Finding the Right KPIs - 5 KPI Libraries That Are Key to Your Performance

If you want to be successful, you need to define clear goals. And to know whether you’ve achieved your goals, you need to find an accurate way to measure results. Select the right KPIs from these 5 KPI libraries to experience what success tastes like. 

Key Performance Indicators or KPIs are quantifiable measures that allow you to analyze your success in meeting goals and even your company’s overall performance. Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to selecting a KPI. As Aurel Brudan, CEO of The KPI Institute says:

“Selecting KPIs is like picking flowers from a field. You can’t pick all of them. Instead you have to decide on the right combination and a limited number to make a beautifully balanced bouquet.”

So, where can you find the ingredients for your ‘beautifully balanced bouquet’ and how do you select the right KPIs? Thankfully, there are several resources available online to help you make the right selection. Here are five top KPI websites and their pros and cons, to set you off in the right direction.

1. KPI Library

KPI Library is an excellent resource that allows you to search for relevant key performance indicators based on (sub) industry or work-related process.

This crowdsourced library of KPIs is free to use and allows you to quickly find valuable measurement metrics, as well as descriptions of how they can be used for your own business. They also list blog posts written by industry experts, to help you get to grips with the topic.

Since the information is crowdsourced, however, not every industry has equal numbers of KPIs and descriptions are inconsistent from one KPI to another.

# of KPIs available - 6500 for free.

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2. KPI Mega Library

The online database is easy to navigate—a drop-down menu allows users to quickly find lists of relevant KPIs for various organizational types. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing the free version of the library provides. If you’re unsure how a particular metric applies to your business, KPI Mega Library won’t offer any additional explanations to give you a greater understanding, even though it does provide a wealth of measurement ideas, as the name suggests.

# of KPIs available – 8000 for free and 36,000 in a paid app ($9).

3. Smart KPIs

This offering from The KPI Institute boasts an extensive listing, complete with descriptions and ratings of different metrics. However, to get the best value from this resource, users need to sign up for one of three paid plans. The highest-level plan (Premium) comes at a hefty price tag of $249/year, but this plan also gives users access to in-depth insights regarding various KPIs.

Premium Plan subscribers gain access to the greatest number of KPIs, as well as additional reports on target setting, reporting frequency recommendations, and other valuable insights that will help you generate more value from your KPIs. Every plan on offer comes with a beautiful yet intuitive dashboard view, so you’ll be getting quite a lot regardless of your budget. These guys are on top of their game, and even though their prices are considerable, it may well be worth your investment.

# of KPIs available – 20,000 in total, of which 100 for free and 500 for $249 a year.

4. Free-KPI

Free-KPI may not offer as many KPI ideas as some of the other sites on this list, but it does provide several useful resources for KPI beginners. From a glossary to help you better understand what common KPI terms mean to articles that prime you for successful implementation of KPIs, this site is a great tool for those beginning to dip their toes into the world of KPIs. There are more comprehensive alternatives available though, like KPI Library and KPI Mega Library.

# of KPIs available – less than 1000.

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5. Advanced Performance Institute

KPIs are just one of the areas where Advanced Performance Institute seeks to help businesses improve their performance and accomplish their goals. Their most prominent offer is paid research, consulting, and training to help your company maximize its KPI implementation. If you’re looking to gain extensive knowledge of selecting and using KPIs or you simply prefer the advice of specialized experts over finding out which KPIs suit you best on your own, this paid option may be right for you.

Their KPI database isn’t all that extensive, and you’ll have to sign up to browse their database for more than 10 minutes, which is a bit stingy.

# of KPIs available – less than 1000 for free after sign up.

6. Boardview Marketing KPI Library

Surprise! There’s a number 6. We’ve built a KPI library of our own, featuring 129 of the most popular marketing metrics. KPIs are categorized by funnel stage, making it easy to navigate. And let’s be honest, it doesn’t look bad either.

Conclusion

There are a wide range of KPI libraries available to help your company on the path to more effectively managing goals and measuring success. However, it turns out there are no real bargains to be had. You get what you pay for.

If you simply need a list of ideas from KPI (Mega) Library to look into, and you plan on figuring out which KPIs fit your situation best on your own, you can do so for free. But if you desire advanced reporting from Smart KPIs or consulting from Advanced Performance Institute to guarantee the best results possible, you’ll have to pull out your wallet.

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