What is it?
A Key Performance Indicator (or KPI) is a metric defined as a measure of success. A KPI can be related to site performance, financial gain or subscription uptake.
What are KPIs used for?
In the context of CRO, a key performance indicator is the key element that will allow you to measure the impact of any project. When planning your AB test for example, you will have to define in the test plan what KPIs will be used to prove success. Usually main KPIs include increased interaction (particularly on the page where the change is being made), next page clickthrough, funnel progression to conversion, increased AOV etc.
What are the considerations?
In a scenario where you introduce brand new content to a page, some interaction key performance indicators with this new content might only be trackable on your new Experiment (as the new content in question does not exist in Control). In this case, you must ensure that your project’s success metrics still include KPIs that can be compared between Control and Experiment (this will usually be sales funnel progression).
What is similar to a KPI?
A key performance indicator will likely translate into a conversion event in your testing activities. If anything needs to be achieved and measured as part of a test, you will need to have a conversion event for it in order to track a click, page load, custom behaviour or even to collect custom data.
How Webtrends Optimize can help with KPIs
Webtrends Optimize can help you track recurring a key performance indicator via automated conversion packages. These act as a repository for conversion events that get regularly tracked in your tests. Once created, conversion packages can be reused with any new test without the need for a developer to re-create the conversions anew, saving not only development time but also QA time.
