The Basics of Metrics and KPIs

In this comprehensive guide, we share how to leverage KPIs and metrics to enhance client success, including a breakdown by department and a list of best practices.

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It's tempting to think of numbers as just, well, numbers. But when it comes to client success, these figures serve as the navigational stars guiding the voyage. Understanding KPIs and metrics converts that overwhelming sea of numbers into a finely tuned roadmap tailored to each client's business goals.

Here, you'll learn what to track, why it matters, and how to implement practical changes. We'll break down the four characteristics every KPI should possess: being actionable, directional, accurate, and measurable

You'll learn how these business metrics function as the lifeblood of your client's marketing campaigns, the pulse every Marketing Manager should check regularly. And it's not just about tracking KPI progress—it's about shaping it. The use of custom reports and insightful analysis puts your client's account in the fast lane toward reaching objectives.

After all, you simply can’t stay on track, measure success, or identify areas for improvement if you’re not properly implementing KPIs and metrics at your agency. Having this data available at your fingertips gives you actionable insights that benefit your clients. 

While several factors go into keeping clients happy, we can all agree that highlighting your value and how you positively impact a client’s bottom line is a surefire way to make your agency indispensable. 

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KPI vs. Metric: What Is the Difference?

Are KPIs the same as metrics? Everything you track in your client’s business is a metric, but only a few of these metrics are directly relevant to their main business goal, making them Key Performance Indicators. 

Metrics vs KPIs Graphic

In other words, all KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs.

KPIs are specific measurements that are used to track progress toward specific goals. On the other hand, metrics can be any type of data collected as part of routine business operations.

KPIs allow us, as the agency, to demonstrate our value to the client. There are basic KPIs such as spend, clicks, impressions, ranking, etc., but the real KPIs every client wants to know are leads and/or sales. We like to include both in our monthly reports. Ultimately, what is their ROI from our efforts? When you can clearly demonstrate this month over month, it increases your retention rate and keeps clients paying you month after month.

Jacob Hicks, Owner of Magnyfi

Here are a few other key differences between KPIs and metrics:

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Metric

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Focused

Metric

Limited to one result or dimension

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Bigger-picture

Metric

Granular

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Usually long-term goals

Metric

Usually shorter-term goals 

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Can be measured in various ways

Metric

Usually tied to specific data 

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Results-oriented 

Metric

Focuses on specific business processes and problems 

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Often easier to understand

Metric

Needs interpretation

Ask yourself these questions when trying to separate a KPI from a metric: 

  • Will a fundamental change in this metric impact the client’s business? 

  • What results or dimensions of their business are you trying to measure? 

  • How will you measure it? 

  • What is the purpose of your measurements? 

  • How will you know if you are successful? 

  • How will you know what to change next time around? 

What Is a Metric?

To put it simply, a metric is a category of quantifiable data relevant to a company's performance.

Example of a performance metric. This metric helps you filter and review pages by performance metrics.

Metrics can be attached to almost every part of a client’s standard business processes. But one key difference between a KPI and a metric is that metrics don’t need to be tied directly to a strategic objective. 

Some examples of metrics that clients often want to see include: 

  • Website sessions (including specific landing pages and blog posts, often tracked using Google Analytics 4) 

  • Goal conversion rates (sales, form submissions, downloads, etc.) 

  • Engagement with content (video views, comments, impressions, etc.) 

  • Social media followers 

  • PPC conversion rates 

However, since anything that can be measured can be considered a metric, this means that there are countless metrics that businesses keep track of, from website traffic to conversion rates, to Facebook shares, and the list goes on.

In theory, that sounds great. The more data, the better, right? In practice, though, this overwhelming amount of data overload often becomes a distraction.

It’s easy to get so caught up in improving various metrics that you forget to ask yourself whether the changes will really affect your client’s bottom line. After all, is getting more likes on social media really that important?

If those likes aren’t converting to sales, then probably not. However, if one of the main goals for the quarter is to increase your client’s presence on certain social channels, it may be. 

Most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost; more for support than illumination.

Andrew Lang

That’s why you need to identify which metrics are Key Performance Indicators so that you can prioritize them. And they will not be the same for every client or quarter.

