September 24, 2025
by Yashwathy Marudhachalam / September 24, 2025
KPIs are the foundation for proving marketing’s impact. Without them, budgets get wasted, campaigns lose direction, and leadership reports turn into guesswork. In a world where every dollar is under scrutiny, tracking marketing KPIs isn’t optional; it’s the only way to show measurable business results.
This is where marketing analytics software helps. It turns raw marketing metrics into insights and dashboards that highlight which campaigns drive revenue, which channels deliver efficiency, and where ROI is strongest. The challenge, however, isn’t just tracking numbers; it’s knowing which ones truly matter.
Marketing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are measurable metrics that show how effectively marketing activities achieve business goals like revenue growth, lead generation, and customer retention. They help marketers track performance, optimize strategies, and prove marketing’s impact on the bottom line.
Marketing KPIs (key performance indicators) transform activity into accountability. They help answer the hard questions: Are campaigns generating revenue? Is your cost per customer sustainable? Which channels actually contribute to growth? With the right KPIs and the right tools, you can focus on the metrics that move the business forward instead of those that just look good on the surface.
Despite all the dashboards in the world, confidence is still lagging — only 23% of marketers say they’re confident they track the right marketing KPIs. That gap is exactly why this section matters: picking and reporting the right indicators turns activity into outcomes that leadership can trust. KPIs are crucial for marketing success because they provide a data-driven way to measure progress and campaign effectiveness. Without them, marketing efforts can be like flying blind - you're putting resources in but unsure of the impact.
By tracking KPIs aligned with marketing goals (brand awareness, website traffic, sales), marketers can:
However, measuring the effectiveness of your marketing team’s activities isn’t always easy, meaning setting KPIs for your team can’t be done on a whim.
Without tracking the right KPIs, your team could spend too much time on projects that don’t matter as much to the overall department and company goals as other activities might.
Wait... aren’t KPIs, metrics, and vanity metrics basically the same thing?
Not quite — and understanding the difference matters more than you might think.
Think of it this way:
All KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs — and some metrics are just vanity in disguise.
Here’s a quick reference to put it in context:
| Type | Purpose | Examples |
| KPI | Drives strategic decisions and measures goal progress | CAC, CLV, Marketing ROI, Activation Rate |
| Metric | Tracks operational activity and supports optimization | Website sessions, CTR, Time on page |
| Vanity metric | Looks good but offers little actionable insight | Social followers, Pageviews, Likes |
Ask yourself:
Track all three, but spotlight KPIs that move the business forward. Use vanity metrics only as directional or secondary indicators.
Marketers don’t fail because they lack data — they fail because they track too much of the wrong data. Choosing the right KPIs isn’t guesswork; it’s about connecting business objectives to measurable outcomes through a repeatable framework.
“...do your marketing KPIs help you move the needle?”
Jonathan Aufray
CEO of Growth Hackers
By stepping away from the traditional KPIs and looking at other goals that your department and company have set, you may wonder how to ensure that the KPIs you choose are the right ones for your marketing department.
Here’s a structured approach to get it right.
Start at the top. Ask: What is the company trying to achieve this quarter or year?
Common objectives include:
Tip: If you can’t link a KPI to a strategic business objective, it doesn’t belong on your marketing dashboard.
KPQs help filter which metrics are relevant and prevent random reporting.
Now, choose indicators that can directly answer your questions.
Each KPI should be:
Without targets, KPIs are just numbers. Set SMART targets (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound).
Before finalizing, ask:
If the answer is “yes” across the board, you’ve chosen the right KPI.
Sometimes, choosing KPIs is a process of elimination. Instead of starting from scratch, looking at common KPIs that other marketing teams measure to inspire your own unique twist that better fits your team’s goals can be helpful.
Below are some marketing metrics seen in marketing dashboards across many industries.
Many more sales KPIs are about to follow this one, but the best way to prove your marketing team’s success is to note the growth in sales revenue.
Keeping track of how much sales revenue your inbound marketing campaigns bring to your company is crucial for knowing how effective those campaigns really are. If an inbound marketing campaign isn’t generating enough revenue, why continue down the same path? Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.”
