How to Measure Marketing ROI

Before calculating ROI, you need to decide how you'll credit conversions to marketing touchpoints. First-touch attribution gives all credit to the initial interaction, while last-touch credits the final touchpoint before conversion. Multi-touch attribution distributes credit across the journey. For most B2B companies, a weighted multi-touch model provides the clearest picture—giving more weight to key moments like demo requests or proposal views.

Accurate ROI measurement requires clean data flowing from all your marketing channels into a central system. Implement UTM parameters on all campaign links, set up conversion pixels on your website, and ensure your CRM captures the original lead source. Use Google Analytics 4, your marketing automation platform, or a dedicated attribution tool to connect the dots between marketing activities and outcomes.

Compile all costs associated with your marketing efforts. This includes ad spend, agency fees, software subscriptions, content production costs, and a portion of team salaries. Be thorough—hidden costs like design time or technology overhead can significantly impact your true ROI. Break costs down by campaign, channel, and time period for granular analysis.

Work with your sales team to identify which closed deals originated from marketing efforts. Use your CRM's opportunity source field, combined with your attribution data, to calculate the total revenue generated by marketing. For longer sales cycles, track pipeline value (potential revenue) separately from closed-won revenue.

The basic marketing ROI formula is: (Revenue Attributed to Marketing - Marketing Cost) / Marketing Cost × 100. For example, if you spent $50,000 on marketing and generated $200,000 in attributed revenue, your ROI is ($200,000 - $50,000) / $50,000 × 100 = 300%. This means you earned $3 for every $1 spent. Calculate this at the campaign, channel, and overall marketing level.

Marketing impact often extends beyond immediate conversions. Brand awareness campaigns may not drive direct sales but make future campaigns more effective. Content marketing builds organic traffic that compounds over time. Factor in customer lifetime value (LTV) rather than just initial purchase value, and consider a 6-12 month attribution window for campaigns with longer impact cycles.

Create a centralized dashboard that shows ROI by channel, campaign type, and time period. Include trend lines to show improvement over time, and set up automated data refreshes. Your dashboard should answer: Which channels deliver the best ROI? Which campaigns should we scale? Where should we cut spending? Make it accessible to leadership with clear visualizations.

Use your ROI data to make better budget allocation decisions. Shift spend from low-ROI channels to high performers, but test incrementally—sometimes channels work together in ways that aren't obvious from isolated metrics. Set up regular ROI reviews (monthly for digital, quarterly for brand) and document the actions taken based on insights.