What Is a KPI?

A KPI, otherwise known as a Key Performance Indicator, is a metric used to track and measure a company's or organization's progress toward specific objectives. KPIs typically represent key business goals.

Custom marketing goals reporting widget example

Understanding the KPI meaning is essential to differentiate it from a simple metric. KPIs focus on strategic objectives and directly impact organizational success, whereas metrics provide detailed insights into specific business operations.

Choosing the right KPIs is essential for any organization looking to improve performance. However, simply selecting KPIs is not enough; they must also be tracked and analyzed regularly to identify trends and take corrective action if necessary. By using KPIs, companies improve their performance and achieve their goals.

Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted. 

Albert Einstein

Think of a KPI as a performance metric that is directly related to business objectives. This could be revenue growth, user acquisition, and so on, but the critical point is that the KPI is tied to a specific goal.

Some examples of KPIs that clients often want to see include:

  • New client acquisitions per month

  • Cost per acquisition

  • Client retention rates 

  • New leads from organic vs. paid search 

  • Page domain/authority

  • Monthly website traffic 

Here are some examples of the most common KPIs based on business types:  

Professional Service KPIs

SaaS KPIs

Retail KPIs

Online Media / Publishing KPIs

eCommerce KPIs

Professional Service KPIs

Bookings

SaaS KPIs

PQLs (Product Qualified Leads)

Retail KPIs

Capital Expenditure

Online Media / Publishing KPIs

Unique Visitors

eCommerce KPIs

Users

Professional Service KPIs

Utilization

SaaS KPIs

MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)

Retail KPIs

Customer Satisfaction

Online Media / Publishing KPIs

Page Views

eCommerce KPIs

Conversion Rate

Professional Service KPIs

Backlog

SaaS KPIs

Churn

Retail KPIs

Sales Per Square Foot

Online Media / Publishing KPIs

Share Ratio

eCommerce KPIs

Cart Abandonment Rate

Professional Service KPIs

Revenue Leakage

SaaS KPIs

Cost Per Acquisition

Retail KPIs

Average Customer Spend

Online Media / Publishing KPIs

Social Referral growth

eCommerce KPIs

Cost Per Acquisition

Professional Service KPIs

Effective Billable Rate

SaaS KPIs

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

Retail KPIs

Stock Turnover

Online Media / Publishing KPIs

Time on Site

eCommerce KPIs

AOV (Average Order Value)

Professional Service KPIs

Revenue Per Employee

SaaS KPIs

Lifetime Value

Retail KPIs

Shrinkage

Online Media / Publishing KPIs

 E-Newsletter Signups

eCommerce KPIs

Profit

As you can see, KPIs vary based on the business model and industry, although they all have a direct impact on a specific business objective.

Breaking Down KPIs and Metrics by Department

In any organization, each department has a unique role to play. These roles are often guided by strategic goals, measured by carefully selected KPIs and metrics.

Whether it's a sales team hungry for revenue growth or a marketing team itching for brand visibility, KPI dashboards become the compass. They provide the much-needed direction to track progress and steer towards success. Let's look at key departments and their associated KPIs.

Sales KPIs

The sales team are the adrenaline junkies of the corporate world. Always on the hunt, chasing targets, and bringing in the dough. KPIs help measure progress and ensure everyone's sprinting in the right direction.

Key sales KPIs include:

  • Revenue Growth: The change in a company's sales when compared to a previous period.

  • Gross Profit Margin: This tells how well sales cover direct costs and sheds light on operational improvement.

  • Net Profit Margin: This metric provides insights into the company's overall profitability after all expenses.

Salesforce Accounts Data Example

Marketing KPIs

If the sales team are adrenaline junkies, marketing teams are the maestros, conducting the orchestra to produce a symphony of brand engagement. KPIs help monitor progress and ensure the melody hits all the right notes.

Some common marketing KPIs include:

  • Social Media Engagement: This social media KPI measures the interactions on your social media channels.

  • Email Open Rate: This shows the percentage of recipients who open a given email.

  • Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI): This provides performance data on the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

  • Budget Pacing and Spend: To make sure client budgets are on track.

Google Ads Budget Pacing Report Example

Finance KPIs

The finance team are the gatekeepers. They keep a keen eye on financial metrics, balancing risk factors, and driving profitability.

Strategic KPIs for finance often include:

  • Operating Cash Flow: This checks if a company's core operations generate sufficient cash to maintain and grow the business.

  • Current Ratio: This assesses the ability to cover short-term liabilities with short-term assets.

  • Quick Ratio: This is a more conservative measure than the current ratio, excluding inventory from assets.

  • Revenue Churn: An important financial KPI that drives customer lifetime value and overall financial health.

Account Overview Screenshot of Stripe Marketing Dashboard

Customer Success KPIs

Customer Success teams are the superheroes of the corporate world, saving the day by ensuring customer retention and satisfaction.

Their KPIs often revolve around:

  • Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): This measures how satisfied customers are with your service.

  • Net Promoter Score (NPS): This gauges the loyalty of a firm's customer relationships.

  • Customer Retention Rate: This tracks how well your company retains customers over a given period.

GatherUp Customer Sentiment Reporting

Just remember, KPIs are a guide, not a destination. The journey of business success is a continuous trek of learning and adapting.

When establishing KPIs, it’s important to remember that all of them need to feed a central business objective. For example:

Business Objective

Sales KPIs

Marketing KPIs

Finance KPIs

Customer Success KPIs

Business Objective

Total Revenue

Sales KPIs

New Closed Deal Revenue, Opportunity Pipeline

Marketing KPIs

Revenue by Channel, Average Order Value

Finance KPIs

Net Revenue, Operating Cash Flow

Customer Success KPIs

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Upsell and Cross-Sell Rate

Business Objective

Total Customers

Sales KPIs

Number of Deals Closed, Outbound Lead Acquisition Rate

Marketing KPIs

Conversion Rate, Cost Per Acquisition

Finance KPIs

Customer Profitability Score, Current Ratio

Customer Success KPIs

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer Retention Rate

Business Objective

Net Profit

Sales KPIs

Revenue Per Rep, Sales Growth Rate

Marketing KPIs

Cost Per Lead, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

Finance KPIs

Net Income Margin, Debt to Equity Ratio

Customer Success KPIs

Customer Churn Rate, Average Revenue Per Customer

How KPIs and Metrics Work Together

Many agencies make the common mistake of not setting any KPIs at all and focusing solely on metrics. But without specific goals to aim for, it's difficult to know whether or not your agency is driving improvements that directly affect the client’s bottom line.

To track and improve your clients’ campaign performance effectively, you must align their KPIs and marketing metrics to ensure that both work together to improve their business.

Another common mistake is using the wrong metric to measure a KPI. Always ensure the metrics feed into the KPI. 

For example, if you’re trying to increase customer satisfaction, you might use customer reviews or NPS ratings as a metric and customer retention rate as a KPI. And if you're trying to increase your client’s revenue, you might use marketing-qualified leads as a metric, and sales-qualified leads as a KPI.

However, Facebook post Likes on that funny meme are very unlikely to directly help support retention rate or client, so they would not be the right metric to align with either of those KPIs.

In short, aligning KPIs and related metrics is the key to charting an effective path towards the attainment of client goals.

Benefits of Combining Metrics and KPIs

Metrics

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Metrics

Provide granular insights into the performance of particular campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords, as well as other tactics and activities, and helps track progress over time. 

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Determine when and where your client should allocate resources and how to improve sales, conversion rates, website traffic, customer lifetime value (CLV), etc.

Metrics

Helps campaign managers identify areas where they need to make changes to improve results through optimization.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Keep agencies and clients aligned on achieving specific goals. Although a single keyword may drop in ranking, if total organic traffic and conversions is exceeding target, your KPIs are aligned to the client’s needs.

Metrics

Useful to compare a client’s campaign performance against competitors, such as keyword ranking positions, CPCs, etc.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Evaluate where your client stacks up against competitors overall, not just on a campaign basis.

