A value metric is the thing you charge for: per seat, per subscriber, per campaign, per tenant. Good value metrics rise as the customer gets more out of the product, so small customers pay little and large ones pay more. On this site the label also covers modular add-ons, segmented plans (startup programs, free tiers with a small team cap) and freemium.
Patrick Campbell, then CEO of ProfitWell, argued in a 2020 guest post that the value metric is the most important pricing decision, and reported from ProfitWell's own data that companies pricing on one grew faster with lower churn; treat those figures as company-reported. Madhavan Ramanujam and Georg Tacke of Simon-Kucher (2016) make the broader case for designing the product and its packaging around willingness to pay. A caution comes from Anja Lambrecht and Bernd Skiera (2006): many customers choose flat-rate plans even when paying per use would be cheaper, partly to avoid bill uncertainty, so metering is not automatically more appealing.
On a pricing page the value metric is what lets a buyer find their price without a sales call. A slider or a tier labeled by subscribers or campaigns tells them what they will pay today and what makes the price change.
How to use it
- Pick a metric customers already use to measure their own success (audience size, clients served), not an internal cost driver.
- Show the metric on the pricing page with a slider or clear tier limits so buyers can find their price.
- Sell optional capabilities as add-ons next to a plan rather than creating a new tier for each one.
Watch out
- Metering something users can't predict or control creates bill anxiety and pushes them toward flat-rate competitors.
- Hiding overage rules or auto-upgrading when a limit is crossed turns usage pricing into surprise charges.
