RevOps KPIs and Metrics for SMBs - A Practical How-To Guide

Running a successful small or medium business (or starting up OR scaling up) requires a firm grip on key Revenue Operations (RevOps) metrics. RevOps aligns marketing, sales, and customer success to drive growth, so tracking the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across the entire customer lifecycle is critical.

This article breaks down the most important KPIs for RevOps in early and growth-stage businesses, is industry-agnostic, with straightforward definitions, formulas, and practical tips for measurement and data governance. Founders, CEOs, and business leaders can use this as an action-oriented playbook rather than a theoretical paper.

To get started, the table below summarizes each key metric and how to calculate it.

Key RevOps Metrics and How to Calculate Them

In this article, we will review the top 7 metrics I recommend startups, scaleups and SMBs to start measuring immediately. If you would like to get a comprehensive guide, please download my free eBook - A Definitive Guide to RevOps for Startups and SMBs.

Now, let’s expand each metric, explaining what it means, why it matters, how to calculate and track it, and how to implement the necessary data practices to get reliable numbers.

1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) measures the average cost to acquire a new customer. It includes all marketing and sales expenses used to sign up new customers in a given period. In other words, CAC tells you how much investment is needed per new customer.

CAC is calculated as the total cost of customer acquisition (marketing spend, sales salaries, advertising, promotions, etc.) divided by the number of new customers acquired in that period.

For example, if you spent $50,000 on sales and marketing in Q1 and gained 100 new customers, your CAC = $50,000 ÷ 100 = $500 per customer.

How to measure

Typically, you measure CAC over a month or quarter. Gather all expenses related to acquiring customers – this may include campaign costs, marketing team payroll (pro-rated to time spent on acquisition), sales commissions, software for lead generation, etc. Then count how many new customers you signed in the same period.

By tracking this over time, you can see if CAC is rising or falling. Many startups calculate CAC alongside related metrics like Lifetime value (LTV) to ensure the economics make sense (e.g. aiming for an LTV/CAC ratio > 3).

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Tips to implement

1. Start by defining what costs to include in CAC.

2. Create a simple spreadsheet or use your accounting software to aggregate marketing and sales expenses for each period.

3. Ensure your CRM or customer database cleanly tracks new customer count.

4. Maintain data governance by categorizing expenses – e.g. tag invoices or salaries that are part of customer acquisition. This way, you can consistently pull the same types of costs. If resources are limited, even a monthly review meeting between finance and marketing can align on the cost figures.

5. Be careful to exclude customer success or retention costs – CAC should strictly be about new customer acquisition.

For example, at HookedGrowth, we use Xero to track our sales and marketing expenses. We then extract, transform, and pipe Xero data into our data warehouse to calculate CAC.

By keeping the formula consistent, SMBs can reliably monitor CAC trendlines and make informed decisions about marketing budget allocation or sales strategy if CAC gets too high.