If you’re going to make informed business decisions, you need to look beyond the numbers. Generating leads, marketing to customers, and closing deals is an art. It’s why Google Analytics exists. It’s why we have business intelligence tools in place. For as much as we try to quantify from “this user did this and then it led them here” or “that user got value out of this piece of content,” there’s still a lot of subjectivity involved on the part of how humans translate that into dollars and cents, leads, users, etc. What works for you will likely not work for others.
What are metrics?
Metrics are a measurement of success. Metrics help you understand how your business is performing and what you need to do to make it better.
There are three main types of metrics:
• Business metrics measure the health of your business overall. They can tell you whether or not your company is growing, where it’s growing most quickly, and which areas need more attention.
• User metrics measure how engaged users are with your product or service. These numbers can help you determine whether people are using your product as expected if they’re finding value in it and if they’re likely to come back again soon.
• Financial metrics quantify how much money (and time) has been spent on a project or campaign. Financial metrics can help show where money was well-spent and where it wasn’t—and then guide future decisions about investments in new initiatives or campaigns.
Understanding your operating costs and profit margin
First, let’s talk about how to understand your operating costs.
These are the costs required for you to operate your business on a day-to-day basis. They include things like overhead expenses (rent, utilities, payroll), as well as other costs that you incur to run your company (advertising, marketing materials). Operating expenses are typically listed on an income statement.
Next up: profit margin! Profit margin is simply the amount of money left over after subtracting all of your operating expenses from your total revenue. Profit margin is expressed as a percentage of revenue and can be found on an income statement or balance sheet.
Measuring your ROI
You can’t get the most out of your business without measuring your ROI.
ROI is a ratio that compares the return you get from an investment to the investment itself. It’s calculated by dividing the total revenue generated by a specific action (like a new marketing campaign) by the total cost of that action.
We recommend that all companies track their ROIs because it helps them make smarter decisions and improve their bottom line.
Calculating your LTV
Calculating your LTV (LifeTime Value) is one of the most important metrics you can track in your business. This is the total amount of money that a customer will spend with you over their lifetime, and it’s an indicator of how well your business is performing.
LTV is calculated by multiplying customer acquisition cost, or CAC (the cost it takes to acquire a new customer), by average revenue per user, or ARPU (the average amount of money each customer spends). To calculate your LTV, take the following steps:
- Calculate your customer acquisition cost by dividing marketing expenses divided by the number of customers acquired.
- Calculate ARPU by taking total sales divided by the number of customers in the same period.
- Multiply CAC by ARPU to get LTV
Calculating your conversion rate
Conversion rate is one of the most important metrics in your business. It’s a measure of how many users take a specific action on your website, like signing up for a free trial or making a purchase. If you have a low conversion rate, it means that you’re not doing enough to convert visitors into customers.
To calculate the conversion rate, divide the number of people who took an action by the total number of visitors to your website over a given period. For example, if you have 100 visitors in May and 10 of them sign up for your free trial, then your conversion rate is 10%.
Understanding and calculating churn rate
What is churn rate?
The churn rate is the percentage of customers who leave your business for one reason or another. It’s an important metric to understand because it tells you how well your business is doing at keeping its customers happy and engaged.
Why does it matter?
Every business wants to keep its customers happy and engaged so that those customers will continue using their services and buying from them for as long as possible. If a company has a high churn rate, it means they’re losing a lot of its customers, which can be financially devastating to the company. It may also mean that they’re not doing enough to keep their existing customers happy, which could mean they’re not offering good products or services—or that they’re not offering enough of them.
How do you calculate it?
The churn rate is calculated by taking the total number of customers who left over a given period (usually one month) and dividing it by the total number of customers who were still with you at the beginning of that period (also known as your “base”). So if you have 100 customers at the beginning of the month and 20 leave during that month, your churn rate would be 20/100 or 0.2 or 20%.
Metrics can be your guiding light when it comes to making decisions at your startup. The only way to succeed is to apply the right formula of strategies and get a tangible result. If you can effectively apply key metrics, you will be successful.