Marketing ROI Calculator
Marketing ROI is the profit a marketing investment returns, expressed as a percentage of what you spent. It is the language of CMOs and finance leaders because it speaks in profit rather than revenue, which is the number the rest of the business is held to. This free marketing ROI calculator returns your ROI percentage and the underlying profit in one step, and it requires no email.
Enter your numbers to see results.
Unlike revenue-based metrics, marketing ROI can go negative, and the calculator shows it honestly when marketing cost exceeds the revenue it produced. That candor is the point: ROI is meant to tell you whether an investment created or destroyed value, not to flatter a channel.
Use it to make the case for a budget, compare marketing against other uses of capital, or translate campaign performance into the profit language your finance team trusts.
How it works
Marketing ROI equals profit divided by total marketing cost, multiplied by 100 to express it as a percentage. Profit is the revenue attributable to marketing minus the total marketing cost.
Because the numerator is profit, not revenue, the result can be negative whenever marketing costs more than it returns. A 0% ROI means marketing exactly paid for itself, and anything above 0% means it generated net profit.
Worked example
Suppose marketing drives $50,000 in attributable revenue against $20,000 in total marketing cost. Profit is 50,000 minus 20,000, or $30,000.
Marketing ROI is 30,000 divided by 20,000, multiplied by 100, which is 150%. Every dollar invested in marketing returned a dollar fifty in profit on top of recovering its own cost.
What is a good marketing ROI?
A good marketing ROI is comfortably positive and competitive with other ways the business could deploy the same capital. There is no universal threshold, because the bar depends on margin and the returns available elsewhere, but any sustained negative ROI means marketing is destroying value and needs to be fixed or cut.
The biggest mistake is calculating marketing ROI on media spend alone. A true marketing ROI includes all costs: media, agency fees, tools, creative production, and the people running the program. Counting only media inflates ROI and hides the real cost of growth, which is exactly the distortion finance teams are watching for.
Do not confuse marketing ROI with ROAS. ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend, a gross figure that ignores margin and overhead. Marketing ROI is profit-based and fully loaded, so it is always the more conservative and more credible number in a boardroom. Use ROAS to optimize campaigns and marketing ROI to justify the budget, and benchmark your performance against QRY's monthly paid media benchmarks for context.
See QRY's monthly paid media benchmarks to compare your numbers against the portfolio.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good marketing ROI?
A good marketing ROI is clearly positive and competitive with other uses of the same capital. There is no fixed threshold because it depends on margin and alternative returns, but a sustained negative ROI means marketing is destroying value. The right target is set by your business economics, not an industry average.
How do you calculate marketing ROI?
Marketing ROI equals profit divided by total marketing cost, multiplied by 100. Profit is marketing-attributable revenue minus total marketing cost. For example, $30,000 in profit on $20,000 in cost is a 150% marketing ROI.
What is the difference between marketing ROI and ROAS?
ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend, a gross figure that ignores margin and overhead. Marketing ROI is profit-based and includes all marketing costs, so it is far more conservative. Use ROAS to optimize campaigns and marketing ROI to evaluate whether the overall investment created profit.
What costs should I include in marketing ROI?
Include every cost of the marketing program: media spend, agency fees, software and tools, creative production, and the salaries of the people running it. Calculating ROI on media alone overstates returns and hides the true cost of growth, which is the distortion finance teams scrutinize most.
Can marketing ROI be negative?
Yes. Because marketing ROI is profit-based, it goes negative whenever total marketing cost exceeds the revenue it generates. A negative ROI is a clear signal that an investment is destroying value and should be restructured or stopped, which is information revenue-based metrics can hide.
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