Metric Definitions

This reference documents the key metrics available in SourceMedium dashboards and the semantic layer. Metrics are organized by category.

Complete Metric Reference: For a comprehensive, always-current list of all 180+ metrics, query the dim_semantic_metric_catalog table in your warehouse. This page provides a curated overview of the most commonly used metrics.

Metrics marked as “Alias” are legacy names maintained for backward compatibility. Use the preferred metric name for new queries.

Revenue Metrics

Metric	Description	Type
Average Order Value (AOV) - Net	Average net revenue per order	Ratio
Average Order Value (AOV) - Gross	Average gross revenue per order	Ratio
Average Order Value (AOV) - Total	Average total revenue per order, including net shipping, net taxes, and net shipping taxes	Ratio
Order Net Revenue	Net revenue after discounts and refunds	Simple
Order Gross Revenue	Gross revenue before discounts and refunds	Simple
Order Total Revenue	Net revenue plus net shipping, net taxes, and net shipping taxes	Simple
New Customer Net Revenue	Net revenue from first-time customers	Simple
Repeat Customer Net Revenue	Net revenue from repeat customers	Simple
Gross Profit	Revenue minus cost of goods sold	Simple
Gross Margin %	Gross profit as percentage of net revenue	Ratio
Total Discounts	Total discount amount applied to orders	Simple
Total Refunds	Total refund amount processed	Simple

Revenue and AOV checks

When a revenue or AOV number looks off, confirm the exact metric before comparing reports. For the full cross-tool checklist, see Why would external reports not match the SourceMedium dashboard?.

Question	Check
Is this gross, net, or total revenue?	Gross revenue is before discounts and refunds. Net revenue is after discounts and refunds. Total revenue includes net revenue plus net shipping, net taxes, and net shipping taxes.
Is AOV based on the same revenue field?	Net AOV, gross AOV, and total AOV use different revenue numerators.
Does overall AOV differ from new and repeat AOV?	Overall AOV is the segment’s combined revenue divided by its combined order count. It is not the simple average of new-customer AOV and repeat-customer AOV.
Do new and repeat totals add to the expected total?	Check whether the report is counting customers, orders, or revenue. A customer can have different lifecycle status depending on the metric and grain being queried.
Are discounts and refunds included?	Use Revenue Fields to confirm the sign convention and field definition.

For reconciliation, compare the numerator and denominator directly. For example, validate AOV by checking revenue and order count for the same date range, filters, and customer segment.

Common formulas

Metric family	Formula pattern
AOV	Revenue divided by order count for the same segment and filters.
New customer AOV	New-customer revenue divided by new-customer order count.
Repeat customer AOV	Repeat-customer revenue divided by repeat-customer order count.
MER	Order net revenue divided by total ad spend.
ROAS	SourceMedium ROAS uses order net revenue divided by total ad spend; platform ROAS uses platform-reported revenue divided by total ad spend.
CAC	Total ad spend (or your report’s configured acquisition spend) divided by new-customer order count.

For account-specific metric definitions, query dim_semantic_metric_catalog. Some dashboard labels are aliases or configured variants of these formula families.

Customer Metrics

Metric	Description	Type
New Customers	Count of newly acquired customers in the period	Simple
Total Customers	Total count of all customers	Simple
New Customer Order Count	Number of first-time customer orders	Simple
Repeat Customer Order Count	Number of repeat customer orders	Simple
Active Subscribers	Count of customers with active subscriptions	Simple
Churned Subscribers	Count of customers with churned subscriptions	Simple
Email Subscribers	Count of customers opted into email marketing	Simple
SMS Subscribers	Count of customers opted into SMS marketing	Simple
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)	Average cost to acquire a new customer	Ratio
Subscriber Churn Rate	Percentage of subscribers who have churned	Ratio

Marketing Metrics

Metric	Description	Type
Total Ad Spend	Total advertising spend across all platforms	Simple
Total Ad Clicks	Total clicks across all ad platforms	Simple
Total Ad Impressions	Total impressions across all ad platforms	Simple
Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)	Net revenue divided by total ad spend (blended ROAS)	Ratio
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)	SourceMedium ROAS is order net revenue per dollar of ad spend; platform ROAS uses platform-reported revenue	Ratio
Cost Per Click (CPC)	Average cost per ad click	Ratio
Cost Per Order (CPO)	Average advertising cost per order	Ratio
Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)	Cost per thousand impressions	Derived
Click-Through Rate (CTR)	Percentage of impressions that result in clicks	Ratio
Platform Reported Conversions	Conversions as reported by ad platforms	Simple
Platform Return on Ad Spend	Return on ad spend as reported by platforms	Ratio

Conversion Metrics

Metric	Description	Type
Site Conversion Rate	Overall conversion rate (orders / website sessions)	Ratio
Simple Conversion Rate	Orders / sessions using executive summary data	Ratio
Add to Cart Rate	Percentage of page views that result in add to cart	Ratio
Checkout Initiation Rate	Percentage of add to carts that proceed to checkout	Ratio
Checkout Completion Rate	Percentage of checkouts that complete purchase	Ratio
Discount Rate %	Discounts as percentage of gross revenue	Ratio
Refund Rate %	Refunds as percentage of gross revenue	Ratio
Email Opt-in Rate	Percentage of customers opted into email marketing	Ratio
SMS Opt-in Rate	Percentage of customers opted into SMS marketing	Ratio

