Imagine you had a crystal ball that could predict the future. The view is murky, but there's enough to make an accurate forecast.

Having a marketing dashboard that measures vital KPIs is a bit like that crystal ball: It gives you enough insight to make better decisions to create a positive future by helping you generate traffic and leads and prove the ROI of your marketing activities.

In this article, I'll outline five key KPIs you must measure regularly. I'll show you how to measure them, followed by tips on how to improve the performance of each.

1. Customer Lifetime Value

Understanding the lifetime value of your customers is key. It informs many areas of your marketing, such as allocated budget and channels to focus on.

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the projected revenue that your customer will generate for your business during that customer's relationship with you.

Let's say your customers spend anywhere between $54 and $118 when they buy with you, and the average transaction value (ATV) is $86.

Of course, not all customers spend the same. This image from Kissmetrics shows how uneven the distribution can be across different segments of customers, and it's something to bear in mind when attributing CLV to marketing channels: