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Growth consulting
Growth Strategy Consulting: North Star Metric, KPI Tree and Channel Roles
A growth strategy answers three questions: what is our single goal, which metrics add up to that goal, and which of those metrics does each channel carry? When the answers are not written down, every team reports its own version of success: ads report ROAS, SEO reports traffic, product reports new features. In the first weeks of a growth strategy engagement, we write these answers down together with leadership.
Purpose and appearance
What do we use this service for?
We use strategy work to stop the budget waste that comes from teams working toward different definitions of success. A single North Star metric and a KPI tree make clear which outcome each team owns, what each channel does in the funnel and how its success is measured. When budgets go up or down, every channel is judged against the same goal.
Funnel stages it serves
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
How do you choose a North Star metric?
We put candidate metrics through three tests. Does it reflect the moment the customer actually gets value from the brand? Does it signal revenue weeks in advance? Can it be broken down into metrics teams can directly influence? A metric that fails any of the three does not become the goal, however popular it is. Follower count and total traffic are the candidates most often eliminated: both measure visibility rather than value, and their link to revenue can be weak.
That is why we do not recommend revenue as the North Star. Revenue is an outcome and it arrives late; by the time a problem is noticed, a month has often passed. We keep revenue at the top of the tree as the outcome metric and place the North Star on the behavior that predicts revenue. Below are example metrics we often choose by business model; we determine the right one using each brand's own data.
- E-commerce driven by repeat purchases: number of customers placing a second order within the first 90 days
- B2B company collecting quote requests: number of qualified meetings accepted by the sales team
- Subscription or app: number of active users completing the core action at least once a week
- High-ticket one-off sales (furniture, education): number of requests with an advance payment or deposit
What is a KPI tree, and how does it turn the goal into someone's job?
A KPI tree breaks the target metric into its multipliers. In e-commerce, the simplest version is revenue = visitors x conversion rate x average order value; visitors then branch into organic and paid, and conversion rate into page speed and checkout. The final branches of the tree are metrics a team can change this week.
Once the tree is built, we assign an owner and a reference value to every branch. A branch without an owner shows up in the report, but nobody changes it. We find the bottleneck branch with funnel analysis; growth usually sits not in the most discussed branch but in the narrowest one. We then translate the tree into its first budget and timeline in marketing planning.
Channel roles: one job per channel in the funnel
In the channel role map, we give each channel one primary job and a success measure that fits that job. Judging awareness work on YouTube or Meta by cost per purchase is the quickest way to shut it down unfairly. Instead, we measure awareness channels by changes in branded search volume and branded clicks in Search Console, consideration channels by qualified visits, and conversion channels by cost and revenue.
How visible competitors are on each channel also shapes the map. We map this with our AI-assisted competitor analysis and add it to the strategy document channel by channel. Rather than playing the same game on a channel where a competitor is strong, targeting the funnel stage they leave empty often delivers cheaper growth. We walk through the five steps from choosing a North Star to building the channel map, with examples, in our blog post.
Growth Strategy: when do we recommend it?
We recommend it
- Companies where every team works with a different definition of success
- Brands whose ads, SEO and CRM budgets are approved separately and whose combined return is never calculated
- Teams preparing to move into a new market, product or business model
We don't recommend it
- Setups where sales and conversion data are not recorded at all, so the branches of the tree cannot be measured
- Situations where leadership does not take part in the goal discussion and the strategy would stay within the marketing team
How we manage Growth Strategy
- Data and goal interviewsWe meet leadership, marketing and sales separately and list current goals and where they conflict.
- North Star selectionWe put candidate metrics through the three tests and check their link to revenue using the last 12 months of data.
- KPI tree workshopWe break the goal into underlying metrics and assign an owner and reference value to each branch.
- Channel role mapWe define each channel's role in the funnel and its own success measure.
- Strategy documentWe bring the decisions together in a two- to three-page document that everyone can read.
Growth Strategy: metrics and requirements
Metrics we track
- North Star metric
- KPI tree branch metrics
- Branded search volume
- Contribution by channel
- Pass-through rate at the bottleneck step
What you need to get started
- Sales, order or lead data for the last 12 months
- Read access to GA4 and ad accounts
- Customer and sales stage data from the CRM, if available
- A decision-maker from leadership to join the strategy workshop
Official sources
The Brand Move Growth Consulting Team
Contact us nowTo learn more about Growth Strategy or other growth consulting services, contact The Brand Move Growth Consulting team today.
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Frequently asked questions
Growth Strategy: frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a North Star metric and a KPI?
The North Star is the company's single primary goal metric. KPIs are the underlying metrics that make up that goal and that teams can influence day to day. The KPI tree connects the two, so every team can see how its own metric contributes to the main goal.
Why not use revenue as the North Star metric?
Revenue is an outcome and it arrives late; by the time a problem shows up, a month has often passed. We keep revenue at the top of the tree as the outcome metric and set the North Star on the customer behavior that predicts revenue weeks in advance.
What are examples of a North Star metric?
It depends on the business model. For repeat-purchase e-commerce, it can be customers placing a second order within 90 days; for B2B lead generation, qualified meetings accepted by sales; for subscriptions or apps, weekly active users completing the core action. We confirm the right one with your own data.
How often should the North Star metric change?
As rarely as possible, because a goal that keeps changing throws teams off course. Unless the business model changes, a yearly review is enough. In the quarterly review, the goal usually stays the same; what changes is which branch of the tree gets priority and where new tests focus.
How long does a growth strategy engagement take, and what do we get?
Roughly three to five weeks, including the audit. You get a two- to three-page strategy document covering the North Star metric and the reasoning behind it, the KPI tree with branch owners and reference values, and the channel role map. Campaign details and the budget calendar belong in the marketing plan, not in this document.
Let's run a first Growth Strategy review together.
In a free call we listen to your goals, channel mix and current plan, then send you the three highest-priority steps in writing.
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No sales pressure. Just findings.