Metrics

Broader metrics help identify which KPIs are most important to the client’s success and how they connect to each other.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Provide a framework for setting targets, budgets, and measuring progress over time.

When To Use KPIs vs. Metrics

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the answer will vary depending on the client’s business and their specific situation. However, a few general guidelines help make the decision clearer:

KPIs may be more appropriate if the client is looking for general trends. If they’re looking for specific details, metrics may be more appropriate.

For example, if your agency is trying to optimize a Google search ad campaign, the average cost per sale could be considered a KPI. However, if the client just launched a new blog post and wants to know how well they are ranking for a single keyword targeting a single page, that is more likely to fall under the metric umbrella. 

2. How Complex Is the Data?

If the data is complex, then metrics may be more appropriate. KPIs can be used for complex data but must be simplified to be effective.

For example, the overall SEO site health score of a client’s website would be an SEO KPI worth tracking, and the number of critical issues, errors, or warnings would be the metrics. 

3. How Much Time and Effort Is the Client Willing To Contribute?

Is this client a data-driven thinker who loves digging into their marketing data every month? Or are they a high-level visionary who hates getting bogged down in details? 

Metrics are quantitative measurements that track the results of marketing campaigns and activities, which means that all metrics should eventually feed into a KPI. Therefore the big picture thinker may prefer KPIs while the granular thinker may be interested to dive into the metrics. 

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Best Practices for Identifying & Monitoring KPIs and Metrics

As an agency owner, you want to help your clients’ businesses grow, and retain those clients for the long run. To do this, identifying and monitoring their KPIs and metrics is essential to improve campaign performance. 

How to Choose the Right KPIs pie chart

We’ve made a list of 5 best practices your agency should follow when identifying and monitoring your clients’ KPIs and metrics.

1. Choose Directional Metrics

Not all KPIs are created equal. Choosing the right metrics helps ensure your clients’ goals remain manageable and achievable.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) dashboard showing bounce rate and engagement rate metrics

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One important factor to consider when choosing KPIs is what stage of development your client’s business is in. If they’re relatively new to market, for example, they should focus on growth metrics such as revenue or user adoption rates. On the other hand, established businesses may want to track profitability or market share.

Another key consideration is the type of business your client has. If they’re in the service industry, they probably want to focus on customer satisfaction or Net Promoter Score. Or, if they have a manufacturing business, they’ll want to track inventory turnover or return on assets.

Agency Tip: Depending on the services your client has with your agency, inform them which metrics will be the most useful for tracking progress and measuring success over time. For example, include a combination of top-down and bottom-up metrics to give an overall view of their campaign efforts.

Consider what services your client needs from your agency. For example, if their focus is building up blog content on their website, some great KPIs to focus on would be blog post views, website sessions, referrals from Google search results, or maybe keywords they’re ranking for. 

Ask your clients what data they want to see. Often this is related to their KPIs. But also don't just leave it at the report going out. Talk the client through the report as the more you talk to them the more you get to know them and identify other opportunities.

Paul Morris, Managing Director of Superb Digital

On the other hand, if your client is focusing on social media this quarter, follower growth may be a good measure of whether their activity is working or not. But you’ll also need to monitor engagement and clicks to show your client what content is actually resonating with their audience.

2. Ensure KPIs Are Measurable

To measure the success of your client’s business, the KPIs you track should be measurable. Although it sounds simple, if you’re not measuring something, how can it be improved or adjusted? 

Some common measurable KPIs include revenue, profit, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. Make sure that the KPIs your client chooses are relevant to their business, your agency can realistically impact them, and can be clearly tracked.

3. Accurately Track KPIs and Metrics

To help your clients make informed business decisions, it’s crucial to use accurate data. This means ensuring that their KPIs and metrics are reliable. Unfortunately, there are many ways to manipulate data to present a false picture of success. 

One way to ensure the accuracy of your clients’ data is to present it in a professional client report or marketing dashboard. This eliminates the risk of error inherent in manual reporting, while bringing the data to life in a visually appealing format.

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Another way to ensure accuracy is to perform regular audits of client data. Compare actual results against targets or goals that you’ve set for them. Identify any discrepancies and investigate the causes.

