What is ROI and how to calculate it?

Home

KPI examples

ROI

What is a ROI?

Return on Investment (ROI) is a crucial metric that measures the profitability of your marketing campaigns. It calculates how much profit you earn from each dollar spent. ROI is an important metric because it directly reflects the success of your marketing efforts. A high ROI means your campaigns generate more revenue compared to their cost. This is an indicator of the effective use of your marketing budget. Analyzing ROI helps marketers identify which strategies deliver the best returns. As a result, they can allocate resources more efficiently. Marketers focus on improving ROI to ensure their campaigns are cost-effective and contribute to the company's bottom line.

How to calculate ROI?

To calculate return on investment (ROI), subtract the initial value of the investment from the final value. Then divide the result by the initial investment cost and multiply by 100.

((Final Value - Initial Value) / Initial Value) * 100

What is bad ROI?

A bad ROI indicates that the revenue does not sufficiently cover campaign costs. This leads to a loss or minimal profit. The bad ROI can be caused by high advertising costs, low sales conversions, or targeting the wrong audience. Generally, an ROI below 2:1 is considered poor. It signifies that the return barely covers the cost of investment. At the same time, bad ROI thresholds can vary by industry. For instance, a low-margin sector like retail might view an ROI under 3:1 as unfavorable. Meanwhile, anything under 5:1 will be unsatisfactory for high-margin sectors such as software. A bad ROI underscores inefficiencies in campaign strategy. This also means that a reevaluation of marketing tactics is required.

What is good ROI?

A good ROI reflects a positive return on investment. This indicates that the revenue generated from a campaign significantly exceeds its cost. What constitutes a good ROI can vary by industry, goals, and the business's risk tolerance. Generally, an ROI of 5:1 is considered strong. It denotes that you get a $5 return for every $1 spent. However, benchmarks by industries differ. For instance, retail companies may aim at an ROI of 4:1 due to higher volume sales. At the same time, high-margin industries like software can expect higher ROIs, often 10:1 or more. A good ROI should align with the company's financial objectives. This will let you efficiently use resources to maximize profit.

Our key templates to track ROI

All-in-one marketing dashboard

Monitor all your marketing channels with an all-in-one dashboard providing performance overviews of web analytics, ad campaigns, SEO, social media, and emails.

All-in-one social media analytics dashboard

Get an overview of your social media analytics on one dashboard that collects data from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and GA4

PPC multi-channel dashboard for Looker Studio

Get a comprehensive PPC reporting tool to track the performance of your campaigns launched at multiple advertising platforms.

See all dashboards

How to improve ROI?

Optimize Ad Spend

Carefully analyze your campaigns to identify underperforming ads. Redirect funds from these ads to those with higher performance. This ensures your budget is allocated to the most effective channels. All this will contribute to improving overall ROI.

Enhance Targeting

Refine your audience targeting to reach individuals more likely to convert. Use data analytics to understand customer behavior and preferences. These insights will let you tailor your marketing efforts to match. Better targeting increases conversion rates, which, in turn, boosts ROI.

Improve Product Value

Enhance the perceived value of your product or service through quality improvements. These could be additional features or superior customer service. A higher value can justify price increases or encourage more purchases. This will directly impact ROI by increasing revenue without proportionately growing costs.