Revenue intelligence introduces a vocabulary that not everyone on a PI firm's leadership team may share. Marketing directors, intake managers, managing partners, and operations leaders come to these conversations from different disciplines — and the same term can mean different things depending on who is using it.
This glossary defines the key terms used in revenue intelligence for PI firms, with PI-specific context for each. It is meant to be a practical reference — something to share with a team getting started with structured marketing measurement, or a managing partner asking what all these numbers mean.
Terms are grouped by functional area rather than listed alphabetically, so related concepts appear together.
Lead and Volume Metrics
Lead
A prospective client contact that has reached the firm through a marketing channel or vendor — and has been entered into the intake process. Not all contacts become leads; a lead has been captured and assigned for follow-up. Lead count is the most basic volume metric.
Lead Source
The vendor, channel, or origination point that generated a specific lead. Common PI lead sources include television advertising, digital pay-per-lead vendors, organic search, referrals, billboards, and radio. Accurate lead source attribution — tagging each lead to its origin — is a prerequisite for any meaningful vendor performance analysis.
Lead Volume
The total number of leads received from a source or across all sources within a given time period. Lead volume is a baseline metric — important context for conversion rates, but not a performance indicator on its own. A vendor sending high volume at poor conversion quality is not a good vendor.
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
The amount paid for each individual lead from a specific source. Calculated as total spend divided by total leads from that source. CPL is a widely used but incomplete metric for evaluating vendor performance in PI. It measures input cost without measuring output quality. Two vendors with the same CPL can have dramatically different cost per case if their conversion rates differ.
Conversion and Intake Metrics
Intake Conversion Rate
The percentage of leads from a source that become signed cases. Calculated as signed cases divided by total leads. This is one of the most important metrics in PI marketing because it bridges lead quantity and case quantity. Conversion rates vary widely by vendor — ranges of 5% to 25% across a typical PI vendor portfolio are common. A vendor with a high CPL and high conversion rate can easily produce cheaper cases than a vendor with a low CPL and poor conversion.
Cost Per Case (CPC) / Cost Per Signed Case
The total marketing spend required to produce one signed case from a given source. Calculated as total spend divided by signed cases — or equivalently, cost per lead divided by conversion rate. Cost per case is the primary performance metric in revenue intelligence for PI firms, because it measures outcome (a case) rather than input (a lead). Knowing your cost per case by vendor is the foundation of informed budget allocation.
Rejection Rate
The percentage of leads that go through the intake process but are declined — not signed as cases. Rejection happens when the firm determines the case does not meet its criteria: insufficient liability, wrong case type, jurisdiction issues, statute of limitations concerns, or other factors. Rejection rate by source reveals whether a vendor's leads are meeting the firm's case criteria. A high rejection rate drives up effective cost per case even when CPL appears competitive.
Rejection Reason
The specific reason a lead was declined at intake. Tracking rejection reasons by source provides actionable feedback for vendor conversations. If a vendor's leads are rejecting primarily because of liability issues, that is a targeting conversation. If they are rejecting because of jurisdiction, that is a geographic coverage issue. Aggregated rejection reasons by source turn a volume metric into a diagnostic tool.
Withdrawal Rate
The percentage of signed cases that later exit the firm — clients who withdraw from representation after signing. Withdrawal is distinct from rejection: it happens after a case is signed, not during intake. High withdrawal rates from a specific source can indicate a quality problem that intake evaluation missed — often related to client expectations that were not aligned during the sales process. Withdrawal rate by source is an important quality signal that is frequently overlooked because it surfaces weeks or months after signing.
Time-to-Sign
The elapsed time between a lead's first contact with the firm and the execution of the fee agreement. Time-to-sign varies by lead source and can indicate lead quality and motivation — leads from sources where clients have already been researching are often faster to sign. High time-to-sign may indicate an intake process issue or a lead quality issue depending on the source.
Case Quality Metrics
Case Severity
A categorical or indexed assessment of how serious a case is — typically based on injury severity, liability clarity, and expected settlement value range. Case severity is used to evaluate whether a vendor's leads are producing the type of cases the firm wants. A vendor sending high volume of low-severity cases may appear efficient on cost per case but produce poor ROI on attorney time. Severity grading systems vary by firm but typically range from minor soft-tissue cases to catastrophic injury or wrongful death cases.
Case Severity Index
An aggregate measure of the severity mix for cases signed from a specific source. A source with a high severity index is producing predominantly serious cases; a low severity index indicates mostly minor cases. Comparing severity index across vendors allows marketing teams to evaluate not just how many cases a vendor produces but what kind — which is important for firms with revenue goals that depend on case value, not just case count.
Average Settlement Value
The average dollar value of settlements for cases from a specific source or across the portfolio. Average settlement value by source is a Level 4 metric — it requires connected data spanning the full case lifecycle and enough settled cases from each source to be statistically meaningful. When available, it is the most comprehensive quality indicator for any lead source. A source with high cost per case but high average settlement value may generate better ROI than a cheaper source with lower-value cases.
Case Acquisition ROI
The return on marketing investment calculated at the case level — the ratio of revenue generated by a signed case to the marketing cost that produced it. True case acquisition ROI requires settlement data connected back to original marketing spend, which is only possible in a PI environment with full lifecycle attribution. It is the most complete measure of marketing effectiveness available to a PI firm but requires significant historical data to calculate.
