What are Business Metrics?

A Business Metric is a quantifiable measure that is used to track and assess the status of a specific business process. It’s important to note that business metrics should be employed to address key audiences surrounding a business, such as investors, customers, and different types of employees, such as executives and middle managers. Every area of business has specific performance metrics that should be monitored – marketers track marketing and social media metrics, such as campaign and program statistics, sales teams monitor sales performance metrics such as new opportunities and leads, and executives look at big picture financial metrics.

Business Metric or Key Performance Indicator? What’s the Difference?

To be effective, business metrics should be compared to established benchmarks or business objectives. This provides valuable context for the values used in the metric and allows business users to better act on the information they are viewing. For instance, $20M sales in Q4 sounds like an impressive figure; however, if you’re Boeing Aircraft, this figure would have you contemplating filing for bankruptcy.

Context allows business metrics to make an impact. In fact, this is where the line between key performance indicators and performance metrics becomes blurry. The difference between the two ultimately comes down this:

• Business metrics are used to track all areas of business
• KPIs target critical areas of performance

For example, a metric may monitor website traffic compared to a goal, whereas a KPI would monitor how website traffic contributed to incremental sales. Learn more: What is a KPI?

Marketing Metrics

Marketing Metrics are measurable values used by marketing teams to display the overall performance of social platform accounts, campaigns, lead nurturing, etc. Monitoring digital marketing KPIs can help your team stay on target from month-to-month. With the vast base of different marketing channels used by team, it is crucial for marketing teams to actively track their progress using the right and most-effective metrics. Depending on the channels your team is monitoring, metrics and KPIs will vary. Below are a few examples of key marketing metrics: