Choosing the Right KPIs for Growth (And Ignoring Everything Else)
- Jonathan Eyres
- 19 hours ago
- 3 min read
Most businesses track too many metrics, too few metrics, or the wrong metrics entirely. Some even track numbers just because they look good in a deck.
But growth doesn’t come from watching every chart in your dashboard blink like a Christmas tree. It comes from choosing the right KPIs, the ones tied directly to revenue, efficiency, and momentum while ignoring everything else that’s just taking up oxygen.
Here’s how to choose KPIs that actually drive growth instead of distracting from it.
1. Start With Your Business Model, Not Your Dashboard
Most teams choose KPIs by scrolling through whatever their analytics tool offers. That’s backwards.
Your KPIs should come from:
How your business makes money
How customers move through your buying process
What levers you can realistically influence
Where the biggest bottlenecks live
A SaaS company, an e-commerce brand, and a contractor with a sales team do not share the same KPIs, even if their dashboards look suspiciously similar.
Before picking numbers, ask: “What must happen for the business to grow?”
That question defines your KPIs.
2. Focus on Leading vs Lagging Indicators
Most teams obsess over lagging indicators such as revenue, deals won, pipeline. But lagging indicators only tell you what already happened.
To drive growth, you need the KPIs that predict the future. A healthy KPI mix looks like this:
Leading indicators (predict growth):
Qualified traffic
Conversion rate on key pages
Cost per lead
SQL-to-opportunity rate
Demo requests
Email signup growth
Lagging indicators (prove growth):
Closed revenue
CAC
ROAS
LTV
Monthly recurring revenue
Sales cycle length
Leading indicators keep you proactive. Lagging indicators keep you honest.
You need both. But you need to know the difference.
3. Choose KPIs You Can Actually Influence
If you can’t move it, don’t track it as a KPI.
Examples of KPIs you shouldn’t rely on:
Economic conditions
Industry-wide shifts
Competitor ad spend
Algorithm updates
These matter, but you can’t control them. KPIs should be levers you can pull, not weather reports you hope turn favorable.
If your team can’t take action to improve a KPI, it’s not a KPI - it’s scenery.
4. Tie Every KPI to a Growth Lever
Your KPIs should map to the three pillars of growth:
Acquisition
Cost per lead
Cost per acquisition
New user growth
First-touch conversions
Activation/Conversion
Lead-to-opportunity conversion
Landing page conversion rates
SQL acceptance rate
Cart completion rate
Retention and Expansion
Churn rate
Repeat purchase rate
LTV
Expansion revenue
If a KPI doesn’t connect to acquisition, conversion, or retention, it’s probably a vanity metric dressed up as something important.
5. Set KPI Targets With Actual Math, Not Vibes
Too many teams choose KPI targets by guessing or wishing.
Real KPI targets come from:
Historical performance
Industry benchmarks
Funnel math
Capacity
Budget
If you know your average lead-to-close rate is 10 percent and your average deal size is $5,000, then you can reverse-engineer the KPIs required for your revenue goal.
Growth isn’t magic — it’s math.
6. Keep the List Short Enough That People Remember It
KPIs lose power the moment you track too many of them.
Ideal ranges:
Company-level KPIs: 5–7
Marketing-level KPIs: 5–8
Channel-level KPIs: 3–5
If your KPI list looks like a Cheesecake Factory menu, it’s too long. Nobody can focus on 22 “primary metrics.” Not even robots.
7. Review KPIs at the Right Cadence
Different KPIs move on different timelines.
Weekly: leading indicators
Monthly: full-funnel performance
Quarterly: strategic adjustments
Annually: KPI resets and expansions
Matching your cadence to the pace of the metric keeps everything aligned and eliminates overreaction.
Final Thoughts
KPIs don’t exist to look impressive. They exist to create clarity, drive decisions, and keep the business pointed toward growth.
Choose a small set of meaningful KPIs. Tie each one to a growth lever. Set real targets based on math. Review them consistently. Eliminate anything that’s just noise.
Do that, and your KPIs become what they were meant to be - the steering system for your entire marketing engine.
Next in the Series:
“Building a Forecast You Can Actually Trust.” A practical guide to turning past performance and current signals into predictions leadership won’t laugh at. You can find all the helpful articles at The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing: Strategies, Trends, and Best Practices.
