KPIs Every Head of Growth Must Track
The Head of Growth owns the full loop from acquisition to activation to retention, optimizing the unit economics that decide whether growth compounds or stalls.
Why these metrics matter
The Head of Growth is responsible for the compounding loop that turns spend and content into durable revenue, which means owning metrics across acquisition, activation, and retention rather than any single channel. On acquisition, CAC and organic traffic (including share of voice) measure how efficiently the top of funnel is being filled, while ROAS gauges paid efficiency. But acquisition without activation is wasted spend, so activation rate and conversion rate are the hinge metrics that determine whether acquired users ever reach value. Retention rate and expansion revenue then decide whether that value persists and grows. The discipline that separates growth from marketing is unit economics: LTV/CAC ratio and CAC payback period tell the Head of Growth whether the loop is self-funding or subsidized, and MRR ties the whole system back to the revenue the business can bank. The best growth leaders instrument this entire loop so they can find the single constraint (a leaky activation step, a channel with degrading payback, a retention cliff) and fix the metric that unlocks the rest.
Questions you should be able to answer
If you cannot answer these, you are missing critical visibility into your function.
- What is our blended and channel-level CAC payback period, and which channels are improving or degrading?
- Is our activation rate high enough that acquisition spend actually reaches value, or are we filling a leaky funnel?
- How is our LTV/CAC ratio trending, and is the growth loop self-funding?
- Which acquisition channels are growing organic share of voice versus renting temporary traffic?
- Where is the single biggest drop-off in the signup-to-value-to-retention loop right now?
- Is expansion revenue contributing enough that net revenue growth compounds without constant new acquisition?
Your core KPIs
Every metric includes definition, formula, platforms, causal drivers, and Q&A.
How causal analysis changes the game
Explore other role guides
Each guide covers the full set of KPIs for that function with role-specific context.
Related Resources
askotter capabilities and guides that help this role act on these metrics.
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