Top Growth Hacking Metrics: How to Measure the Success Efforts

Having your business grow exponentially within the first months of operation is a dream come true for every entrepreneur. Chances are, you already have a game plan to attain sustainable growth and drive constant audience engagement. You also have a strategic growth hacking plan, but unlike marketing campaigns, you need to identify the metrics that inform business growth.

Growth hacking often has very clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), most of which are related to the marketing funnel. Without solid tracking and monitoring, you may never know whether your tactics are working or need further optimization.

A one-size fit’s all approach doesn’t work for growth hacking, but here are the metrics you should pay attention to.

1. Awareness Stage

At this stage, you should be focusing on the brand-building elements of your growth hacking strategy. The KPIs that should guide you include:

• Click-through rate (CTR): this is the average number of people who click on your link against those who view it. CTRs are credible indicators of how relevant your target audience finds your content because people don’t click on links that don’t provide them with value.
• Website visits: these are the number of people that click on your website link within a certain timeframe. If your website traffic is low, it could indicate poor SEO, outdated information, poor user experience, or lack of site optimization.
• User Behavior: this is the amount of time that users spend on specific pages on site. It allows you to identify the pages with high conversions and those that have a high bounce rate.

2. Acquisition Stage

This stage is mainly about targeting your target customers with the aim of converting them into paying clients. You should focus on metrics such as:

•  Average deal cycle: this is the amount of time it takes you to close a prospect after interacting with them. For your growth hacking efforts to succeed, you need to shorten this cycle by optimizing your sales process.
• Cost of Acquisition (CAC): this is the amount of money it costs you to get one customer. A high customer acquisition cost could be a result of improper targeting or lack of personalization.
• Visit-to-lead conversion rate: this is the number of customers that become active clients against those that visit your website. A low rate could be an indication that your site is optimized for the wrong audience or that it’s hard to navigate.

3. Activation Stage

This is the stage where customers actively interact with your products and services. The key KPIs at this point are:

• The number of sign-ups: this is the number of people that opt to use your products within a certain timeframe. Low statistics could mean that your CTA is ineffective or that your product’s benefits aren’t clearly laid out.
• Time taken from sign-up to active usage: this is how long it takes for a customer to use your product or services after signing up for them. If the period to active usage is long, you should conduct a research or customer survey to identify the causes.
• Product qualified leads (PQLs): these are the number of customers that engage with your product in a meaningful way during the free period, indicating that they are ready to become paying customers. A high PQL results in a high growth rate.

4. Revenue Stage

At this stage, your target audience is actively interacting with your products or services. You should focus on KPIs such as;

• Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): this is the amount of revenue you expect annually from current and prospective customers. An increasing ARR is an indication that your growth hacking efforts are working.
• Monthly recurring revenue (MRR): this is the expected revenue on a monthly basis. Some of the tactics you could use to increase your MRR include price optimization, unbundling your services, cross-selling & upselling, reducing unlimited features, and limiting the free plan.
• Average deal size: this is the amount of money you get from a closed deal. If your deal size is low, you need to optimize your growth hacking efforts.

5. Retention Stage

Companies at this stage mainly focus on increasing the revenue generated by each client. The main KPIs at this point are;

• Churn rate: this is the number of customers your business loses within a predetermined time frame. A high churn rate is an indication of a failing growth hacking strategy.
• Retention rate: this is the inverse of the churn rate; it’s the number of customers that remain loyal to your business. Most IT businesses have an average retention rate of 81%, but it’s always advisable to aim for higher.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): this is the amount of money you get from a customer throughout your interaction with them. Your growth hack strategy should focus on growing this value by increasing the customer retention rate.

6. Referral Stage

Word of mouth is a vital part of any growth hacking strategy. The referral stage should be driven by KPIs such as:

• Customer Satisfaction Rate: happy customers recommend products to their friends and family. A high customer satisfaction rate will ultimately result in business growth.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): this is a measure of how much your customers are willing to recommend your products to people they know. Your growth hacking strategy should focus on increasing this score through strategies such as aftersale services and top-notch customer service.

Get the Most Out of Your Growth Hacking Strategy

Growth hacking is more than just increasing your numbers. It’s mainly about investing your resources intelligently to meet your customers’ expectations. You also have to focus on relevant campaigns that will drive conversions and create valuable content.

To gain better insight into the business areas that need the most attention, you need to add the above metrics into your growth marketing framework. It’s often hard to define and prioritize goals, but with solid monitoring and tracking strategy, it becomes easy to measure your growth hacking success. Make sure you also focus on the metrics that are likely to spur the most business growth.

We’d love to help you create a growth plan with actionable strategies. Schedule a call with us today!