What KPIs should a marketer set?

Those that pass three tests: the marketer can influence them, they are related to money and they cannot be improved to the detriment of the business. Typically these are the cost per lead, the proportion of qualified applications, the cost of the client and the return on investment of the channel. Five to seven indicators are enough.

Why can't reach be a KPI?

Because it grows regardless of the result: coverage can be increased with the budget without receiving a single application. An indicator that can grow with constant money is not key - it is diagnostic.

Is it possible to set a KPI for a marketer based on revenue?

A full-time marketer in a company with a strong sales department - with reservations: he does not manage either the price, or the quality of processing applications, or the product. It’s more honest to set revenue as the overall goal of the team, and personal KPI on the manageable part of the funnel.

How do agency KPIs differ from the KPIs of a full-time marketer?

The agency almost never manages sales, product and price, so its metrics end at the qualified application. An in-house marketer has a deeper influence and can be responsible for conversion to payment and customer returns.

Why is the KPI for the number of leads dangerous?

It improves by reducing quality in one day: expand targeting, simplify the form, promise more - and there will be twice as many leads and less money. This indicator is put only in conjunction with the share of qualified people.

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StrategySeptember 5, 20269 min

Marketer KPIs: what to put in the dashboard and what to leave in work files

A dashboard of twenty metrics is not read. I analyze which indicators really make it to the top, how marketer metrics differ from agency metrics, why coverage is not a KPI, and how to connect indicators with money.

A conversation about a marketer’s KPIs usually ends with a list of twenty metrics that no one opens. The problem is not the numbers, but the fact that most of these indicators do not pass a simple test of suitability.

A metric is good as a KPI if it can be influenced by a marketer, it is related to money, and it cannot be improved in a way that harms the business. Three conditions at the same time.

1. Three checks

Indicator	Are we managing?	Related to money?	Sustainable?
Coverage	yes	no	no
Subscribers	yes	no	no
Number of leads	yes	partially	no
Application cost	yes	yes	partially
Proportion of qualified applications	partially	yes	yes
Customer cost	partially	yes	yes
Revenue	no	yes	yes

The top two lines are what is most often included in reports. Both fail two out of three tests: coverage grows depending on the budget, regardless of the result, subscribers are bought.

The bottom line fails the first test. The marketer does not control the price, the product, or the quality of processing applications - it is dishonest to set his revenue with personal KPIs. As a common team goal, yes.

2. Metrics are put in pairs

Any single indicator is skewed. This is not malicious intent, it is a property: people optimize what is measured.

number of applications - together with the share of qualified ones;
traffic - along with depth or conversion;
cost per lead - together with the cost of the client;
new clients - along with retention.

Each pair is constructed the same way: volume on the left, quality on the right. You can improve both parts at the same time only with real work, and not by tweaking one number.

3. Agency and full-time marketer - different sets

The agency almost never manages sales, product and price. His zone ends with a qualified application, and then someone else’s responsibility begins.

Therefore, the agency’s KPIs are: cost per lead, share of qualified ones, volume within the budget, compliance with deadlines. Setting the agency's revenue is a way to get a dispute at the first discrepancy, because there will always be a reason on both sides.

A full-time marketer has a deeper influence: he works with product pages, returns, and the database. Its set may include payment conversion and repeat purchases.

Ready file with agency metrics - in KPI dashboard: there is a sales funnel, unit economics, revenue and team utilization.

4. Five to seven lines up

The limitation is not aesthetic. A dashboard of twenty metrics is not physically read in its entirety, which means decisions are not made on it - it turns into a ritual.

The practice is simple: at the top there are five to seven indicators that determine this month's decisions. Everything else lives in working files and opens when the top number drops and you need to figure out why.

5. The column that makes the report work

For each indicator there is one sentence about what we can do about it. Not a description that the figure has risen or fallen, but a decision.

Without this column, the dashboard remains an archive. With it, it becomes a document to which they return a month later with the question “did we do it?” Read more about the format in analysis of a marketer's report.

6. How to connect indicators with money

A chain that converts marketing metrics into financial ones: lead cost → conversion to payment → customer cost → revenue per customer → payback.

Each link is counted separately, and a break in any one breaks the entire chain. Analysis of mechanics - in the article about a combination of CPL, CAC and LTV, calculation - in unit economics calculator.

7. How often to review

Once a quarter and only according to data. A set of KPIs that changes every month does not allow you to accumulate a comparable history: you start measuring again every time.

A sign that it’s time to change: the indicator has remained stagnant for three quarters in a row or is growing regardless of efforts. Both of these mean that he doesn't report anything else.

8. Summary

Three checks: controllability, connection with money, resistance to manipulation. Metrics are set in pairs “volume and quality”. To the top - five to seven lines with a solutions column.

And the main division: an agency cannot be assigned revenue; a full-time marketer cannot be assigned only applications. Both mistakes end in the same way - a dispute about who is to blame.