4. Understand Leading vs. Lagging Indicators

Navigating the labyrinth of marketing KPIs requires a strong understanding of leading and lagging indicators. Let's break these concepts down.

What are Leading Indicators?

Leading indicators are real-time, quantifiable measures that provide insights into future events. For example, when a new content strategy causes an increase in website visits, these are leading indicators. They suggest a possible rise in future sales.

Leading KPIs, part of leading indicators, directly connect to key objectives. They're important for understanding the steps towards achieving a main goal.

What are Lagging Indicators?

Lagging indicators, on the other hand, are retrospective. They measure the outcomes of a project or campaign, showing its success or failure. For instance, after a content strategy has been running for a few months, changes in sales are your lagging indicators. Lagging KPIs, similar to lagging indicators, provide solid measures of a strategy's performance. 

Leading and lagging indicators offer valuable insights into a marketing strategy's journey. The former offers a prediction of future performance, while the latter delivers a reflection of past outcomes. The key to successful marketing lies in balancing the insights from both types of indicators.

Marketing KPI

Leading Examples

Lagging Examples

Marketing KPI

Website Traffic

Leading Examples

Number of new, unique website visits

Lagging Examples

Total website traffic over a given period

Marketing KPI

Social Media Engagement

Leading Examples

Likes, shares, comments, and mentions on social posts

Lagging Examples

Increase or decrease in followers or subscribers over time

Marketing KPI

Email Open Rate

Leading Examples

Number of emails opened immediately after a campaign launch

Lagging Examples

Overall open rate of an email campaign

Marketing KPI

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Leading Examples

Early clicks on a newly published ad

Lagging Examples

CTR after the ad campaign has ended

Marketing KPI

Conversion Rate

Leading Examples

Increase in completed website forms or sign-ups

Lagging Examples

Total conversions achieved at the end of the campaign

Marketing KPI

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Leading Examples

Current marketing spend

Lagging Examples

CAC after the campaign, calculated as total campaign spend divided by number of new customers

Marketing KPI

Return on Investment (ROI)

Leading Examples

Estimated ROI based on projected sales from leads

Lagging Examples

Actual ROI after campaign costs and revenue are calculated

Marketing KPI

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Leading Examples

Early repeat purchases from new customers

Lagging Examples

CLV calculated after the customer has ended their relationship with the company

Marketing KPI

Net Profit Margin

Leading Examples

Initial revenue and cost estimations for a project

Lagging Examples

Actual net profit margin after all expenses and revenues are finalized

Marketing KPI

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Leading Examples

Early survey responses following a new product release or service change

Lagging Examples

NPS after the survey period ends

Marketing KPI

Ecommerce Sales

Leading Examples

Number of added-to-cart items

Lagging Examples

Total sales at the end of a specified period

Marketing KPI

Google Ads ROAS

Leading Examples

Initial click-throughs and conversions on new Google Ads

Lagging Examples

ROAS after the ad spend and revenue are calculated

Marketing KPI

Lead Generation

Leading Examples

Number of form views for a downloadable resource

Lagging Examples

Total leads generated after the campaign

Each of these KPIs and their related indicators offers crucial insights. But their significance may vary based on what stage of the campaign you’re located in.

5. Provide Actionable Data

The best way to show agency value is to go beyond the metrics. Show your clients how their marketing data affects their bottom line and make useful recommendations to make decisions and improve operations. Without this level of analysis, they’re likely to get bogged down in data points that are not beneficial to them. 

When your agency reports on metrics and KPIs, explain the significance of the results, and present solutions for any concerns that the data has surfaced. This will reassure your clients that your agency is consistently and proactively seeking positive results, and is willing to pivot to achieve them when necessary. 

Agency Tip: Make sure that your agency is aligned on client goals frequently. Depending on how much communication your clients prefer and the nature of their business, that updating could vary. But a good rule of thumb is to check in with them every quarter or every six months. After all, you don’t want to track an irrelevant KPI when their business has gone in a completely different direction.

