OKR vs KPI in Marketing: How to Set Goals That Drive Business Growth

KPI (Key Performance Indicator) measures well-understood processes and tracks results. In April you generated 100 leads, understood what worked, and set a May target of 150 leads. KPIs are about improving operational efficiency—tuning processes, optimizing metrics, incremental growth.

OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is about discovering the new, tackling challenges, and breaking out of the current paradigm. OKR answers “Where do we want to go?” rather than “How do we do the same thing slightly better?”

The key difference:

• KPI—controlled, linear growth: 100 leads → target 120 → target 140
• OKR—an ambitious leap into the unknown: “Become the #1 source of expert content in our niche” or “Build a lead generation system that works without ad spend”

These are not mutually exclusive. KPIs manage current operations; OKRs set the direction for growth. Marketing teams need both.

KPI is enough when the process is well-understood and predictable:

• PPC with established unit economics—optimizing CPA, CTR, conversion rates
• Email marketing—open rates, click rates, unsubscribes
• Regular content calendar—publication frequency, reach, engagement

OKR is needed when you do not know how to achieve the goal:

• Entering a new market—how do you attract the first customers where nobody knows your brand?
• Repositioning—how do you stop being “just another agency” and become a strategic partner?
• Launching a new product—how do you find product/market fit through marketing?
• Exponential growth—3x results on the same budget?

Simple rule: if you know exactly how to achieve it, that is KPI territory. If you need to invent a new approach, that is OKR territory.

An Objective is a direction, a big idea. Not a metric—a vision. It answers “Where do we want to go?” and must be clear to the entire team.

Criteria for a good Objective:

• Inspiring. The team must want to achieve it. Test: add “It would be amazing if…” before the statement—if it sparks energy, you are on the right track
• Ambitious. If you know exactly how to achieve it, the goal is not ambitious enough
• Clear. Phrased in the team’s language, not corporate jargon
• Directional. Points where you are going, not what you are doing

Marketing examples:

• “Become the go-to source of expertise in our niche across the region”
• “Build a marketing system that generates clients without depending on paid traffic”
• “Create a brand that clients recommend on their own”

An Objective can span a quarter, six months, or a year. Not all ambitious goals can be achieved in 3 months.

Key Results are checkpoints on the path to your goal. They answer “How will we know we are making progress?” This is always about measurable outcomes, not activities.

Critical principle: Key Results must not answer “How will we get there?” They describe the result, not the path.

Mature vs immature KRs:

An immature KR is binary—done or not done. A mature KR lets you track progress at any point.

• ❌ “Launch a content strategy” → ✅ “Grow organic traffic from 5,000 to 15,000 monthly visits”
• ❌ “Migrate to a new CRM” → ✅ “Increase lead-to-deal conversion from 8% to 15%”
• ❌ “Define brand positioning” → ✅ “Increase landing page conversion from 1.5% to 3%”
• ❌ “Make 20 cold calls” → ✅ “Acquire 5 paying customers from the new segment”

If a KR turns out immature, ask “How will we know we did this?” or “Why do we need this?” A few such questions will mature any KR.

Quantity: 1–3 KRs per Objective. More than three usually means some overlap.

An adapted process for marketing teams:

1. Get the strategic context. Where is the company heading? What are the business goals for this period? Marketing OKRs should decompose business-level goals. If the company aims to “double revenue,” marketing must understand how it can contribute.
2. Define where you are NOT going. Equally important. “We are not launching TikTok this quarter,” “We are not targeting the SMB segment”—such decisions free up resources for what matters.
3. Discuss with the team. OKRs are not set top-down only. Leadership sets the direction (top-down), the team formulates KRs (bottom-up). This achieves both ambition and realism.
4. Formulate 1–3 Objectives. If you want more than five, you have a focus problem. Marketing cannot simultaneously build a brand, triple leads, launch a new product, and enter three new markets.
5. Design mature Key Results. For each Objective—1–3 KRs. Validate against criteria: measurability, clarity, ambition, alignment with the Objective.

Important: not all marketing work belongs in OKR. Routine tasks and operational processes are KPI territory. OKR is only for challenges and breakthroughs. If there is no time left for OKR—that is a signal that routine has consumed everything, and growth should not be expected.

Across years of working with marketing teams, we have seen the same mistakes:

• Turning OKR into KPI. “Generate 300 leads” is a KPI, not an OKR. If you know how to get 300 leads (increase PPC budget), that is not a challenge. An OKR is “Build a channel that generates leads without ad spend.”
• Too many Objectives. Five or more Objectives means no strategy. Focus is choosing to say no to good ideas in favor of the best ones.
• KR as a task list. “Launch a newsletter,” “Write 10 articles,” “Set up CRM”—these are tasks, not Key Results. A KR is a result: “Increase repeat purchase rate to 35%.”
• OKR without belief. The most critical mistake. If the team does not believe in the goal, there is no motivation to think beyond familiar approaches. Without that, OKR becomes mere bureaucracy.
• Punishing non-achievement. OKR is not a plan that must be 100% completed. It is a growth tool. Even if a KR is achieved at 60%, but the team gained innovative insights and new tools, the OKR worked.

When a company works with an external marketing partner, OKR becomes an especially valuable tool. Here is why:

• Goal alignment. OKR synchronizes company ambitions with agency actions. Instead of “run ads for us,” it becomes “help us become a thought leader in our niche.”
• Focus over fragmentation. Instead of 20 small tasks, 2–3 strategic directions that actually move the business forward.
• Shared language. OKR creates a common understanding of what “success” means. Not “we launched ads,” but “we achieved a specific result.”

At EffectOn, we use an OKR-based approach with every client. During a strategy session, we collaboratively formulate marketing Objectives for the period, define Key Results, and build an execution plan. This keeps the focus on what truly matters for the business rather than an endless list of marketing activities.