Budget and Spend Metrics
Marketing Attribution
The process of connecting a marketing spend or activity to a specific outcome — a lead, a signed case, or ultimately a settled case. Attribution is the core technical problem in PI marketing analytics. The challenge is maintaining the attribution thread across the full lifecycle: spend to lead to intake to signing to settlement, which can span 6 to 18+ months. Without consistent attribution, cost per case and ROI calculations are unreliable.
Spend Pacing
The rate at which a firm is spending against its marketing budget within a given period, compared to the expected rate. Spend pacing is monitored in real time to catch overruns and underruns before they become problems. Underpacing (spending below budget) can indicate vendor volume problems. Overpacing can indicate a budget control issue or an unexpected surge in lead volume.
Portfolio Cost Per Case
The blended cost per case across all active marketing sources — total marketing spend divided by total signed cases. Portfolio cost per case is the summary metric that leadership typically cares most about. It reflects the overall efficiency of the marketing operation. Improving portfolio cost per case — by shifting budget toward higher-performing vendors — is the primary goal of vendor portfolio optimization.
Budget Variance
The difference between planned marketing spend and actual marketing spend in a given period. Tracking budget variance by vendor and by total portfolio helps identify discrepancies early — whether a vendor is delivering more or fewer leads than their budget implied, or whether total spend is tracking above or below plan.
Performance Monitoring Metrics
Leading Indicator
A metric that predicts future performance before that performance materializes in the data. In PI marketing, leading indicators include things like inquiry-to-contact rate (are intake staff reaching leads before they go cold?), early conversion signals (how quickly are leads moving through early intake stages?), and vendor volume trends (is a vendor's lead flow accelerating or decelerating?). Leading indicators are the foundation of Level 4 revenue intelligence — they let you act before problems become visible in lagging metrics.
Lagging Indicator
A metric that confirms what has already happened — cost per case, conversion rate, rejection rate for the month just closed. Lagging indicators are accurate but backward-looking. Most PI firms track only lagging indicators because they are easier to measure. The limitation is that by the time a lagging indicator signals a problem, the problem has often been running for weeks or months.
Performance Trend
The directional change in a metric over a defined period — improving, stable, or declining. Trend analysis is more useful than point-in-time snapshots for vendor evaluation. A vendor with a cost per case that is currently acceptable but has been rising for three consecutive months is a different risk than a vendor with stable performance. Trend analysis requires at least two or three periods of comparable data and is one of the primary tools in Source Intelligence.
Deviation Alert
A notification triggered when a monitored metric moves materially outside its expected range. Deviation alerts are the mechanism that turns Level 3 data infrastructure into proactive management. Rather than waiting for the monthly review to surface a vendor problem, an alert fires when the signal appears — giving the marketing team days rather than weeks to respond. Alert thresholds are typically set based on historical volatility and materiality — a 5% one-day dip may be noise; a 20% seven-day trend is signal.
Level 1
Reactive
No connected data
Level 2
Monitored
Structured but manual
Level 3
Connected
Automated, real-time
Level 4
Predictive
Forward-looking decisions
Revenue and Financial Terms
Settlement Revenue
The total dollar value of cases that have reached final settlement — from which the firm earns its contingency fee. Settlement revenue is the ultimate outcome measure for PI marketing, but it is separated from marketing spend by the PI payment delay (6 to 18 months), which makes it difficult to connect to marketing activities using standard tools.
PI Payment Delay
The structural lag between when marketing spend occurs and when revenue from the resulting cases is received. In personal injury, a marketing dollar spent today produces a lead, which may become a signed case next month, which settles 12 to 18 months later. The PI payment delay is the primary reason standard attribution tools fail for PI firms and why revenue intelligence needs a data model specifically designed for the PI lifecycle.
Revenue Intelligence
The practice of connecting marketing spend, lead acquisition, intake operations, case signing, and settlement revenue in a single system — so that every dollar spent on marketing can be tracked to every case signed to every settlement received. Revenue intelligence is not a dashboard or a report; it is the connective infrastructure between marketing, intake, and finance that enables continuous optimization of the firm's marketing investments.
Operational Terms
Vendor Portfolio
The full set of active marketing vendors a firm is working with at any given time. Managing the vendor portfolio — deciding which vendors to invest in, which to reduce, which to exit, and which to add on trial — is one of the primary ongoing responsibilities of a PI marketing director. Revenue intelligence provides the data foundation for portfolio management.
Vendor Grading
The practice of regularly evaluating each vendor's performance against defined criteria and assigning a performance tier or score. Vendor grades typically incorporate cost per case, conversion rate, case quality, volume reliability, and trend direction. Vendor grading moves the evaluation conversation from subjective impressions to quantified, defensible comparisons.
Source Concentration Risk
The risk that too large a percentage of a firm's case volume depends on a single vendor or small number of vendors. If one vendor produces 40% of signed cases and their volume drops materially, the firm's case flow is severely impacted. Managing source concentration means deliberately diversifying the vendor portfolio so that no single source creates unacceptable dependence.
Revenue Intelligence Maturity Model
A four-level framework describing the progression from reactive marketing management to fully predictive revenue operations. Level 1 (Reactive) operates without connected data. Level 2 (Monitored) has structured tracking but manual assembly. Level 3 (Connected) has automated data connections with real-time visibility. Level 4 (Predictive) uses historical patterns to inform forward-looking decisions. Most PI firms operate at Level 1 or Level 2; Level 3 is the target for firms with significant marketing spend and multiple active vendors.
Related guide: See our complete guide to revenue intelligence for PI firms — the four layers, the maturity model, and what RI replaces in your current stack.