Is Your Agency Missing These Essential Operational KPIs?

Track These KPIs If You Want To Be Operationally Effective

These KPIs are going to be strictly for operations and not for sales & marketing. So, I’m not going to cover things such as lead volume, close rate, CAC etc.

OBJECTIVE 1: Productivity

KPI: Billable Utilization Rate

Formula: Hours worked on billable projects / total hours available

What & Why? Billable Utilization Rate shows you how much of your team’s time is actually generating revenue. It’s a leading indicator of productivity and profitability.

Why does it matter? Because if your non-managers aren't spending at least 80% of their time on client work, you're leaving money on the table.

And if your managers or directors have high utilization, it often signals a bigger problem: they’re stuck in delivery instead of leading.

Tracking this helps you spot inefficiencies, rebalance workloads, and make smarter hiring decisions—before things break.

Target: 70%+ Company-wide

• Non-managers = 80%+

• Middle managers =< 60%

• Directors =< 35%

Reporting: Weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly

Grouping: by team member, by pod, by team

OBJECTIVE 2: On-Time Delivery

KPI: % of tasks completed on time

Formula: 1 – (Number of tasks completed late / total number of tasks completed)

What & Why? This KPI tracks the % of tasks completed on time—a simple but powerful measure of your agency’s operational discipline.

If you’re constantly delivering late, it doesn’t just delay outcomes—it kills trust. Internally, it creates stress and burnout. Externally, it makes clients question your reliability (even if the quality’s great).

A 95%+ on-time rate means your systems are working, your team has clarity, and your scope is realistic. It’s one of the fastest ways to diagnose whether your agency runs reactively or proactively.

Target: 95%+

Reporting: monthly, quarterly, yearly

Grouping: by team member, by pod, by team

OBJECTIVE 3: Client Results

KPI: Client success metric

Formula: Discipline/KPI dependent

What & Why? This one’s simple: if your clients aren’t winning, your agency isn’t either.

Tracking client success metrics—specific to the service you provide—keeps your team focused on what actually matters: delivering measurable outcomes.

Whether it's ROAS, CPL, SQLs, or ranking improvements, every team should know the result they're responsible for.

Hitting this KPI (80%+ of clients above benchmark) proves your work isn’t just active—it’s effective. It also boosts retention, referrals, and team morale. No better north star than consistent, repeatable client wins.

Target: 80% or more clients above benchmark best practice

Reporting: Weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly

Grouping: by team member, by pod, by team

OBJECTIVE 4: Client Retention

Metric #1: Client Retention Rate

Formula: ((Customers at End Period - New Customers Acquired) ÷ Customers at Start Period) x 100

What & Why? Retention is the ultimate proof of value. If clients stick around, it means you're not just selling well—you’re delivering consistently.

This metric tells you whether your delivery, communication, and client experience are strong enough to justify ongoing investment from your clients. High churn?

That’s your canary in the coal mine. It often means poor onboarding, unclear results, or mismanaged expectations.

Track it monthly to catch early warning signs. Track it quarterly and yearly to measure how "sticky" your offer really is. If you want MRR-style stability in an agency setting, this is the KPI to obsess over.

Target:

• Monthly: Target > 97.5%

• Quarterly: Target > 92.5%

• Yearly: Target > 70%

Reporting: monthly, quarterly, yearly

Grouping: by team member, by pod, by team

KPI #1: Net promoter score

Formula: % of Promoters - % of Detractors

• Promoters / total respondents

• Detractors / total respondents

What & Why? NPS measures something no other KPI can: how your clients feel about your agency.

You might hit deadlines and deliver results, but if your clients wouldn’t recommend you, something's off. A high NPS means your agency isn’t just performing—it’s trusted, respected, and valued.

Use it to gauge satisfaction, loyalty, and word-of-mouth potential. It's also a great early signal to identify brand advocates vs. at-risk accounts—so you can double down or course-correct fast.

Target: 45%+ 

Reporting: monthly, quarterly, yearly

Grouping: by team member, by pod, by team

How Can I Help

If you're losing hours to daily chaos or bottlenecks that are stalling growth, we should talk.

We’ll fix your agency’s #1 operational bottleneck in 7 days, guaranteed to give you time and profit back—without adding more hires.

Curious what that looks like for your agency? You can book a call with me here.

Let me know what you think!👋

I’m a real person & read every response. Is there anything you’ve wanted me to talk about that I haven’t covered already? Assuming it’s a valuable idea, I’ll make it a post, and record a YouTube video around it (and even tag you!)

No pressure ofc. Just like listening to my audience, and try to make these newsletters as useful as possible

Okay: thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon.

-Egemen