A practical library of metrics I actually use with clients
This is not a Wikipedia-style glossary. It's a working library of metrics I reach for when diagnosing growth, auditing go-to-market performance, or setting up measurement frameworks with founders and CMOs — across B2B, B2C and B2B2C, from marketing and product to sales, unit economics and customer experience.
Metrics themselves are neutral. They are just lenses to see what is happening in the business. What really matters is which metrics you look at in which context — business model, funnel stage, campaign type, channel, communication type, maturity stage. The same number can be a vanity metric in one context and a critical signal in another.
Some metrics track growth directly — revenue, acquisition, retention, expansion. Others keep you honest about margins, risk and operational sanity. This hub helps founders and CMOs pick a small, meaningful set instead of tracking everything and acting on nothing.
If you only track 5 metrics this quarter…
Not sure where to start? These five work across most business models and give you a surprisingly complete picture of whether your growth is healthy.
Revenue
LaggingThe most basic and the most important. Not just the top-line number, but its composition — new vs. returning, full-price vs. discounted, by segment.
LTV:CAC Ratio
Baseline= LTV / CAC (ideal ≥ 3:1)
The single best indicator of growth sustainability. It forces you to connect what you spend on acquisition with what customers are actually worth over time. Below 3:1 means you're likely overspending; above 5:1 may mean you're underinvesting in growth.
Conversion Rate
Baseline= Conversions ÷ Total Visitors × 100%
Pick the one conversion that matters most for your model — MQL to SQL, visitor to signup, trial to paid — and watch it relentlessly.
Churn Rate
Lagging= Lost Customers ÷ Start-of-Period Total × 100%
The silent killer. Every point of churn reduction compounds over time. If you're losing customers faster than you're gaining them, growth is an illusion.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
Lagging= (Start MRR + Expansion − Contraction − Churn) ÷ Start MRR × 100%
Tells you what happens after the sale. NRR above 100% means your existing base is growing without any new acquisition.
Deep dives
5 essential metrics for B2B SaaS in the growth stage
You've found product-market fit. Now the board wants predictable revenue. These five metrics tell you whether your growth engine is healthy — or quietly breaking down.
ReadWhich metrics matter for B2C e‑commerce at CMO level (not just performance reports)
Your ad platform dashboards are full of numbers. But do you actually know whether your marketing is building a profitable business — or just generating traffic?
ReadMetrics for B2B2C: how not to lose the picture between partners and end users
In B2B2C, every metric has two faces. Here's how to build a measurement framework that keeps both partners and end users in view.
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