Why You Should Never Use a Single KPI To Measure Performance

Relying on a single KPI for your clients’ businesses is an extremely narrow approach. It doesn’t leave any flexibility for areas of improvement, and it leads to many other potential risks including: 

  • The wrong measurement could take clients in the wrong direction. For example, focusing exclusively on leads as an eCommerce KPI could tell a misleading data story if none of those leads are converting to paying customers. 

  • A single KPI fails to paint a complete picture of performance. Perhaps revenue targets were missed that month, but the sales pipeline is chock full of opportunities that will close a couple of weeks down the line. Looking at a full, complete picture is always beneficial before making business decisions.

Any metric taken in isolation is a vanity metric. To really understand performance you need a range of KPIs and they need to be analyzed together. Traffic is no good unless you understand what keywords are driving that traffic and whether they're generating conversions or sales.

Paul Morris, Managing Director of Superb Digital

How To Use KPIs for Your Clients’ Business Goals 

Here is a three-step process to help you identify which KPIs to use for your clients’ businesses:

Step 1: Pick One Main Business Goal for the Year

When business owners discuss KPIs, they usually talk about strategic objectives and business goals. Regardless of their goal, the first step is to clearly understand what your client wants to achieve.

We start with a template for our new clients, and during their onboarding, we ask what their top KPIs are. We make sure to include those on the first page for them. As we have our first few strategy meetings, we take a look at these reports and ask our clients about their reports, and make edits to the templates with our clients as another customization tool.

Christina Cypher, Director of Marketing of Click Control Marketing

Of course, your clients’ goals will depend on their situation, but here are a few helpful questions to ask them:

  • Is the business already profitable? Set a revenue goal.

  • Does the business barely break even? Set a profitability goal.

  • Are they working with a venture-funded startup that you are helping turn into a $1 billion valuation? Set a user growth rate goal.

Agency Tip: Ensure your client’s goal is something that you can realistically achieve in one year. This sets realistic client expectations from the beginning and avoids miscommunication.

Step 2: Identify Which Metrics Have a Direct Impact on Your Clients’ Business Goals

Now that you understand your client’s set business goals for the year, it’s time to take a look at all the important metrics currently being tracked in their business.

All these metrics are at least somewhat relevant to the performance of the company, but the reality is that the majority of them are likely not directly related to their primary business objective. This means that while you still want to keep an eye on them, these metrics don’t necessarily qualify towards your relevant Key Performance Indicators.

Metrics are only useful if they help to drive decision-making. As a result, we focus on identifying actionable metrics that can be used to inform and improve our marketing efforts. To do this, we start by taking a close look at our goals and objectives. We then identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help us measure progress towards those goals. 

Guy Hudson, Founder of Bespoke Marketing Plans 

In this step, you need to ask yourself which metrics are the most valuable when evaluating the progress toward the overarching goal.

The KPI that matters most is the metric aligned with your goal, as it provides the clearest indication of progress. For example, if you have set an annual revenue goal, the most valuable KPI will be daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly revenue. And typically, the longer the period, the more important it is. For example, quarters matter more than months which matter more than weeks. 

The number of KPIs to choose will vary from client to client and the industry they’re in. However, they often increase as you drill into each individual campaign your agency is managing. For example, your paid search team could have three KPIs (cost, revenue, and cost of acquisition), and your SEO team could have its own set of KPIs (organic traffic, conversion rate, and revenue).  

Step 3: Create a Schedule for Reviewing KPIs To Ensure That You’re Progressing Towards Client Goals

Once you and your client have identified the KPIs to focus on, you’ll want to review them regularly. It’s best to review your KPIs at four intervals: weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually.

AgencyAnalytics makes it easy for us to share campaign performance with our clients on a weekly and monthly cadence. We normally create a dashboard that features the primary KPIs for each channel we are managing on behalf of our clients and we share client access with them. They love that they are able to dive deep into the analytics on their own without needing our input each time.

Bryan Lozano, Vice President of Operations of Ad-Apt

This not only shows that your agency is staying on top of its goals but also helps identify any issues as they arise and make proactive adjustments or recommendations to course correct. Talk about showing agency value! 

