Beyond Vanity Metrics - The 5 growth metrics Every Scaler Should Track

Every company has dashboards, but not every company knows what they’re looking at. 

Too often, teams obsess over metrics that are easy to measure instead of the ones that actually fuel sustainable growth. The result is usually beautiful charts, impressive click-through rates, and “green” KPIs, that don’t translate to revenue, retention, or long-term value.

The companies that scale know better.

They focus on the numbers that actually move the business forward. Here are five growth metrics that matter — and five that don’t.

1. Blended Investment > Channel Investment

What to measure: Total cost across all channels to acquire customers.
What to ignore: Isolated channel metrics that make one campaign look great while another carries the hidden cost.

Why it matters:
Your customers don’t experience your brand in silos — your budget shouldn’t either. When you measure investment at the blended level, you see how your total marketing mix works together to acquire, convert, and retain customers.

Smart companies: Reallocate investment across channels weekly to optimize for total return, not isolated wins.

2. Customer Growth > Website Traffic

What to measure: Growth in paying customers or qualified, engaged users.
What to ignore: Traffic spikes with no conversions.

Why it matters:
A million visits don’t matter if no one buys. Traffic is only as valuable as the quality behind it — how many of those visitors actually turn into customers?

Smart companies: Track the full journey from visit to revenue. They align acquisition teams around customer growth, not vanity clicks.

3. CAC > Cost per Order

What to measure: The true cost to acquire a new customer.
What to ignore: Cost-per-order metrics that isolate performance to a single transaction.

Why it matters:
CAC gives you a complete view of efficiency across the funnel. It connects your marketing spend to the actual cost of acquiring new customers — not just generating transactions.

Smart companies: Measure CAC at the business level, not just by campaign, and optimize for customer lifetime, not short-term order volume.

4. LTV:CAC > ROI

What to measure: The ratio between what you earn from a customer and what it costs to acquire them.
What to ignore: ROI snapshots that look impressive but ignore retention or churn.

Why it matters:
ROI is a moment in time. LTV:CAC tells you if the business model works — if your customers are valuable enough, and if your acquisition is efficient enough, to sustain growth.

Smart companies: Align finance and marketing around a trusted LTV:CAC model. It’s the one number both the CMO and CFO can believe in.

5. Conversion Rate (CVR) > Click-Through Rate (CTR)

What to measure: The percentage of users who take meaningful action — buy, subscribe, demo, sign up.
What to ignore: The percentage who just click.

Why it matters:
A high CTR can look great on a performance report but means little if it doesn’t convert. CVR tells you whether your messaging, targeting, and funnel are actually working.

Smart companies: Focus on conversion quality, not volume. Because clicks don’t pay the bills.

The Bottom Line

Not all metrics are created equal. The metrics that matter are the ones that reflect real growth - customers, retention, and value creation.

If your dashboard isn’t built around those numbers, it’s not helping you make better decisions.

At Violet, we help growth leaders cut through the noise. Our Growth Insights dashboards bring together the metrics that actually matter — from blended investment to LTV:CAC — so your team can see what’s driving growth, not just what’s changing.

Stop guessing. Start investing in clarity: Let's meet to explore Violet Growth insights →