Marketing Return On Investment 101

We all likely know what marketing return on investment is, but do we really think about it when creating marketing campaigns? Or sometimes, do businesses just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks? Honestly, probably the latter.

Marketing ROI (Return On Investment) is possibly the most important element of any campaign and should be discussed all the way from creation to implementation. Here, we'll give you a refresher on marketing return on investment and discuss just why it's so important for your campaign. 

The Basics

You probably already know this (or at least we hope you do), but return on investment is sales growth, or the cost of marketing. With marketing, it can sometimes be hard to determine what "growth" is for your company and should be established before any costs are created.

Do you want to grow your number of clients? Gain more social followers? Create sales conversions? These goals need to be established before diving into any marketing spend and need to be made clear from the get-go. 

How do you determine what good ROI is?

Positive ROI is good, but there are many other factors to be considered in the equation. For example, if you spent $5000 on a totally kickass campaign that took weeks to cultivate, you want the return to not only be positive, but substantially higher than your initial investment.

Let's say that campaign only yielded you a return of $5001. Were those weeks of endless hard work on the campaign really worth it even if the ROI was positive? Probably not. 

Determining Costs

The costs of a marketing campaign are dependent on the type of campaign ran. A social media marketing campaign requires set ad spend with little setup costs, while Google Ads campaign setup costs run heavy and involve pay-per-click.

In addition, something that is often forgotten is employee cost. Time employees spend working on a campaign is time spent away from other work that could possibly help make you more profitable. Consider making employee costs a part of the equation when you are nailing down final costs. 

Seeing The Bigger Picture

While focusing on marketing campaign ROI is important, you should also consider how it will affect your company and your site's SEO overall. Making sure the campaign aligns with your core values and raises awareness of the business are also important factors. Thinking about the ripple effects of a successful campaign is something that should also resonate with the team, and most importantly, the boss. It's not always about the ROI - the other determining factors of success need to be clearly defined. 

All in all, focusing on return on investment is extremely important - and not just for accounting purposes. ROI helps determine the success or failure of any marketing campaign. We promise it's not a daunting task. Just focus on setting benchmarks and consider how the campaign will affect your company as a whole. 

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