Measuring sales revenue from inbound marketing will indicate to you and your team whether repeating the same efforts is right or if you’re going down the path of insanity. If that’s the case, it’s time to try something new.
Sales revenue attributed to inbound = Total revenue × %from inbound campaigns
Example:
Suppose your company earns $5,000,000 in revenue during the quarter. Attribution data shows that 35% of that revenue came directly from inbound marketing campaigns such as organic search and gated content.
By multiplying $5,000,000 by 0.35, you calculate that inbound campaigns generated $1,750,000 in revenue.
Variations: Revenue can be broken down by product line (to see which offerings are most effective at driving inbound sales), by geography (to analyze inbound effectiveness in specific regions), or by customer segment (to compare inbound impact across enterprise vs SMB buyers).
Pitfalls: Marketers often confuse marketing-sourced revenue with marketing-influenced revenue. If you report influenced revenue (campaigns that touched the buyer journey at some point), the numbers may look inflated. Without clarifying definitions, inbound marketing can appear more effective than it really is.
Attribution Caveat: If you use a last-click model, inbound may appear to contribute little despite assisting earlier funnel metrics. Multi-touch attribution distributes credit across the journey using clearer attribution metrics.
CAC is the total amount it costs to convince a lead to become a customer. This marketing KPI is often also considered a KPI of the entire company; if the cost to acquire customers is greater than the revenue from those customers, your business model needs revision.
Setting goals for customer acquisition cost makes the most sense when paired with customer lifetime value (see 4).
CAC = sales + marketing expenses ÷ new customers acquired
Example:
If we have a business that spends $200,000 on customer acquisition and their efforts result in 4,000 customers, the calculation would look like:
Customer acquisition cost = $200,000 ÷ 4,000 = $50.00
In this case, the marketing team acquired each customer for $50.00.
Variations: Some companies calculate blended CAC, which includes both sales and marketing expenses together. Others use marketing-only CAC to isolate campaign performance. Startups often track CAC by channel, such as CAC from paid ads versus CAC from organic search, to see where efficiency can be improved.
Pitfalls: One common mistake is leaving out indirect costs like salaries, software, or agency fees. This makes CAC look artificially low and creates misleading efficiency metrics. Another issue is looking at CAC in isolation. A $1,000 CAC may sound expensive, but if CLV is $10,000, it’s healthy.
Attribution caveat: A first-touch model may over-credit content, while a last-click model may over-credit paid. Multi-touch provides truer CAC insights via cleaner attribution metrics in your CRM.
Knowing how much you make from marketing efforts is just as important as knowing how much it costs to get there. Turning strangers into contacts doesn’t happen magically, and the first step towards this process is determining whether or not these strangers qualify as leads.
Determining your CPL can show your team exactly the amount you’re spending to acquire new customers. To do this, both your CRM and marketing automation software will need to be integrated so that you can accurately follow relevant actions.
Average CPL = total marketing cost ÷ total new leads
Example:
If the total cost of a single campaign is $12,000 and, after running its course, 1,080 new leads are gained, then the average CPL is $11.11
$12,000 ÷ 1,080 = $11.11
Noting the individual sources of leads and the associated costs can lead to insights that can help your team make better decisions and investments in marketing activities in the future.
Variations: CPL can be calculated by channel, such as comparing CPL from LinkedIn Ads versus Google Ads, which shows where you’re getting the best cost efficiency. Some companies also measure CPL specifically for Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), giving a more accurate sense of how much it costs to generate leads that actually enter the sales pipeline.
Pitfalls: Many marketers make the mistake of focusing only on lowering CPL, which often results in high volumes of unqualified leads. While a $3 CPL from a giveaway campaign might look efficient, if those leads never convert, the number is meaningless. Another issue is forgetting to include indirect expenses like design or marketing software, which makes the CPL artificially low.
Attribution caveat: Single-touch attribution oversimplifies CPL, often over-crediting the last channel in the funnel, such as Google Ads. Multi-touch attribution distributes the cost across multiple interactions, which usually raises CPL but provides a more realistic picture of customer acquisition. Without CRM integration, CPL numbers can be incomplete or misleading.
