Marketing ROI = (gross profit from marketing − marketing cost) ÷ marketing cost
($10,395 − $3,000) ÷ $3,000 = 2.47, or 247 percent
Which profit goes on the top line?
Gross profit, not sales. Take the revenue the marketing brought in and subtract what it cost you to deliver: stock for a shop, staff time for a service. Then count only the sales the marketing caused. Customers who would have come anyway (regulars, referrals, people who walked past) do not belong in it, and leaving them in is the most common way an ROI comes out too high. For the costs people most often forget, see the full guide.
On the bottom line goes every marketing cost: ad spend, the designer, the agency, printing, and the hours someone in the business spent on it.
Did a Ballarat accountant's tax-time campaign pay? (example figures)
A three-person accounting practice in Ballarat runs a campaign from July to September for tax returns: $2,400 of Google and Meta ads and $600 for a designer to make the flyers and the landing page. Each new client is asked how they found the firm, and the ones who name the campaign are counted.
| Sum | Result | |
|---|---|---|
| New individual returns | 22 × $350 | $7,700 |
| New small business clients (first year) | 4 × $2,800 | $11,200 |
| Revenue from the campaign | $18,900 | |
| Gross profit at 55 percent, after staff time | $18,900 × 0.55 | $10,395 |
| Marketing cost | $2,400 + $600 | $3,000 |
| Marketing ROI | ($10,395 − $3,000) ÷ $3,000 | 247 percent |
Each dollar came back with $2.47 of profit on top, in the first year alone. Most tax clients return the next July without another ad, so over three years the same $3,000 is worth far more. Measured on the first year, the campaign paid. Measured on the clients' whole stay, it was the best money the practice spent all year.
Which half of the ROI sum lives in your ad accounts?
CoraVision reads the spend side of the sum from Google Ads and Meta every night, along with conversions and conversion value, and Google Analytics 4 adds purchases and revenue for a business that sells online. The gross profit and the costs outside the ad accounts, like the designer, come from your own books, and the full sum needs both. The Marketing Performance score on the dashboard can carry a ROAS target, which is the in-account half of the picture.
Questions
Is an ROI of 100 percent good?
It means the marketing paid for itself and then made the same again in profit, which for most owner-led businesses is a good month. Whether it is good enough depends on what else that cash could have done, and on how sure you are that the sales came from the marketing.
Why do some reports call revenue divided by spend ROI?
Because the words get used loosely. Revenue divided by ad spend is ROAS. ROI needs profit on top, after the cost of the product and the cost of the marketing. A report that calls a ROAS of 4 an ROI of 400 percent is flattering the campaign.
Can marketing ROI be worked out for brand activity like sponsorship?
Only roughly. A footy club sign or a radio spot rarely leaves a trail you can count, so the profit on top of the sum is a guess. Ask every new customer how they heard of you, label the answer an estimate, and compare periods with and without the activity.