The definitions, formulas, targets, floors, and owners all live in the marketing reporting data dictionary, including the north star and KPI tiers. Set that up first, starting from the ecommerce or sales-led starter pack. Nothing on this page repeats it.
One primary KPI per piece of work
Two primaries is no primary. Work judged on two numbers will be reported against whichever one moved favorably, which is how everything succeeds and nothing improves. Name one primary, then name the counter-metric that catches damage done in pursuit of it. Both go in the brief before launch. E.g. A trial-acquisition campaign is judged on trial starts, with trial-to-paid rate as the counter-metric. Starts can always be bought by loosening the offer; the counter-metric is what stops that reading as a win.Which KPI applies to what
Match the metric to the cadence
A metric that cannot move inside the reporting period cannot be reported on usefully. This is the most common mismatch in the whole system.What disqualifies a metric
A metric belongs in the dictionary. It does not automatically belong as a KPI. Cut it if any of these are true:- A 20% move in either direction would not change what you do.
- Nobody owns it.
- No one can state its definition without looking it up twice.
- It is a rate whose denominator nobody agrees on.
- It only ever moves up, which usually means it is a count of activity rather than a measure of result.
- It duplicates another KPI closely enough that they always move together.
Adding a KPI
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1. Name the decision it changes
If nobody can say which decision this metric would change, and at what threshold, it is a diagnostic rather than a KPI. Diagnostics belong in the dictionary and on dashboards; they do not need a target.
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2. Define it in the dictionary first
Formula, grain, source, owner, target, floor. A KPI adopted before it is defined gets defined differently by each person who reports it.
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3. Name what it replaces
The list is capped. Adding without removing is how a set of 8 useful KPIs becomes 20 that nobody reads.
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4. Backfill before you adopt it
A KPI with no history has no normal range, so nobody can tell whether this week’s figure is good. Backfill at least a full seasonal cycle where the data allows.
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5. Record the change
In the decisions and changes section of the dictionary, with the date. A trend line that shifts because the metric changed, with no record of the change, reads as performance.
Retiring a KPI
Keep the definition in the dictionary and mark it retired, with the date and what replaced it. Reports covering earlier periods still reference it, and deleting the definition makes those reports unreadable.Review
Review the KPI set annually, alongside the dictionary. Mid-year changes should be rare: a KPI set that changes often cannot show a trend, which is most of what it is for.Related resources
- Marketing reporting data dictionary Definitions, formulas, targets, owners.
- Reporting framework concepts Why the tiers and the north star exist.
- Dashboard standards Which dashboards surface which tier.
- Reporting cadence How often each report runs.
- Report on results The full reporting path.