The customer lifetime value predicts the total amount of money a customer will spend in your business during their lifetime. While putting a number on a customer's worth may feel strange, this KPI helps you and your team decide on investments in acquiring and retaining new customers.
Customer lifetime value = revenue x gross margin x average # of repeat purchases
Let’s break this equation down even further:
A good customer lifetime value can only be calculated once customer acquisition cost is considered. CLV is a key metric for businesses to monitor. Calculating this formula gives you insight into how effective your spending is and also helps you justify your customer acquisition spend.
Example:
The average sale for Business X is $50,000, and the average customer shops with this business three times a year for two years.
Customer Lifetime Value = $50,000 x 3 x 2 = $300,000
The gross margin is calculated at 20%.
Customer Lifetime Value = $300,000 x 20% = $60,000
Measuring the value of a relationship doesn’t have to be done by hand. Integrating your marketing automation software with CRM software can help you find all of the information you need to accurately calculate customer lifetime value.
Variations: CLV can be calculated as revenue-based or profit-based, depending on whether you factor in gross margin. More advanced teams use predictive CLV models, which apply historical cohort data and machine learning to estimate future customer value.
Pitfalls: The biggest error is overestimating customer lifespan. Assuming customers will stay longer than they actually do inflates CLV and creates unrealistic acquisition budgets. Another common pitfall is treating all customers as equal when in reality, enterprise customers often generate dramatically higher CLV than SMBs.
Attribution Caveat: CLV only becomes meaningful when paired with CAC. If attribution models inflate CAC for certain channels, your CLV:CAC ratio may look worse than it actually is. Multi-touch attribution helps balance credit across the full journey, ensuring you’re not undervaluing channels that build long-term customers.
Every marketer knows that it’s better to retain the same customers than to spend money to acquire new ones. High customer retention is an indicator that your business is providing value that your customers struggle to find elsewhere and that they’re happy with the way they’re being served.
While important for sales departments to measure, customer retention marketing is also crucial for teams because it tells you how well you’re communicating your business’s value. The longer you can keep a customer around, the more their lifetime value grows, allowing you to focus on acquiring new customers that fit more closely to that persona.
Customer retention rate = (# of customers at the end of the period - # of customers acquired during the period) ÷ number of customers at the start of the period
Example:
Let’s start with a business that begins its month (time period) with 200 customers. In that month, it loses 15 customers but gains 23 new customers. At the end of the period, it has 208 customers.
(208 - 23) ÷ 200 = 92.5% retention rate
Variations: Retention can be measured by customer count (logo retention) or by revenue (revenue retention). Revenue retention is often more insightful because it accounts for upsells, downgrades, and contract size. Some teams also track Net Revenue Retention (NRR), which includes expansion revenue.
Pitfalls: Looking only at customer count can mask revenue decline if large customers churn but are offset by smaller accounts. Another mistake is measuring retention over too short a period, which can exaggerate volatility.
Attribution Caveat: Retention is often influenced by marketing activities like customer communities, loyalty programs, or success campaigns, but these aren’t always credited in traditional attribution models. Without lifecycle-based attribution, marketing’s role in retention is understated.
A large part of marketing is acquiring leads. While keeping track of that number is important, wouldn’t tracking how many people become customers is more important?
The lead-to-customer ratio is a critical number that marketing teams should measure to determine their conversion effectiveness. Typically calculated weekly or monthly, this conversion rate has no benchmark. While 4% may be a horrible number for one company, it could be a positive result for the company next door.
Lead-to-customer ratio = # of qualified leads that resulted in sales ÷ total # of qualified leads
Example:
A marketing team generates 100 qualified leads in one month. Of those 100 qualified leads, 14 go on to make a purchase.
14 ÷ 100 = 14% conversion rate
Variations: You can calculate this KPI at different funnel stages, such as MQL to SQL conversion or SQL-to-Closed Won. Each variation helps diagnose where leads are dropping off.
Pitfalls: Benchmarks vary dramatically by industry. A 5% conversion rate may be poor in e-commerce but excellent in enterprise SaaS. Comparing across industries without context can be misleading.
Attribution caveat: Accurate ratios require clean CRM data. If leads aren’t tagged consistently with their marketing source, attribution models may skew the conversion numbers and give undue credit to certain channels.
