Blog Post

Every dashboard looks impressive—until you realize it’s tracking 37 metrics and telling you absolutely nothing useful.

This happens more than I’d like to admit. Teams measure clicks, opens, bounce rates, and page views, thinking, “We’re data-driven!” But here’s the truth: metrics without context don’t drive strategy. And that’s where KPIs come in.

In this guide, I’ll break down the real difference between metrics and KPIs, when to use each, and how I help teams focus on the numbers that actually guide growth.

• What separates a KPI from a basic metric
  
• Why tracking everything leads to insight fatigue
  
• How to identify your KPIs among all your metrics
  
• Examples that clarify when a number is helpful vs distracting
  
• How to structure your dashboards so they actually drive decisions
  

Metrics are data points.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are strategic indicators tied directly to business goals.

Think of it this way:

• All KPIs are metrics.
  
• Not all metrics are KPIs.
  

If you track 100 things but only act on 5, those 5 are probably your KPIs. The rest? Supporting metrics—still useful, but not central to your strategy.

If you confuse metrics with KPIs, you’ll end up:

• Reporting on noise instead of insights
  
• Making decisions based on activity, not outcomes
  
• Overwhelming your team with dashboards they ignore
  

And maybe worst of all—when leadership asks, “How are we doing?”—you’ll scroll through 10 charts and still not have a clear answer.

KPIs keep you focused. Metrics help you diagnose. You need both—but you need to know which is which.

A metric is any quantifiable data point you can measure. Some common ones:

• Pageviews
  
• Click-through rate (CTR)
  
• Email open rate
  
• Time on page
  
• Bounce rate
  
• Followers
  

These are useful, especially when you want to understand behavior or optimize a specific channel. But they’re not always tied to a business goal.

A KPI is a metric that tracks progress toward a specific, strategic, and time-bound objective. Some examples:

• Qualified leads generated this quarter
  
• Conversion rate from demo to closed-won
  
• Retention rate over 6 months
  
• Cost per acquisition under $50 for paid ads
  
• Churn rate below 5% by Q4
  

The key difference? KPIs are outcome-driven. They’re not just “what happened”—they’re “what happened in relation to our goal.”

Let’s look at a few side-by-side examples:

Marketing Activity	Metric	KPI
Blog Content	Pageviews per article	Leads from blog downloads
Paid Search	CTR on ads	Cost per qualified lead
Email Campaign	Open rate	Email-attributed revenue
Social Media	Likes or shares	Website conversions from social traffic
SaaS Trial	Free trial signups	Trial-to-paid conversion rate

The metric tells you activity.
The KPI tells you effectiveness.

Both matter. But you can’t treat them the same way.

Not every metric starts as a KPI—but it can become one when tied to a goal.

Let’s say you’re launching a new email onboarding sequence. You track:

• Open rate
  
• Click-through rate
  
• Unsubscribe rate
  

They’re all metrics. But if your goal is to convert free users into paying customers, your KPI might be:

“Increase trial-to-paid conversion rate from 18% to 25% by Q3 via email onboarding.”

Now you’re using metrics to support a KPI. And that’s the right hierarchy.

When I build dashboards or campaign tracking for clients, here’s how I organize it:

What are we trying to move? Revenue, retention, acquisition, LTV?

Each one should have:

• A specific target
  
• A timeframe
  
• A connection to a funnel stage
  

These are diagnostic. They help you understand why a KPI moved.

Example:

KPI: Increase conversion rate on landing page to 12%
Supporting Metrics: Page load time, form completion rate, bounce rate

KPIs guide the headline. Metrics give you the story.

I’ve walked into companies tracking 60+ metrics weekly and still asking, “Why aren’t things working?”

Here are the common issues:

• No prioritization: Everything looks equally important
  
• No alignment: Teams track what they care about, not what the business needs
  
• No ownership: No one’s responsible for interpreting or acting on the data
  

And worse—dashboards get bloated and ignored. (You know it’s bad when no one remembers who built it.)

Here’s my go-to structure for reporting and reviews:

Layer	Description	Example
Core KPIs	Top-level performance drivers	SQLs, revenue, CAC
Supporting Metrics	Channel-specific behavior	Email CTR, ad impressions
Diagnostic Data	Contextual or technical	Page load speed, bounce rate

This way, your reports show:

• What’s happening (metrics)
  
• Whether it’s working (KPIs)
  
• Why it’s working or not (diagnostics)
  

It also helps with communication. The CEO gets the summary. The team gets the details. Everyone gets what they need.

Reality: More metrics = more confusion unless they’re structured.

Don’t celebrate a 10% increase in likes if your actual goal is sales.

If no one looks at “time on page” during reviews, why are you tracking it?

The solution? Set clear KPIs, then assign metrics that support them. Need help choosing them? Try my KPI alignment guide.

Metrics tell you what’s happening.
KPIs tell you what’s working.

If you’re making strategy decisions based on metrics alone, you’re only seeing half the picture. Start with your KPIs—then use metrics to explain, explore, and improve.

The real power comes from knowing the difference—and using both the right way.

If your current reports are a little… chaotic, now’s a good time to clean house. Pick 3 KPIs. Assign 2–3 metrics to support each. Then track only what you plan to act on.

Because data is only useful if it helps you decide what to do next.