By reading this article you will be able to avoid the biggest mistakes businesses make with choosing KPIs. Key Performance Indicators, also known as KPIs, are different metrics to track in order to see the effectiveness of your efforts. Reading your data can be hard. If you make a mistake by using the wrong KPIs or by not knowing how to use them, it will make things even harder.

The idea behind KPIs is that by tracking certain numbers, we can make educated business decisions to either stay the course or try something new. This is a huge help in creating marketing strategies. When you make mistakes with KPIs in marketing you can end up giving up on your strategy too soon or you could misdiagnosing the situation you are analyzing. We have provided a list of the top mistakes people make so that you can know how to choose the right KPIs for your goals and use them correctly.

1. You are using KPIs that don’t help you make decisions

There is a lot of information to be tracked in a business. There are sales numbers, financial numbers, and numbers relating to your traffic in different ways online. Not all these numbers will tell you something important for making decisions. When you measure useless numbers, your findings won’t really tell you anything. Be careful not to get lost in the overwhelming amount of information available.

2. You are using KPIs that aren’t the most relevant to your goals

Many KPIs are very helpful with the decision-making process, but not all of them are as relevant to your goals. This is a big mistake to make with KPIs. If you aren’t measuring the most relevant KPIs, you will miss the most important data. This leads to less conclusive information and makes it harder to make the best decisions.

3. You use too many KPIs instead of a few focused ones

As we said before, not every bit of information you can track is useful. It is also important to understand that not every piece of useful information you can track is of the same value. Be careful of falling into the trap of tracking everything. Managing and tracking your KPIs can be like Juggling. You could lose your focus and drop the balls that matter. Focusing on tracking important and relevant data will be a lot more helpful and less confusing than tracking everything. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin or do more work than you must.

4. You are taking your KPIs out of context

When making goals it is important to keep your expectations realistic. In some instances there will not be immediate results shown through your KPIs, but that does not mean you are doing things wrong. It often can mean you just need to be patient. Some strategies take time to come to fruition.

5. You are comparing your KPIs to other industries

Each industry has different rules it plays by. A lot of people compare apples and oranges when they are comparing their KPI results to those of businesses in different industries. This is not an effective practice and it will give you inaccurate results. The numbers are as unrelated as the industries are.

To summarize, choose the most relevant KPIs to achieve your specific goals. You don’t need to track everything, just the most important things. Be sure to understand what to expect with each KPI you use and what is typical for your industry. By using our guide to avoiding these 5 big KPI mistakes, you will be able to more accurately gauge the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and make more educated decisions.

If you have any comments, questions, or marketing needs contact us. We’d love to help!

 -The Forge Team