Converting website visitors into leads (whether marketing-qualified or sales-qualified) is typically done with a form. Forms are a way of exchanging value between visitors and marketers.
For visitors, the value might come from an e-book, a demo, a live webinar, or a playbook. For marketers looking to collect leads, value comes from contact information.
Forms that don’t perform well could be a result of several things:
Like much of marketing, forms and landing pages are all about experimentation. Leveraging A/B testing can help improve a form conversion rate. Copy can be tested, the layout can be changed, or information required from the visitor can be reduced.
Form conversion rate = # of form submissions ÷ # of page visitors
Example:
A landing page has a form offering a free trial of a product. In its first month, it had 1,200 visitors and 240 submissions.
240 ÷ 1,200 = 20% form conversion rate
Variations: You can calculate form conversion by asset type, such as demo requests, eBooks, or webinars. Another variation is to segment by traffic source, comparing conversion rates from organic search versus paid ads.
Pitfalls: Chasing higher conversion rates can backfire if you reduce form fields so much that lead quality suffers. Another mistake is ignoring the offer itself — a weak incentive will naturally lower conversion, no matter how optimized the page is.
Attribution caveat: Forms can be skewed by bot traffic or duplicate entries, which inflate numbers. Attribution tracking is also important to know which campaigns drove form submissions rather than just measuring raw page traffic.
Companies invest a lot of money in many different activities. Return on investment, or ROI, is typically an overall company KPI that measures its ROI using the equation (return — investment) ÷ investment.
To facilitate a business's operations, departments like marketing often keep track of their own ROI, which can be combined with other departments’ sums to find the total sum for the business.
The equation for marketing ROI is difficult to specify because every marketing department invests in different things: software, employees, supplies, ad space, etc. Instead, a more general equation acts as an umbrella over all of your expenses.
Marketing ROI = (profit - marketing investment - *overhead costs - *incremental expenses) ÷ marketing investment
Example:
If your marketing department spends $100,000 in a quarter and generates $500,000 in attributable revenue, you subtract $100,000 from $500,000 to find a net return of $400,000.
Dividing $400,000 by $100,000 gives an ROI of 400%, meaning every $1 invested returned $4.
* Each business and marketing department must determine whether or not to include overhead costs and incremental expenses in their equations. Not including these costs may provide a more accurate estimate of ROI, but it’s important that whatever elements are chosen to be used in this equation are used consistently.
Marketing ROI can be difficult to calculate for the first time because it involves interpreting what the terms mean to you and your business. For example, the term “return” could mean:
Again, there is no right or wrong way to measure marketing ROI. What’s most important is that the way this KPI is measured the first time is the way it will be measured in the future.
Variations: Some teams calculate ROI using gross profit (revenue minus cost of goods sold) rather than revenue. Others adjust ROI by campaign, by channel, or by net profit. Each variation depends on how your organization defines “return.”
Pitfalls: Inconsistent definitions create confusion. If one team uses revenue while another uses profit, their ROI numbers can’t be compared. Another mistake is failing to account for overhead costs like salaries, which can inflate ROI.
Attribution Caveat: ROI calculations vary drastically depending on attribution models. Last-click attribution may make paid ads look highly profitable while undervaluing top-of-funnel campaigns. Multi-touch attribution gives a truer sense of ROI but requires advanced data tracking.
Pipeline contribution measures how much of the sales pipeline is generated by marketing efforts. It quantifies the share of opportunities that come directly from marketing-sourced leads or campaigns. This KPI connects marketing activity to revenue opportunities, making it easier to show the department’s business impact. It also aligns marketing and sales by clarifying how much pipeline marketing is responsible for creating.
Pipeline contribution % = marketing - sourced pipeline ÷ total pipeline x 100
Example:
If your total pipeline is worth $10 million and $4 million of it originated from marketing activities, you divide $4 million by $10 million and multiply by 100.
The result shows that marketing contributed 40% of the pipeline.
Variations: Some teams report marketing-sourced pipeline (opportunities directly created by marketing) separately from marketing-influenced pipeline (opportunities touched by marketing at any point).
