Analytics

How to create custom metrics

What are custom metrics?

Custom metrics let you define meaningful measurements from your raw event data. Instead of working with raw event counts, you can create metrics like "average items per order," "revenue per user," or "weekly active feature users" that directly align with your business goals.

Creating a metric from events

  1. Navigate to Metrics in your analytics project.
  2. Click New Metric.
  3. Give your metric a clear, descriptive name — for example, "Daily Signups" or "Average Order Value."
  4. Select the event that the metric is based on.
  5. Choose an aggregation type (see below).
  6. Optionally add filters to narrow which events are included.
  7. Click Save.

Once saved, your metric is available for use in dashboards, charts, and alerts.

Aggregation types

The aggregation type determines how Userorbit calculates the metric value from the underlying events.

Count

Counts the total number of events that match your criteria. This is the simplest aggregation and the most common.

Example: A "Daily Signups" metric that counts signup_completed events per day.

Unique

Counts the number of distinct users who triggered the event. This is useful for measuring reach rather than volume.

Example: A "Daily Active Users" metric that counts unique users who triggered any page_viewed event.

Sum

Adds up the values of a numeric event property across all matching events. Use this for revenue, quantities, or any additive measure.

Example: A "Total Revenue" metric that sums the amount property on purchase_completed events.

Average

Calculates the mean value of a numeric property. This helps you understand typical values.

Example: An "Average Order Value" metric that averages the amount property on purchase_completed events.

Min and Max

Returns the smallest or largest value of a numeric property. Useful for monitoring extremes.

Example: A "Largest Order" metric that finds the maximum amount on purchase_completed events.

Creating compound metrics

Compound metrics combine two or more base metrics using arithmetic operations. They let you calculate ratios, rates, and other derived measures.

To create a compound metric:

  1. Click New Metric and select Compound as the type.
  2. Define the formula using existing metrics. For example: Total Revenue / Unique Purchasers to calculate revenue per buyer.
  3. Name the compound metric and save it.

Common compound metric patterns:

  • Conversion rate — Count of signup_completed / Count of signup_started
  • Revenue per user — Sum of purchase amount / Unique purchasers
  • Feature adoption rate — Unique users of feature X / Total active users

Using metrics in dashboards

Once defined, metrics can be added to any dashboard:

  1. Edit a dashboard and click Add Chart.
  2. Select Metric as the data source.
  3. Choose your metric from the list.
  4. Configure the chart type and date range.

Metrics automatically recalculate as new events arrive, so your dashboards always show current values.

Best practices

  • Name metrics after what they measure, not how they are calculated — "Daily Active Users" is better than "Unique Count of Page Views."
  • Start with a small set of metrics that map to your key product goals.
  • Review metrics periodically to ensure they still reflect meaningful business outcomes.
  • Use compound metrics to track ratios and rates rather than building complex charts from scratch.

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