Kevin Watts Raincross KPI Reporting Case Study

How Raincross Turned Metrics into Money

Raincross, a California-based digital marketing agency, has been serving clients nationwide since 2013. With a team of nine, they specialize in combining data analytics with customer personas to build successful marketing campaigns. They cater to various industries, from real estate and law to government and healthcare.

Problem: Reporting Challenges 

Raincross faced a time-consuming dilemma. The agency spent hours compiling KPIs and metrics into spreadsheets and PDF files for client meetings that would often last only 15-30 minutes. This manual, time-consuming process was not only eating away at their efficiency but also impacting their professional image.

Solution: Overhauling Their Client Reporting Process

To resolve this, Raincross chose AgencyAnalytics as their go-to platform for streamlined client reporting. Now, instead of stitching data from multiple metrics from various sources together, they could easily and quickly generate comprehensive reports. They also explored new strategies by utilizing the 80+ integrations available on AgencyAnalytics to further boost their client campaigns.

Outcome: Improved Client Relationships and Agency Growth

The decision to switch to AgencyAnalytics paid off in multiple ways. Raincross could now respond to client requests for custom reports in as little as ten minutes, freeing up time for strategic initiatives and deepening client relationships. But the benefits didn't stop at client satisfaction. Employees, no longer burdened by tedious report preparation, found better work-life balance.

Lessons: Takeaways For Other Agencies

The Raincross experience underscores the transformative impact of efficient reporting. The right tools will not only optimize your reporting process but also contribute to both client satisfaction and employee well-being. Agencies looking to scale should view reporting not as a chore, but as an opportunity to provide clear, quick insights that keep clients engaged and staff happy.

AgencyAnalytics has significantly cut down on the amount of time it takes us to gather data and build reports for our clients. I highly recommend AgencyAnalytics to any agency struggling to find a tool that will allow them to integrate multiple marketing channels into one concise reporting platform. We’ve found it to be the best out there.

Kevin Watts
Kevin Watts / President
Raincross

Efficiently Tracking Your Clients’ Metrics and KPIs

There are a variety of online tools that help you track your clients’ progress. Utilizing these tools gives your agency a better understanding of a client’s campaign performance and where to make improvements to their overall marketing strategies.

1. Managing Metrics and KPIs With a Dashboard

AA Integrations Page

After determining what metrics and KPIs matter most to your clients, you’ll need to integrate their marketing platforms into a dashboard.

AgencyAnalytics excels in presenting key performance indicators (KPIs) from various departments, allowing clients to conveniently monitor and track their progress from a single, unified dashboard. With its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface, AgencyAnalytics delivers a seamless and powerful data experience for our clients.

Alexa Rees, SEO Manager of seoplus+

AgencyAnalytics has 80+ marketing integrations to choose from at no additional cost. 

Depending on what platforms your clients are currently using, dashboards will vary from client to client. However, we recommend covering the basics–PPC, SEO, social media, email, and call tracking. 

2. Use Goals and Annotations 

Adding Annotations to Improve Data Storytelling

The next step is analyzing their data and identifying which trends or patterns stand out. Creating annotations and goals is a great way to highlight your agency’s progress toward achieving your clients’ KPIs, and explain any key trends you’ve discovered. 

The KPIs our clients care about are leads, revenue generated, and Cost Per Acquisition. Their marketing dollars need to translate to top-line revenue, and so it's our job to help our clients connect the dots to that in our reporting.

Lane Rizzardini, Co-owner of Marion Relationship Marketing 

3. Create a Report Schedule 

AgencyAnalytics Report Schedule Feature

A great way to maintain constant and transparent communication with your clients is to regularly review their KPIs and metrics. Save your agency’s time by setting up an automated reporting schedule. 

AgencyAnalytics is one of the most essential tools we use as an agency. Not only do we use it daily with our internal team to check specific KPIs we are tracking through various dashboards, but it has also saved us countless hours with our monthly reporting.

Brian Ferritto, Partner at 42connect

Instead of wasting billable hours creating manual client reports every month, speed up your agency’s data retrieval and reporting workflow with the report scheduling feature. Choose to send out reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and get notified before they’re sent out to make final comments, adjustments, or approvals. 

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