Stop Guessing. Start Measuring with SQL.

• Stop Guessing. Start Measuring with SQL.

Why SQL KPIs?

• Gain real-time insights without waiting for dashboards
• Customize metrics to fit your exact business questions
• Understand the data behind the numbers completely
• Reduce dependency on other teams or tools
• Create a single source of truth for performance

The KPI Foundation

• Always start with a clear business question
• Identify the correct data tables and columns
• Choose the right aggregation (COUNT, SUM, AVG)
• Define a precise time frame for your metric
• Establish a target or benchmark for comparison

Essential COUNT Metrics

• Track total new user signups per day
• Monitor daily active users (DAU) or weekly active users (WAU)
• Count number of completed transactions
• Measure support ticket volume by priority
• Calculate new content or product uploads

Powerful SUM & AVG Metrics

• Sum total sales revenue by week or month
• Calculate average revenue per user (ARPU)
• Measure total session duration for engagement
• Compute average order value (AOV)
• Track total ad spend against campaigns

Ratio & Rate KPIs

• Calculate conversion rates (e.g., signup to purchase)
• Monitor daily churn rate or customer retention rate
• Compute click-through rate (CTR) for campaigns
• Track inventory sell-through rate
• Measure support ticket resolution rate

Time-Based Analysis

• Use DATE_TRUNC to group by week or month
• Compare week-over-week (WoW) growth
• Analyze month-over-month (MoM) trends
• Calculate year-over-year (YoY) comparisons
• Track metrics over rolling time windows

Pro Tips

• Use CTEs or temp tables to break down complex logic
• Always filter out test data and NULL values
• Comment your code for clarity and future you
• Validate results with a spot-check in the raw data
• Use window functions for running totals or rankings

Your Next Steps

• Start with one simple metric you care about
• Write a basic query to calculate it for today
• Expand it to show a trend over time
• Share your SQL-based KPI with your team
• Iterate and build more complex metrics