What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)?
A metric that helps businesses measure how successful a project, campaign, initiative, etc. is over time. KPIs help them track progress against their objectives to determine if they are going to achieve them on time. By monitoring KPIs, organizations can identify obstacles early and adjust their strategies so they can reach their desired outcomes.
KPI stands for key performance indicator and is a common way to measure performance over time. KPIs are crucial to a businesses success because it makes sure the goals are aligned with the overall business objectives.
To be effective, a KPI should follow the S.M.A.R.T. goal criteria. This means the KPI is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Example: The mobile marketing team is tasked with increasing their monthly active users (MAU) by 10% over three months.
Each department within a company typically uses different KPIs in order to achieve specific department goals and most KPIs fall into one of four buckets:
- Cost reduction
- Revenue or profit improvement
- Increase in customer satisfaction
- Process improvement
There are thousands of different KPIs to choose from and it’s important to pick the right KPIs for your organization; key performance indicators help to shine a light on how well your business is doing.
By closely tracking the success of KPIs, companies will be able to make the proper adjustments to strategies and budgets that will enable the overall business success.