Key performance indicator (KPI)

What it is#

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that an agency and client have explicitly agreed to treat as a signal of whether the work is succeeding. The "key" is the operative word: every engagement produces dozens of measurable numbers, but only a few are KPIs — the ones tied to the outcome the client is actually paying for.

A KPI is distinct from a metric. Every KPI is a metric; most metrics are not KPIs. Bounce rate is a metric. Qualified leads per month is a KPI, if that's what the retainer was sold against.

Why it matters for agencies#

The KPI set is the contract between what the agency does and how the client judges it. When it's defined clearly and up front, reporting is simple: the brief leads with the KPIs, and the rest is supporting context. When it's vague, every monthly brief becomes a negotiation about which numbers count — and the agency loses that negotiation in any month the headline numbers dipped.

Good agency practice is to fix three to five KPIs per client at the start of the engagement, restate them at the top of every brief, and only revisit them at a QBR.

In SendBriefs specifically#

A brief template carries its client's KPIs as a metric strip near the top, each rendered from a live data token so the numbers are current every cycle. The KPIs are defined once, in the template, and the agency never re-picks them by hand.