Track and Compare Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

About Key Performance Indicators

With this feature, you can define custom KPIs that matter most to your marketing goals, set clear targets, and track your actual results against them. It gives you a focused view into what’s working and what’s not, allowing you to make informed decisions about how to adjust your strategy.

Here are a few examples of ways you might use the KPIs feature:

  • Campaign Evaluation: Compare actual impressions against planned values to quickly assess if your campaign is meeting its objectives.

  • Resource Allocation: Identify which activities are delivering the best results and adjust your budget accordingly.

  • Trend Analysis: Track monthly performance patterns for your campaign, noting which months performed best to inform future planning.

  • Performance Reporting: Use the clear visual indicators to quickly build executive reports showing campaign success rates across your marketing portfolio.

How It Works

In Uptempo Plan, you can create custom KPIs to define exactly what you want to measure, and how. KPIs can have any of the following value types:

  • Number

  • Percentage

  • Currency

For each KPI, you can also define:

  • Whether you want aggregated values for a KPI to be calculated as a sum, or as an average

  • The precision (i.e. number of decimal places) you want to use to display values for the KPI

  • Whether an increase or decrease in the KPI value represents a positive change (for trend indication)

You can assign relevant KPIs to specific activity types, which allows users in your Uptempo instance to record both planned and actual measured results for those KPIs on all activities of that type in the activity's Details panel.

For instructions on how to create and configure KPIs, see Create Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Access an Activity's KPIs

After a KPI has been created and assigned to an activity type, you can access it (and all other KPIs assigned to the activity type) on the Details panel of any activity of that type. Here, you can enter planned and actual KPI results, and compare how actual results are tracking against the plan.

To access an activity's KPIs, follow these steps:

  1. In the Uptempo navigation menu, click Activities.

  2. Click any marketing activity in the Timeline or Summary View to open its Details panel.

  3. If KPIs have been set for the activity's activity type, you'll see a KPIs tab. Click on the KPIs tab.

  4. In the KPIs tab, you'll see two tabs, Planned and Actual:

    • Click the Planned tab to view or record planned KPI result targets.

    • Click the Actual tab to view or record actual KPI results.

Plan KPI Result Targets for an Activity

In the Actual tab of the KPIs section, you can set up target result values that you plan to achieve for each KPI:

The KPI tab shows KPIs in three sections that allow you to compare the KPIs for different levels of the hierarchy:

  • Higher Levels: This section displays the KPI values of the next higher level activity. For KPI data to be displayed here, the KPIs must be assigned to the type of activity displayed. If you hover over a value, a U icon is displayed to the right of it. If you click on the icon, the data of the KPI is deleted from the higher-level activity.

  • Active Level: This section shows the KPI data of the activity whose Details panel you are looking at. Enter your target here.

  • Lower Levels: This section displays the rolls-ups of the KPIs of lower-level activities. For KPI data to be displayed here, the KPIs must be assigned to the type of activity displayed. If you hover over a value, a U icon is displayed to the right of it. If you click on the icon, the data of the KPI is deleted from the lower-level activities.

Tip: Change the Hierarchy Level Where a KPI Result Value Is Set

The same KPI can be assigned to multiple levels within the activity hierarchy. However, a value can only be entered once within a hierarchy branch: after a value has been entered for a KPI on one level of a branch, it can't be edited on other levels of the same branch.

If you want to enter a value on another level, click the U button to remove the existing value, then enter the value you want on the new level.

Record and Compare Actual KPI Results

In the Actual tab of the KPIs section, you can record actual results and see how they compare to the planned targets in several ways:

  1. For total campaign results:

    Enter the overall figure in the main value field for each KPI.

  2. For monthly tracking:

    Go to the monthly breakdown section and enter values for specific months — the system automatically calculates the running total.

  3. For hierarchical campaigns:

    Enter results at the most detailed level, and the system will automatically roll these up to parent campaigns, giving you both individual and aggregated views.

After you enter actual values, the system displays visual indicators of performance: green upward arrows for metrics exceeding targets and red downward arrows for underperforming areas.

Note: Understanding Roll-Up Functionality

One powerful aspect of this feature is how metrics flow through your campaign hierarchy. When you enter results for lower-level activities, they automatically roll up to parent campaigns. In parent activities, you'll see:

  • Current Level showing direct results for that specific activity

  • Roll-Up showing combined results from all child activities

  • Total displaying the complete performance picture

This hierarchical view helps you understand performance at every level of your marketing structure, from individual tactics to overall strategy.

Change Time Granularity and Date Range

You can adjust how you track performance over time by setting the time granularity you want to use, i.e. whether you want to record and display values as a single total figure for a selected date range, or break it down by quarter or month.

To change the time granularity and date range, follow these steps:

  1. On the Actual tab, click Edit by the displayed date range.

    The Change Time Granularity and Date Range dialog opens.

  2. In the dialog, select the Time Granularity option you want to use:

    1. Total: For viewing the entire campaign period as a single value

    2. Monthly: For tracking performance month by month

    3. Quarterly: For analyzing quarterly performance trends

  3. Optional: Use the Date Range field to adjust the date range you want to use.

  4. Click Yes, change to save your changes.

    The Actual tab updates to show data entry fields that match your selected granularity.

This flexibility lets you analyze performance at the time interval most relevant to your reporting needs, from high-level quarterly reviews to detailed monthly analysis.