I’ve been on a huge data kick lately. So much so, that I’ve been dreaming about our dashboards at Design Pickle 🙁 This is not good, and I probably need to step away from the spreadsheets but hey…when you love something you just can’t get enough.
Here’s a couple of really cool and important metrics that I love tracking and diving into. In no particular order:
1. ARR – Annual Run Rate. Monthly recurring revenue annualized.
2. Gross Margin – As a percentage.
3. EBITDA – Both $, and as a percentage
4. LTV – Lifetime Value
5. LTV:CAC Ratio – CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
6. CAC Payback in Months
7. ROAS – Return on Ad Spend
8. Net Revenue Retention – Trailing 12 month basis
We track so much more than this as these are more lagging indicators. The real fun begins when you dissect the leading indicators that drive these numbers. Also, I will note that these are more SaaS/Software financial measures. Some things can work for other industries and the fundamentals are the same: How much revenue and at what margin? Are we profitable financially and is our acquisition model profitable and scalable? And most importantly…for every dollar spent on sales and marketing, what’s my return on that dollar?