Pitfalls: Mixing sourced and influenced pipeline inflates marketing’s numbers. Reporting only pipeline contribution without closed-won revenue also risks overstating the impact.
Attribution caveat: Single-touch attribution tends to underreport marketing’s contribution, while multi-touch attribution reveals how marketing campaigns support opportunities throughout the funnel.
ROAS measures the direct revenue generated from advertising compared to the amount spent on ads. It shows how effective your paid media investments are at driving sales. ROAS is often the KPI of choice for performance marketers. It helps determine whether ad budgets should be scaled, optimized, or cut.
ROAS = revenue from ads ÷ ad spend
Example:
If you spend $50,000 on paid search ads and they generate $250,000 in revenue, dividing $250,000 by $50,000 gives a ROAS of 5x.
That means every dollar spent on ads returned $5 in revenue.
Variations: ROAS can be calculated for individual campaigns, ad sets, or entire channels. Some teams measure gross ROAS (using revenue) versus net ROAS (using profit).
Pitfalls: A campaign may show a high ROAS but still be unprofitable if product margins are thin. Another mistake is focusing only on ROAS without considering customer lifetime value.
Attribution Caveat: Ad platforms often inflate ROAS by using view-through conversions. Independent analytics and multi-touch attribution provide a more accurate view of ad performance.
An MQL is a lead that has shown enough engagement or fits a target profile well enough to be passed to sales for further qualification. Tracking MQLs helps ensure marketing generates leads that have real potential to convert. It’s a bridge metric that connects top-of-funnel activity with sales readiness.
MQL rate = MQL total ÷ leads ×100
Example:
If a campaign generates 1,000 leads and 300 of them meet your company’s qualification criteria, dividing 300 by 1,000 gives an MQL rate of 30%.
Variations: MQLs can be based on behavioral signals like webinar attendance or multiple site visits, or demographic signals such as job title or company size. Some companies use lead scoring models to assign points and decide when a lead becomes an MQL.
Pitfalls: If the definition of MQL is too loose, marketing may pass many low-quality leads to sales, eroding trust. On the other hand, too strict criteria may limit pipeline growth.
Attribution caveat: Attribution impacts which campaigns are credited with generating MQLs. Without alignment between sales and marketing, disputes over lead quality and ownership can arise.
CTR measures the percentage of email recipients who clicked on at least one link in your message. It reflects whether your content and call-to-action motivated engagement. While open rates show subject line performance, CTR reveals actual interest in the content itself. It’s a more reliable indicator of whether email campaigns are influencing behavior.
CTR = clicks ÷ delivered emails ×100
Example:
If you send 10,000 emails and 700 people click a link, dividing 700 by 10,000 gives a CTR of 7%. This means 7 out of every 100 recipients took action.
Variations: CTR can be measured as unique CTR (counting only one click per recipient) or total CTR (counting every click). Teams often compare CTR across different email types such as newsletters, promotions, or onboarding sequences.
Pitfalls: Relying solely on CTR can be misleading if your list is unengaged. A 7% CTR might look strong, but if your open rates are very low, it suggests your reach is limited.
Attribution caveat: CTR measures engagement, not intent to purchase. Attribution models that credit all conversions to email clicks can overstate email’s role in driving revenue.
This KPI tracks how much your audience interacts with social content compared to impressions or followers. It includes likes, comments, shares, and saves.
Engagement rate reflects whether your content resonates and sparks interaction. It’s more valuable than follower count because it shows active participation, not just passive reach.
Engagement rate = likes + comments + shares ÷ followers or impressions × 100
Example:
If a LinkedIn post gets 2,000 interactions and your page has 20,000 followers, dividing 2,000 by 20,000 gives an engagement rate of 10%.
That means one in every ten followers engaged with the post.
Variations: Engagement can be calculated by post, by campaign, or across an entire channel. Using impressions instead of followers provides a better sense of engagement relative to reach.
Pitfalls: High engagement doesn’t always equal revenue. Posts with memes or giveaways may drive likes but not pipeline.
Attribution caveat: Engagement rarely converts directly. Without UTM-tagged links, attribution models may undervalue the role social plays in awareness and nurturing.
