Experts talk – the one metric you would take to a deserted island

Imagine you one day end up with only one metric for the rest of your life – you will only be able to use this one metric for the rest of your life! Which one would you choose?

Any one metric will not give you the full picture of your business. You should always do your homework and start from scratch, building your analytics framework. But if you HAD to choose?

I’m all for revenue – bottom line. But, what would other seasoned analytics do? Let’s ask the cream of the crop. 18 of the most brilliant minds in web analytics and big data out there share us their selection.

My question was:

What 1 metric would you take to a deserted island?

I highly recommend you follow them for their insights (and in some cases funny answers)!

Let’s begin with their answers, shall we!

1) Alex Cohen :

@CubicleDropout Revenue

— Alex Cohen (@digitalalex) 18 april 2014

2) Susan Etling :

@CubicleDropout Remaining water supply :-).

— Susan Etlinger (@setlinger) 18 april 2014

3) Dennis Mortensen :

@CubicleDropout $MRR

— Dennis R. Mortensen (@DennisMortensen) 18 april 2014

4) Anil Batra:

@CubicleDropout if I have to pick one then it will be return on investment

— Anil Batra (@AnilBatra) 18 april 2014

5) Alistair Croll:

@CubicleDropout conversion percentage?

— Alistair Croll (@acroll) 18 april 2014

6) Jim Sterne:

@CubicleDropout Profitability by customer and product line by methods and cost of acquisition

— Jim Sterne (@jimsterne) April 19, 2014

7) Hyoun Park:

@CubicleDropout Wins Above Replacement (I love baseball way too much)

— Hyoun Park (@hyounpark) April 18, 2014

7) Bobby Hewitt:

@CubicleDropout Great question. I would take bounce rate in the hopes that I could bounce off the island, LOL.

— Bobby Hewitt (@Bobbyhewitt) April 19, 2014

8) Doug Laney:

@CubicleDropout One metric: In what direction is the closest inhabited land.

— Doug Laney (@Doug_Laney) April 19, 2014

9) Taulbee Jackson:

@CubicleDropout been thinking. I would have to say reach/followers. Without an audience the rest doesn't matter.

— Taulbee Jackson (@taulbee) April 21, 2014

10) Avinash Kaushik:

@CubicleDropout Profit. At the end of the day, that is all that matters.

— Avinash Kaushik (@avinash) April 21, 2014

11) Nathan Gilliatt:

@CubicleDropout Less of a metric, more of a question for the data: “What’s happening now?” Expand the context as desired.

— Nathan Gilliatt (@gilliatt) April 21, 2014

12) Keith Burtis:

@CubicleDropout For eCommerce = Abandonment rate. For media = Uniques.

— KeithBurtis (@KeithBurtis) April 21, 2014

13) Stephane Hamel:

@CubicleDropout I would bring “customer satisfaction”, because even if I’m alone, I would know I did a good job for others

— Stephane Hamel (@SHamelCP) April 21, 2014

14) Michele Kiss:

@CubicleDropout Profit. Everything drives towards it. All other measures are trying the gauge eventual impact on profit.

— Michele Kiss (@MicheleJKiss) April 22, 2014

15) Web Analytics World:

@CubicleDropout If we wanted rescued we'd want the audience geography to see who was closest to see our SOS fire Ange & Fiona

— Web Analytics World (@waworld) April 22, 2014

15) Jonas Klit Nielsen:

@CubicleDropout monetized value of a social action

— Jonas Klit Nielsen (@Klit_Nielsen) April 22, 2014

16) Marshall Sponder:

@CubicleDropout visits! No, unique sessions – ha! Depend on how lonely I was

— Marshall Sponder (@webmetricsguru) April 22, 2014

17) John Lovett:

@CubicleDropout My one deserted Island metric would be: # Days left until rescue.

— John Lovett (@johnlovett) April 23, 2014

18) Gary Angel:

@CubicleDropout Metric tons of fresh-water on Isle. For Web Analytics, I'll go with Targeting Precision – % visitors in my target audience.

— Gary Angel (@garyangel) April 23, 2014

So, which one would you choose? Let us know in the comments below!