Editor’s Note: This post has been updated with new links and examples for you to use! 

When looking at your company’s growth, it’s helpful to look at it as a complex equation with a number of different variables mixed in. We like to call these different variables “Growth Metrics” and they’re the levers we look to pull as we plan scalable models of growth for our partners.

As a founder, owner, or marketer, you know your growth goals for the next few months right? And you have a game plan to get there?

To hit those goals and achieve real, sustainable growth, you need to not only understand how to get there but also how to find your audience and drive constant engagement in a way that positively impacts your bottom line. That’s a lot to focus on all at once, let alone measure. 

If you’re like most founders and teams, identifying the right metrics and figuring out how best to track them can be time-consuming tasks. And the urgency to show and get results can sometimes override your ability to set up the right measurement processes in the first place. 

There are multiple avenues to a good end result, but it’s key that you have at least a foundational understanding of what metrics matter most to your business so you can scale those results. That’s why in this post I’m going to give you the growth marketing metrics we like to track. 

What are growth metrics? 

Growth metrics are the different variables that can impact your company’s bottom line. They vary from industry to industry, but they often are looking at ad channel metrics, on-site metrics, and post-purchase metrics.

Like I mentioned, these are going to look a little different depending on your business and industry, but here are a few that are worth keeping a close eye on.

• Site traffic volume
• Site conversion rate
• Customer acquisition cost
• Lifetime value
• Average order value

At Tuff, when we partner with a startup to implement growth marketing strategy and execution, we pick three core KPIs from the list below to focus on. From here, we’re able to narrow in on the right tactics, measure our success, internalize the numbers and decide what to do next. 

Ready to get data-driven? Let’s dive in. 

Acquisition

1. Search engines drive 93% of all website traffic

Long-term growth will be easier if you consider SEO from the start. It doesn’t have immediate results or the same short-term momentum as paid customer acquisition, but the payoff can be 3x greater down the line compared to other acquisition channels. In fact, we think SEO is one of the best early-stage investments a founder or startup can make. 

Why? People use search as their main gateway when considering a purchase, so if you set your organic foundation early, you’ll be able to actively work your way up the rankings to drive more non-branded search (and sales, purchases, and leads). At Tuff, organic search growth is one of our most important metrics as a team.

2. Better content can increase blog traffic by up to 2,000%

When it comes to content, remember that quality is better than straight-up quantity. If you truly understand your user and their unique challenges, you can create content that will provide real value. Quality content paired with smart SEO will help you get found by more prospective customers more often.

3. 50% of PPC visitors are more likely to purchase something than organic visitors

With SEO in place as your long-term investment, paid channels can complement your strategy and bring quick momentum. The right keywords for your business will have high commercial intent and because of that, those clicks will convert at a high rate. When it comes to PPC channels like Google, Bing, and YouTube, we rally around these five growth metrics: 

• Search Volume 
• Clicks 
• CPC
• Conversions 
• CVR

4. 81% of marketers found that increased traffic occurred with as little as six hours per week invested in social media marketing

Social isn’t going to supercharge your growth overnight but it’s a key player in the growth strategy mix. Don’t over-invest here but don’t ignore it either. Expending even just a bit more effort could net you big results. 

When it comes to Social Advertising, we’ve been focused on running campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok. No matter which channel though there’s one common factor that underlies all of their answers: how we define goals. For social, we take a look at social campaigns inside Google Analytics and then hone in on individual ad set’s cost per session over time. We also look at conversion and cost per acquisition.

Engagement

5. The average ecommerce conversion rate is 2-3%

This means that for every 100 users that land on your website, 2-3 of them will actually buy something on average. As a growth agency with a number of clients in ecommerce, we’re always looking for ways to help boost the bottom line. Optimizing conversion rates can make a huge impact on revenue-generating actions on your site, and moving that percentage up one or two points can lower your customer acquisition cost and add up to thousands of dollars in additional revenue growth.

6. Video content gets shared twice as much as any other type of content

Organic distribution is always preferred over paid because, well, it’s free. Video content is highly digestible and you don’t need to break the bank to make it! Looking at the popularity of Tik Tok and Instagram reels goes to show that UGC style videos can make a huge splash on social media. We’ve even got an entire blog post on how to create your own high-impact creative with just an iPhone. Here are some of our favorite types of video content you can create on a budget:

• Unboxing videos
• Customer reviews
• “How it’s made” behind-the-scenes videos
• Message from the founder

7. The average yield for email marketing is $44.25 on the dollar

Email provides extraordinary ROI in almost every industry. It takes resources to build your list and craft compelling emails, but people still prefer to get their information this way, and that quality traffic will translate into more sales for your business. How quickly is your list growing and how do they convert?

Retention 

8. Companies that excel at customer experience grow revenues four to eight percent above the market

If you want to grow, you can’t do it alone. You’ll need loyal enthusiasts. If you can provide the kind of experience that keeps customers not only coming back but gladly telling everyone about you, your revenue will naturally grow. How long does a customer stay with your company? What’s your LTV? How can you make it better?

9. Loyal customers are five times as likely to repurchase, five times as likely to forgive, four times as likely to refer, and seven times as likely to try a new offering

Creating a fanbase of loyal customers means you’ll have a consistent business, constant new leads, the freedom to try new things, and the ability to make mistakes. Successful growth is inextricable from customer experience. 

10. 80% of your future profits will come from just 20% of your existing customers

You can cast a wide net when marketing your business, but remember that a core of regular customers will make up the base of your revenue. It’s the responsibility of everyone at the company to complement acquisition with retention strategies. 

In fact, Bain & Company found that “a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%”.

These ten quick growth metrics are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding the growth marketing game. If you want to know the ultimate secret to skyrocket overnight growth, we’ll tell you: 

It doesn’t exist. 

That statement might feel a bit controversial coming from a growth marketing team, but we’re tired of people repeating the idea that you can flip a switch and acquire thousands of new customers overnight. Scaling your business is hard, and growth marketing is not a hat trick

Rather, growth marketing is a path to creating intentional and sustainable expansion. It’s balancing high-risk/high-return campaigns with low-risk/low-return campaigns to find the perfect formula for your company.

Growth marketing isn’t just about quickly increasing your numbers, either. It’s investing your money intelligently to create valuable, relevant campaigns that your ideal buyer both wants and needs with the expectation that this will, over time, impact your bottom line. It’s a continual process of learning and self-improvement. 

Rome wasn’t built in a day, so why should your growth marketing strategy be? Trying to do everything at once will likely result in mediocrity across the board.

It can be hard to define and prioritize goals, but that’s the real benefit of working with a  growth marketing team. They’ll help you not only understand what to do but why you’re doing it. 

They’ll first help you gather and analyze key data for your business. From there, you’ll work together to create hypotheses to identify why certain processes are happening.

Next, they’ll help you prioritize the ideas that have the most potential to spur growth. In implementing those ideas, you’ll be running experiments to confirm or disprove the earlier hypotheses. This cycle repeats until you have a refined and definitive growth marketing strategy that speaks to your company’s unique needs.

We’d love to work with you.

Schedule a call with our team and we’ll analyze your marketing, product, metrics, and business. Then, present a Growth Plan with actionable strategies to find and keep more engaged customers.

Ellen Jantsch

Ellen is the founder at Tuff and one of the team’s core growth marketers. She is a versatile marketer with expertise in multiple channels – from ppc to seo to email to others – responsible for the experiments and testing.  She is happiest when she’s on the ski hill or outside pointing her mountain bike downhill.