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KPIs That Matter

Owner: Marketing Lead (Strategy), Business Owner (Goals)
Purpose: Track metrics that tie marketing to revenue outcomes

Core Principle​

"Vanity metrics feel good. Revenue metrics drive decisions."

Focus on: Metrics that directly connect to revenue, not just activity.

Primary Revenue Metrics​

1. Cost Per Lead (CPL)​

What it is: Total marketing spend ÷ number of leads generated

Why it matters: Shows efficiency of lead generation across channels

Builder context:

  • Remodelers: $100-500 CPL typical (varies by market, project size)
  • Custom homes: $500-2,000 CPL typical (longer sales cycle, higher value)

Track by: Channel (Google, Facebook, referrals, organic) to identify most efficient sources

2. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)​

What it is: Total marketing spend ÷ number of customers acquired

Why it matters: True cost to acquire a customer (accounts for conversion rate)

Builder context:

  • Remodelers: $1,000-5,000 CPA typical
  • Custom homes: $5,000-15,000 CPA typical

Rule of thumb: CPA should be 10-20% of average project value

Example: $75k average project → $7,500-15,000 acceptable CPA

3. Close Rate​

What it is: (Customers acquired ÷ leads generated) × 100

Why it matters: Shows sales effectiveness and lead quality

Builder benchmarks:

  • Cold leads: 5-15% close rate
  • Referrals: 30-50% close rate
  • Assignment Selling leads (30+ pages consumed): 60-80% close rate

Improve by: Better lead qualification, Assignment Selling, sales process refinement

4. Pipeline Value​

What it is: Total value of all active opportunities in sales pipeline

Why it matters: Predicts future revenue, shows sales momentum

Builder context:

  • Track by stage: inquiry, consultation scheduled, estimate sent, contract negotiation
  • Healthy pipeline: 3-5x monthly revenue target

Example: $500k monthly revenue goal → $1.5M-2.5M pipeline

5. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)​

What it is: Average revenue per customer over their lifetime (including repeat projects and referrals)

Why it matters: Justifies higher acquisition costs for quality clients

Builder context:

  • First project: $75k average
  • Repeat projects: 20-30% of clients return within 5 years
  • Referrals: Each client refers 1-3 others on average
  • Total LTV: $100k-200k per client

Impact: Higher LTV justifies higher CPA investment

Secondary Performance Metrics​

6. Lead-to-Consultation Rate​

What it is: (Consultations scheduled ÷ leads generated) × 100

Why it matters: Shows lead quality and initial engagement effectiveness

Target: 30-50% for qualified leads

7. Consultation-to-Estimate Rate​

What it is: (Estimates sent ÷ consultations held) × 100

Why it matters: Shows qualification and fit assessment effectiveness

Target: 60-80% (you should be sending estimates to most consultations)

8. Estimate-to-Close Rate​

What it is: (Contracts signed ÷ estimates sent) × 100

Why it matters: Shows sales effectiveness and pricing competitiveness

Target: 30-50% for qualified estimates

9. Average Project Value​

What it is: Total revenue ÷ number of projects

Why it matters: Tracks whether you're attracting target client profile

Track over time: Should increase as brand strengthens and targeting improves

10. Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)​

What it is: Total revenue ÷ total marketing spend

Why it matters: Overall marketing ROI across all channels

Builder target: 5:1 to 10:1 (for every $1 spent, generate $5-10 in revenue)

Example: $100k marketing spend → $500k-1M revenue

Content & Engagement Metrics (Leading Indicators)​

11. Content Consumption​

Track: Pages per session, time on site, video completion rate

Why it matters: Predicts close rate (Sheridan: 30+ pages = 80% close rate)

12. Assignment Selling Completion Rate​

Track: % of leads who complete assigned content before consultation

Why it matters: Directly correlates to close rate and sales cycle length

Target: 70%+ completion rate

13. Email Engagement​

Track: Open rates, click rates, reply rates

Why it matters: Shows content relevance and audience engagement

Builder benchmarks:

  • Open rate: 20-30%
  • Click rate: 3-5%
  • Reply rate: 1-2%

Channel-Specific Metrics​

Organic Search (SEO)​

  • Organic traffic
  • Keyword rankings (target keywords)
  • Organic leads generated
  • Organic CPL
  • Impressions, clicks, CTR
  • Cost per click (CPC)
  • Conversion rate
  • ROAS (return on ad spend)

Social Media​

  • Reach, engagement rate
  • Social leads generated
  • Social CPL

Referrals​

  • Number of referrals
  • Referral close rate
  • Referral source tracking

Reporting Cadence​

Weekly: Lead volume, pipeline value, consultations scheduled
Monthly: CPL, CPA, close rate, revenue, MER
Quarterly: LTV, channel performance deep-dive, strategy adjustments

Dashboard Setup​

Essential views:

  1. Revenue Dashboard: CPA, close rate, pipeline, revenue
  2. Lead Generation Dashboard: CPL by channel, lead volume, lead quality
  3. Sales Dashboard: Conversion rates by stage, average deal size, sales cycle length

See: Analytics Dashboards for templates

Learn More​

Track metrics that matter. Vanity metrics make you feel good. Revenue metrics help you make decisions.