A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric chosen to measure progress toward a specific goal, such as conversion rate, retention, or average order value.
Category
Metrics
Also known as
KPI; KPIs
The word “key” does the work: KPIs are the small set of metrics that actually drive decisions, separated from the many you could track. In marketing the common failure is measuring what is easy, such as opens and impressions, rather than what maps to the goal, such as revenue and retention.
In practice
Pick a short list of KPIs tied to outcomes, and for each one name the decision it informs. A metric that informs no decision is a report, not a KPI.
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