In this paper, a performance benchmark for the assessment of two feedforward control architectures for the load disturbance compensation problem is proposed. In particular, two indices are devised so that the advantage of using a feedforward compensator with respect to the use of a feedback controller only is quantified. Furthermore, these metrics will help to make quantitative comparisons among different feedforward control schemes and tuning rules. Analysis and simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.