Marketing ROI from attributed revenue and campaign cost, with net profit, revenue per dollar, and a separate ROAS check for paid channels.
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FORMULA USEDMarketing ROI Calculator
What marketing ROI means
Marketing ROI answers one question: for every dollar spent promoting the business, how many dollars came back as profit? The formula is (attributed revenue − marketing cost) ÷ marketing cost × 100. A result of +400% means the campaign returned five dollars for every one it spent; 0% means it broke even on revenue; negative means it lost money.
ROI and ROAS are different instruments
ROI nets the cost out of revenue first, so it measures profit against spend. ROAS (return on ad spend) is a plain ratio of ad revenue to ad spend — 3:1 means three dollars of revenue per dollar of ads, with nothing subtracted. Media buyers watch ROAS daily because it is channel-level and immediate; finance watches ROI because it is the number that survives margins.
What to include in cost
Count everything the campaign consumed: media spend, agency and freelance fees, software, creative production, and the salaries of hours spent on it. ROI computed on media spend alone flatters the number twice — once by shrinking the denominator and once by ignoring labor.
Worked example
An email-plus-ads push costs $2,000 all-in (spend, tools, labor).
Tracking attributes $10,000 of revenue to it; $6,000 came from the paid ads ($2,000 of the spend).
ROI = ($10,000 − $2,000) ÷ $2,000 × 100 = +400%.
ROAS on the paid slice = $6,000 ÷ $2,000 = 3 : 1.
How to use it
Enter the revenue you can defend as attributed — not total company revenue.
Enter full campaign cost, including fees and labor, not just media spend.
Read ROI on the board; check ROAS only if you filled in the paid-ad pair.
Compare against the break-even ROAS implied by your gross margin before celebrating.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate marketing ROI?
Subtract total marketing cost from the revenue the marketing generated, divide by the cost, and multiply by 100. A $10,000 campaign that returns $30,000 of revenue is a 200% ROI: (30,000 − 10,000) ÷ 10,000 × 100.
What is a good marketing ROI?
A positive ROI means the campaign returned more revenue than it cost, but that is a low bar — revenue still has to cover product costs. Many teams aim for 5:1 on revenue (a 400% ROI) as a healthy default, then adjust for their actual gross margin and how trackable the channel is.
What is the difference between marketing ROI and ROAS?
ROI subtracts the spend before dividing, so it reads as profit; ROAS divides revenue by spend without subtracting, so 4:1 means four dollars of revenue per dollar spent. ROAS is a media metric, ROI is a business metric.
What costs should be included in marketing ROI?
Everything the campaign consumed: media spend, agency and freelance fees, creative production, marketing software, and allocated staff time. Leaving labor and tools out is the most common way ROI numbers get inflated.
Is a 5:1 marketing ROI good?
On revenue it is a strong result for most channels, but check it against margin: with a 40% gross margin, 5:1 revenue means roughly $2 of gross profit per $1 of marketing — comfortable. At a 15% margin the same 5:1 barely clears the bar after overhead.
Why did my ROI come out negative?
Attributed revenue came in below cost, so the campaign lost money on that attribution window. That can be a real loss or a timing issue — considered purchases often convert weeks after the click, so short windows understate revenue for slow channels.