So You’re Not Hitting Your KPIs – Now What?

Key performance indicators. KPIS. They're the key metric for every digital advertising agency and they should be yours too. They’re the metrics we develop to measure everything we do. Is a campaign successful? Is a tactic working? Is this even profitable? Knowing your KPIs and marketing goals is the first step to finding success. The second step? Meeting them.But what happens when you’re not hitting those KPIs? How do you get back on track? This time on the Helix House blog, figuring out why you’re not hitting KPIs and how to fix those problems.

Why Are We Not Hitting KPIs?

Broadly speaking, there are probably three big reasons your business isn’t hitting your KPIs. And you’re not going to like hearing them. The most likely reason for missing KPIs is that the KPIs themselves aren’t good. They’re old, they’re uninspired, they’re unclear, or they were created without the why being understood and communicated.

They’re Uninspired

What we mean here is that the KPIs might be bland, too ambitious or not ambitious at all. They might just be rote objectives that don’t inspire much action. The danger there is that when KPIs aren’t exciting, aren’t something to strive for, teams can get lax and stop pushing. Teams need fuel and a KPI that is ambitious but realistic makes for an exciting challenge. Impossible and they’ll risk not trying. Too easy and you risk doing something boring.

How to Make KPIs That Fuel the Fire

Sit down with your teams and discuss honest and realistic goals. Find out what their individual goals are, what objectives in the business do they and their teams contribute to? Now build upwards! Find goals that are reasonable, then find some that are going to be difficult to reach. Find the balance in the middle, creating ambitious but attainable KPIs.When everyone has some say in their individual goals and metrics, the team as a whole will have them too, and that will inspire!

No Reason Behind The KPI, Unclear KPIs

This might be the most common problem for a business’s KPIs. When a business is struggling to meet KPIs and failing, there most likely is a disconnect between the goal and the ‘why.’ Here at Helix House we talk about ‘intention’ non-stop. Whenever a client asks for something specific, we reframe the request and bring it back to them with that question “What’s the goal behind this?” When you know the why, you can achieve the desired results faster and downright better.  Without understanding the why, you can make vague efforts towards the goal without actually meeting it

How to Make Clear KPIs With Purpose

Take a long, hard look at the KPI in question, zoom in on it and answer “What does this goal mean? What does this metric reflect?” Now provide that to everyone in your team. When everyone knows what the goal is they can work together and achieve it.Make sure the KPIs itself is measurable. ‘Generate Buzz’ isn’t measurable, but ‘Social Engagement’ is. Be clear about the goal, there’s no reason to blur it’s meaning to the people working hard to make it happen.

They’re Old KPIs

Here’s another way businesses fail to meet KPIs – they’re old. As your business grows and changes, the key performance indicators will too. What was once the metric of early success would now be unnecessary. Maybe the KPI made sense before the pandemic but in the times of COVID most businesses have really had to reflect on what success means to them. Old goals in better times may be impossible if your business is in leaner ones.

How to Fix Old KPIs

Luckily this is probably the easiest problem with KPIs to correct! All you have to do is throw out what’s old and make something new! While you’re at it make sure you’re connecting with your team to figure out what is viable, what is clear and actionable, and just what success means to your team right now. It’s not about last year or two years from now, it’s about succeeding in the now.Creating up-to-date, inspired, and well-thought-out KPIs is crucial to hit them and succeed. This won’t guarantee success, but it will lay a powerful roadmap to success your business can follow and achieve.