Not every number is a KPI. Instagram followers are a number; enquiries per month are a KPI if your growth depends on new customers. The test is simple: would any decision change if this number went up or down? If not, it is not a KPI.
Steering a business on a handful of measurable goals goes back to 1950s management thinking. In 1981 George Doran gave those goals the SMART shape: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. In 1992 Robert Kaplan and David Norton argued in the Harvard Business Review for a balanced scorecard: a few measures across finance, customers and processes. The limited number was the point. Today's problem is the opposite: tools hand you dozens of metrics, and tracking everything means tracking nothing.
Our marketing plan template puts those steps on one page, and the marketing budget calculator shows what reaching them costs.
The goal at the top, vanity metrics at the bottom
KPIs
leads per monthcost per leadconversion ratenon-brand clicksrevenue from new customers
Driver metrics
CTRcost per clickrank per queryload time
Vanity metrics
followerslikespage viewsemail opens
The lower the tier, the easier the number rises and the less it says about your customers.
Five KPIs for a business website
| KPI | What it measures | Where you read it |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries per month | Forms, calls, bookings | Your own tracking, your CRM |
| Cost per enquiry | Ad spend divided by enquiries | Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn |
| Conversion rate | Enquiries divided by visitors | Your analytics |
| Non-brand clicks from Google | People who did not know you yet | Search Console |
| Revenue from new customers | What the enquiries turned into | Accounts or CRM |
An online shop swaps the first two for orders and return on ad spend, which the ROAS calculator works out. A B2B firm with long sales cycles counts qualified enquiries rather than all of them. If you sell in several countries, track the same five per market: an average across countries hides the one that is not working. What an enquiry may cost is covered under CPA.
Numbers that only feel good
- Followers and likesReach, not customers.
- Page viewsA site with poor navigation has plenty.
- ImpressionsUseful for spotting growth, worthless without clicks.
- Average position in GoogleAn average over a thousand queries says little; look per query.
- Click-through rate on its ownA high CTR on a weak page just costs money.
- A score from an SEO toolA vendor's metric, not Google's; see domain authority.
- Email opensSince Apple's Mail Privacy Protection arrived in 2021, many opens are counted automatically, so open rates are inflated.
Use these to explain why a KPI moves, never as goals. Then look at the same five numbers every month, in the same place. If they live in four tools, nobody looks; that is why some companies have a custom dashboard built.
What owners ask about their numbers
What is the difference between a KPI and a goal?
The goal is what you want to achieve, say 40 new clients a year. The KPI is the number you watch to see whether you are on track, such as enquiries per month.
How many KPIs should we track?
Three to five. More usually means nobody reads them. Each needs an owner and a target.
What is an OKR, and how does it differ?
An objective with key results: a goal plus a few measurable outcomes for a quarter. The key results often are your KPIs with a target attached.