Custom Metrics Walkthrough

This guide explains how to create and manage Custom Metrics in Lifetimely. Custom Metrics let you build tailored formulas using your store’s data—so you can track exactly what matters to your business.

Whether you’re measuring profitability, marketing efficiency, or customer behavior, Custom Metrics are a powerful way to generate meaningful insights and build out reporting dashboards that fit your goals.

What Are Custom Metrics?

Custom Metrics allow you to define your own formulas using a combination of:

• Lifetimely metrics (e.g. Net Profit, Orders, New Customers)
• Mathematical operators (+, -, /, *)
• Filters (e.g. by Product, Channel, Country, Discount Code)

These metrics can then be used in your reports or dashboards just like any built-in metric.

Where can Custom metrics be found?

Custom metrics are located under the Dashboards section of the app. From this section, you can:

• Create new custom metrics
• View and manage all previously created metrics.

How to Build a Custom Metric?

Create or edit a custom metric using the Custom metric builder and using the preview.

1. From the Dashboards tab, select Custom Metrics and New Custom Metric
2. Define the Formula: Use the keyboard or dropdown to input your formula. For example:
   1. Start typing a metric (e.g., “Total Sales”) and press Tab to autocomplete. 
   2. Use operators like division (/) or addition (+) to construct your formula (e.g., Total Sales / Marketing Costs).
3. Define a format for the metric:
   1. Percentage (%): if it's a percentage-based metric, i.e: % of total sales coming from the United States → ((Total sales filtered by Country = United States / Total sales) * 100)
   2. Currency ($): if it's a currency-based metric like Total sales coming from the United States → Total sales filtered by Country = United States 
   3. Number: if it's a currency-based metric like Orders coming from the United States → Orders filtered by Country = United states 
4. Set Trend Direction: Specify whether the trend is positive or negative based on the metric’s behavior.

5. Apply Filters (if applicable): Click to add filters like order or customer tags, countries, and UTM data.

   

   💡 Note: Metrics, such as Marketing Costs, Net Profit, and Contribution Margin, cannot be filtered as they can’t be attributed to a specific order.

6. Validate the Formula: If there’s an error in your formula, the builder will not display the green 'Valid' message. Otherwise, if valid you the Preview should show the value of your newly created metric for the past 30 days.
7. Save Your Metric: Once created, the custom metric will appear in the Custom Metrics section.

Example Custom Metric

As an example, let's build a custom Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) metric:

1. Go to Custom Metrics > Create Metric.
2. Input Formula: Type or select from the dropdown: Total Sales / Marketing Costs.
3. Set the Trend direction: In the case of MER, in which higher MER is positive, Green if the increase is up, and red if down.
4. Save and View: Save the metric and it will now be available in the Custom Metrics section and can be added to any dashboard.
5. Add to a Dashboard: Edit your dashboard, select the newly created metric, and place it in the desired position.

Limitations

• Filters are not supported for every metric. Metrics that combine multiple systems (like ad integrations or expense uploads) may not support granular filtering.
• Data accuracy depends on connected integrations and your Shopify data (e.g. order tags, discounts, customer tags).

💡 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What kinds of values can I use in a custom metric?

You can create metrics as a number, percentage, or currency depending on what you're calculating. This determines how the metric is displayed in your dashboards.

Can I use filters in custom metrics?

Yes, filters let you narrow your metric by product, customer, country, sales channel, marketing source, and more. However, not all metrics support filtering—for example, Net Profit and Contribution Margin cannot be filtered.

Can I include other custom metrics inside a new one?

At this time, you can only build a formula using base metrics, not previously created custom metrics.

Where do I find the full list of available metrics and filters?

We’ve documented all supported metrics and filters in this reference guide for easier access while building custom formulas.