Cumulative / Period Metrics

Metric	Description	Type
MTD Net Revenue	Month-to-date net revenue	Cumulative
MTD Order Count	Month-to-date order count	Cumulative
MTD New Customers	Month-to-date new customer acquisitions	Cumulative
MTD Ad Spend	Month-to-date advertising spend	Cumulative
QTD Net Revenue	Quarter-to-date net revenue	Cumulative
YTD Net Revenue	Year-to-date net revenue	Cumulative
Trailing 30 Day Revenue	Revenue for the last 30 days	Cumulative
Trailing 90 Day Revenue	Revenue for the last 90 days	Cumulative

Product Metrics

Metric	Description	Type
Total Products	Total count of unique products in catalog	Simple
Total SKUs	Total count of product variants/SKUs	Simple
Product Page Views	Count of product page views	Simple
Product Cost (COGS)	Total cost of goods sold	Simple
SKUs per Product	Average number of variants per product	Ratio

Legacy Aliases

These metric names are maintained for backward compatibility. Always use the preferred name for new implementations.

Core Aliases

Alias	Preferred Metric	Description
`aov`	`average_order_value_net`	Average Order Value
`mer`	`marketing_efficiency_ratio`	Marketing Efficiency Ratio
`cac`	`customer_acquisition_cost`	Customer Acquisition Cost
`cpc`	`cost_per_click`	Cost Per Click
`cpm`	`cost_per_thousand_impressions`	Cost Per Mille
`roas`	`return_on_ad_spend`	Return on Ad Spend
`ctr`	`click_through_rate`	Click-Through Rate
`cpo`	`cost_per_order`	Cost Per Order
`cvr`	`conversion_rate`	Conversion Rate
`cpa`	`customer_acquisition_cost`	Cost Per Acquisition (same as CAC)

AOV Variants

Alias	Preferred Metric
`aov_gross`	`average_order_value_gross`
`aov_net_revenue`	`average_order_value_net`
`aov_gross_revenue`	`average_order_value_gross`
`aov_total_revenue`	`average_order_value_total`
`aov_new_customers`	`average_order_value_new_customer_net`
`aov_new_customer_net_revenue`	`average_order_value_new_customer_net`
`aov_new_customer_gross_revenue`	`average_order_value_new_customer_gross`
`aov_new_customer_total_revenue`	`average_order_value_new_customer_total`
`aov_repeat_customer_net_revenue`	`average_order_value_repeat_customer_net`
`aov_repeat_customer_gross_revenue`	`average_order_value_repeat_customer_gross`
`aov_repeat_customer_total_revenue`	`average_order_value_repeat_customer_total`

Marketing Variants

Alias	Preferred Metric
`mer_new_customers`	`marketing_efficiency_ratio_new_customers`
`cvr_new_customers`	`conversion_rate_new_customers`
`platform_roas`	`platform_return_on_ad_spend`
`platform_mer`	`platform_marketing_efficiency_ratio`
`platform_cpc`	`platform_cost_per_conversion`
`platform_rpc`	`platform_revenue_per_conversion`
`platform_rpm`	`platform_revenue_per_thousand_impressions`
`cpo_platform`	`cost_per_platform_conversion`
`cpa_marketing`	`cost_per_platform_conversion`

Query dim_semantic_metric_catalog with WHERE is_abbreviation = true to see all available aliases in your warehouse.

Metric Types

Simple: Direct aggregation of a measure (e.g., SUM of revenue)
Ratio: Division of two metrics (e.g., revenue / orders = AOV)
Derived: Calculation involving other metrics with custom expressions
Cumulative: Running total over a time period (e.g., MTD revenue)

Discovering More Metrics

The semantic layer includes 180+ metrics across all categories. To explore the complete list:

-- List all metrics by category
SELECT
    metric_category,
    metric_name,
    metric_label,
    metric_type
FROM `your_project.sm_metadata.dim_semantic_metric_catalog`
ORDER BY metric_category, metric_name

-- Find metrics matching a keyword
SELECT
    metric_name,
    metric_description,
    calculation
FROM `your_project.sm_metadata.dim_semantic_metric_catalog`
WHERE LOWER(metric_name) LIKE '%revenue%'
   OR LOWER(metric_description) LIKE '%revenue%'

See the dim_semantic_metric_catalog documentation for more query examples and detailed schema information.

Getting Started

Quick Reference

Table Documentation

Schema Standards

Platform Raw Data

Revenue Metrics

Revenue and AOV checks

Common formulas

Customer Metrics

Marketing Metrics

Conversion Metrics

Cumulative / Period Metrics

Product Metrics

Legacy Aliases

Core Aliases

AOV Variants

Marketing Variants

Metric Types

Discovering More Metrics

​Revenue Metrics

​Revenue and AOV checks

​Common formulas

​Customer Metrics

​Marketing Metrics

​Conversion Metrics

​Cumulative / Period Metrics

​Product Metrics

​Legacy Aliases

​Core Aliases

​AOV Variants

​Marketing Variants

​Metric Types

​Discovering More Metrics

Revenue Metrics

Revenue and AOV checks

Common formulas

Customer Metrics

Marketing Metrics

Conversion Metrics

Cumulative / Period Metrics

Product Metrics

Legacy Aliases

Core Aliases

AOV Variants

Marketing Variants

Metric Types

Discovering More Metrics