Marketing KPIs Every Small Business Should Track (With Formulas)
The 12 marketing KPIs worth tracking for a small business, with the formula for each, where to find the data and a simple monthly scorecard.
Business & Retail Tech
What is Key Performance Indicator?
Quick answer
A measurable value that shows how effectively a person, team, or company is achieving an important objective.
Key Performance Indicator, explained
A key performance indicator (KPI) turns goals into numbers that can be tracked over time. A blog might track monthly unique visitors, average time on page, and newsletter signups. A SaaS company might watch monthly recurring revenue, churn rate, and customer acquisition cost. A support team might measure average response time and customer satisfaction scores.
Good KPIs are specific, measurable, tied to strategy, and limited in number, so teams focus on what matters most. A common pitfall is choosing vanity metrics, such as total page views, that look impressive but do not reflect real progress. KPIs are often used alongside OKRs, where KPIs monitor ongoing health and OKRs define ambitious goals for change.
Related terms
Business Intelligence
Tools and practices that collect, analyze, and present business data, usually through reports and dashboards, to support decisions.
Churn RateThe percentage of customers or subscribers who stop using a product or cancel a subscription during a given period.
OKRObjectives and Key Results: a goal-setting framework pairing an ambitious objective with a few measurable results that show progress.
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