NPS measures customer loyalty by asking how likely customers are to recommend your product or service on a scale from 0 to 10. Promoters score 9–10, passives score 7–8, and detractors score 0–6. A high NPS signals strong customer advocacy, which often correlates with retention and referrals. It’s one of the simplest ways to assess long-term satisfaction and predict churn risk.
NPS = %promoters − %detractors
Example:
If 60% of survey respondents are promoters, 20% are passives, and 20% are detractors, subtracting detractors from promoters gives an NPS of 40.
Variations: NPS can be measured after key touchpoints (transactional NPS) or at regular intervals (relational NPS). Some companies also weight NPS by customer revenue to prioritize high-value accounts.
Pitfalls: NPS is subjective and doesn’t always predict financial outcomes. Customers may rate you highly but churn for reasons like pricing or competitive offers.
Attribution Caveat: Because NPS is survey-based, it isn’t included in attribution models. To understand its business impact, it should be paired with retention rate or referral metrics.
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on your site and leave without taking any further action or visiting another page. It indicates whether visitors are finding what they need. A high bounce rate can signal poor targeting, irrelevant content, or usability issues, while a low rate suggests deeper engagement.
Bounce rate = single-page visits ÷ total sessions × 100
Example:
If your site has 10,000 sessions in a month and 4,000 of those are single-page visits, dividing 4,000 by 10,000 gives a bounce rate of 40%.
Four out of every ten visitors leave without exploring further.
Variations: Some analytics platforms allow for adjusted bounce rate, which excludes users who stay on a page for a minimum time (e.g., 30 seconds). This provides a more accurate measure of actual disengagement.
Pitfalls: Marketers often assume high bounce rates are always negative. In reality, a blog post that fully answers a search query may naturally have a high bounce rate while still achieving its purpose.
Attribution caveat: SEO-driven traffic often shows higher bounce rates because visitors may only need one quick answer. Attribution models should account for intent to avoid penalizing high-performing pages.
Got more questions? Get your answers here.
Most teams should track 5–7 core KPIs that align directly with business objectives. Too many KPIs dilute focus and create reporting noise. Start with essentials like CAC, LTV, ROI, and conversion rates, then add role-specific metrics as needed.
For SaaS, benchmarks include CAC between $500–$1,000, LTV:CAC ratios of 3–5x, and retention rates of 85–95%. In ecommerce, healthy metrics are 2–5% website conversion rates, 20–25% email open rates, and 25–30% retention. Use industry reports for current ranges.
CAC = Total sales + marketing spend ÷ New customers.
LTV = Avg. purchase value × Purchases per year × Customer lifespan.
ROI = (Revenue – Marketing investment) ÷ Marketing investment.
Pair CAC with LTV to ensure sustainable growth.
CMOs focus on strategic KPIs like pipeline contribution, CAC, LTV, and ROI. Channel managers track operational KPIs such as CTR, CPL, conversion rate, and engagement. Role-based focus ensures execs see outcomes while managers optimize tactics.
Attribution defines which channels get credit for conversions. Last-click often overstates paid ads, while first-click overstates awareness campaigns. Multi-touch models provide more balanced KPI insights by spreading credit across the entire customer journey.
Start with historical performance and layer in industry benchmarks for context. Apply SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound). Targets should be ambitious but realistic enough to guide optimization without discouraging teams.
Returning to the origin of the meaning of “KPI” may be the most important factor in choosing the best ones: key performance indicators.
Are the metrics you’re choosing to put up on a pedestal the ones that truly belong there? If your CEO asks how your team is doing, are the KPIs you’ve chosen that would accurately depict how your team is performing?
Following the template and using the marketing KPI examples provided as a guide will ensure that the answers to these questions are undoubtedly “yes.”
Track KPIs more effectively with the best marketing analytics tools that turn raw data into actionable insights.
This article was originally published in 2024. It has been updated with new information.
Yashwathy is a Content Marketing Intern at G2, with a Master's in Marketing and Brand Management. She loves crafting stories and polishing content to make it shine. Outside of work, she's a creative soul who's passionate about the gym, traveling, and discovering new cafes. When she's not working, you'll probably find her drawing, exploring new places, or breaking a sweat at the gym.
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