Every time someone clicked through to your site or destination. The simplest signal that an ad earned a moment of attention. Volume signal, not a quality one.

What you paid for every click that came in. Cheap clicks aren't the same as good clicks: pair CPC with action quality to tell whether you're buying intent or just traffic.

The duration of time a user actively spends viewing a specific page, screen, or email. It measures how effectively an individual touchpoint captures initial attention and converts a user's passive interest into active intent.

The share of users who land on your page, app, or email and leave without interacting. A high bounce rate signals a critical break in your compounding growth loop because you are paying to acquire traffic that exits before building any momentum.

How many people opened the email you sent them. The first read on whether your subject line earned a click or got buried. Declining open rate is the early warning of list fatigue.

The share of outbound messages that got a reply. The high-effort engagement signal: a reply requires real intent, which means you can't fake this number with volume.

The comments people leave on your organic and paid social content. Writing something takes more thought than tapping a like. Each comment is active consideration.

The share of new users who actually did the thing your product is for. Separates genuine consideration from idle curiosity. Low activation with strong signups means acquisition is working better than onboarding.

Contact form submissions, chat initiations, or sales enquiries. Direct intent signal. An inquiry is a user raising their hand to be sold.

The total number of content assets downloaded: whitepapers, guides, calculators, templates. A volume signal of consideration-phase interest, more useful as the numerator behind Download Rate.

Revenue generated per site visitor. The metric that unites traffic and conversion teams: it rises when either does its job and exposes when growth in one is cannibalising the other.

Revenue attributed per email delivered. The metric that ends the open rate obsession: it prices every send and makes list fatigue a finance conversation, not a creative one.

Earnings generated per click in affiliate programmes. The shared language of affiliate marketing: publishers use it to pick offers, so a weak EPC quietly starves you of your best partners.

Conversions your channel touched but did not close. The defence brief for upper-funnel spend: kill the channels that only assist and watch your closer channels mysteriously stop closing.

The conversions that only happened because your campaign ran, measured against a holdout. The uncomfortable truth serum of attribution: it often reveals your best channel was harvesting, not creating.

Coversion

What you paid for every defined user action: a signup, a download, a lead, or a conversion. Broader than CPCo, which is specifically the cost per paying customer.

The percentage of existing customers who choose to stay with your business over time. It is the ultimate baseline check for customer loyalty, proving whether your overall brand, service, and product experience continue to deliver enough value.

The total revenue a customer generates across the lifetime of their relationship with your business. Think of it as the ultimate reality check for your marketing ROI: while CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) tells you what it costs to get a customer through the door, CLV tells you how valuable that customer actually is overtime.

The total predictable revenue your business expects to bring in each month. Think of it as the ultimate health check for your growth engine: while one-off sales prove you can close deals, MRR shows how effectively your marketing, product, and retention loops build a stable, compounding revenue stream.

Annual recurring revenue: MRR multiplied out across a year. The headline number for subscription businesses and the figure investors and boards actually quote. MRR is the heartbeat; ARR is the annual scoreboard.

The share of customers who came back to buy again. Ecommerce's primary retention signal. One-time buyers are how you make a quarter. Repeat buyers are how you build a business.

The share of users opting into recurring communications or services. A subscription is someone actively saying 'yes, keep showing up'. Rarer and more valuable than it looks on the dashboard.

The unique people who used your product at least once in a given month. The growth north star for many platform businesses (Meta reports MAU as its headline engagement metric). The denominator behind stickiness, and the broadest read on whether your active base is growing or quietly shrinking.

The unique people using your product on any given day. The heartbeat metric for product-led growth. Paired with MAU as a ratio, it tells you whether your product is part of someone's daily workflow.

Loyalty distilled into one number, on a scale of -100 to +100. Easy to track, easy to manipulate, useful when you use it right. Pair it with retention data or you're optimising for a vibe.

The new users or revenue you can directly trace to a customer referral. The business case for advocacy in one metric: referred customers consistently show higher CLV and lower CAC than any paid channel.

The share of users who passed your content along to someone else. Direct organic advocacy: every share is earned Reach you didn't pay for. Compounds quietly when content is worth sharing.

How often customers create content about your brand without being asked. Unpaid brand assets your audience builds for you. The compounding return on advocacy investment.

The unprompted mentions of your brand across digital channels. People talking about you when no one asked them to. The conversation happening with or without your involvement.

The rate at which content gets shared a second time, by users forwarding what other advocates already shared. Each re-share multiplies reach into audiences your brand never had access to.

The average rating your product or service is earning across review platforms. A half-star drop on G2 or Trustpilot can do more damage to acquisition than an entire month of declining ad performance.

The rate of users creating narrative content about your brand unprompted: long-form posts, case stories, LinkedIn articles. The highest-quality advocacy signal, generating disproportionate earned reach.