-off.

Use this insight to:

• Compare completion vs. registration outcomes
• Decide which experiences to gate for data capture
• Test different approaches by audience segment
  

#4. Spot Trends Over Time: Let Seasonality Guide Strategy

Beyond single-activation insights, Playbook analytics can help you identify broader trends across time, showing when fans are most engaged, and which content types perform best during the season vs. the off-season.

We’ve seen recurring, season-based activations like “Player of the Month” or “Match Predictor” maintain consistently high completion rates, even as overall traffic fluctuates. By contrast, one-off activations during low-engagement periods saw completion rates dip below 15%.

Tracking month-on-month helps content teams anticipate dips, optimise scheduling, and double down on proven formats.

Use this insight to:

• Map engagement trends across the calendar
• Plan high-performing formats around peak windows
• Identify when fans are most likely to act

#5. Align With Audience Behaviour: Placement, Timing, and Context Count

Where your activation appears (and when) can significantly affect results.

Activations embedded in feature slots or promoted as part of weekly content plans saw far higher completion rates than those dropped into feeds with no clear context. One campaign saw completion rates jump from 21% to over 70% simply by adjusting the placement and timing around a relevant match.

In short, fans engage more when the experience feels timely and intentional.

Use this insight to:

• Coordinate activations with editorial moments
• Repeat high-performing formats in consistent slots
• Promote interactive experiences through newsletters, app pushes, or social

Smarter Decisions, Stronger Engagement

With the right signals, like how fans interact, respond, and complete your activations, you can make sharper decisions, faster. Playbook’s enhanced analytics give you the clarity to optimise what works, evolve what doesn’t, and build a stronger fan experience with every campaign.

Ready to sharpen your fan engagement strategy? Explore how Playbook helps you understand your audience, personalise their experience, and deliver data-backed activations that actually work.