
You would expect the KPIs for a marketing manager to look very different from the KPIs for a Javascript developer. The most important KPIs for individual employees will vary wildly, since their domain focus is very specific. Ideally, a company would want to see this figure fall over time, as they become better at targeting their advertising efforts. For example, if customers are aquired through paid advertising, the company spends $100,000/mo on ads, and aquires 100 customers, the CPA is $1000. What is an example of a SMART KPI?Ī good example of a KPI is CPA (Cost Per Aquisition). SMART KPIs may be instituted at the division or corporate level for measuring the organization, or at the employee level for measuring individual performance during quarterly reviews between managers and direct reports. This KPI is SMART because it is Specific (no mentions of “brand awareness”), it’s measureable (you can count the inbound links), it’s attainable (no pie-in-the-sky arbitrary revenue goals), it’s relevant (the sales team uses media mentions as social proof for leads), and it’s time-bound (month over month, not “eventually”). SMART KPIs are important because they encourage managers and employees to avoid vanity metrics that don’t impact the business, and discourage evaluating performance based on qualitative elements (corporate politics, etc) rather than quantitative ones (did the employee achieve a goal?).Īn example of a SMART KPI for an individual employee would be increasing inbound media mentions by 15% Month over Month.

In some cases, the manager establishing a SMART KPI policy might describe them as “SMARTER KPIs,” meaning that in addition to being SMART, the KPIs are also Explainable (easy to understand for your peers) as well as Relative (measured in percentages, or other methods which avoid “vanity metrics” that look overly rosy if the business is growing (or overly negative if shrinking). When companies talk about SMART KPIs, what they mean is that KPIs should be:

The acronym “SMART KPI” stands for “Key Performance Indicators” which are “Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.” SMART KPIs are measurable metrics used to assess employee and company performance.
