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Where to begin? Let’s start with your goals and go from there. How to navigate the complex peaks and valleys of the digital landscape using data and probability models.

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ROI Growth Calculator – 5 Year Plan

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Timeframe Sales MQLs Contacts Clicks Impressions
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Timeframe Sales MQLs Contacts Clicks Impressions
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Go on . . .

Let’s break it down into basic components:

  • Client Research
  • Defining Content Strategy
  • Identify Most Effective Channels
  • Do the Math
  • Create Journeys per Audience
  • Measure for Success

Client Research

A business should have a general idea of who they want to sell to, as well as what service or product to sell.

In fact that’s the first thing one should do: segment your market & figure out who your client base is. Who are they? How many types of people are they comprised of? Where do they go online?

Some people call them buyer personas or the ideal client persona (ICP).

These terms mean the same thing: who are we targeting? After your market is segmented, you then create a plan for each one of those and ask yourself:

  • What are their challenges and motivations?
  • What kind of content do they respond to?
  • How do they learn about products and services?
  • How much are they willing to spend to get what they want?

Defining Your Content Strategy

The quality of a digital marketing campaign is only as good as the quality of its content. Everything you do depends on whether your audience will respond to your message.

Learn more about Content Marketing here!

Identify Your Most Effective Channels

There are two different types of marketing:

  • Outbound marketing, which is more traditional marketing, interruptive marketing
  • Inbound marketing, also known as permission marketing.

Outbound Marketing

The most common example of outbound marketing is a TV commercial. You’re watching your show, it’s interrupted by a commercial, and then they tell you about a service or product.

In digital marketing, this is done through either what’s known as display advertising – a banner ad on a website, for example — or paid social media marketing. Next time you use a social medium, check how many posts in your feed are labeled ‘Sponsored’ – you’ll find it’s close to 20%!

Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing can come in the form of clicking on a search engine result, or in giving an organization your contact information in order to receive their content. Thus permission marketing.

Within both types are channels — different methods of delivering your content.

(ToFu = top of funnel, MoFu = middle of funnel)

CHANNELGOAL
Website (On-Page SEO)ToFu, MoFu, Sales
Content Marketing (Off-Site)Authority, ToFu
Paid SocialToFu, MoFu
EmailMoFu, Sales
PPCToFu, MoFu
Organic SocialToFu, MoFu
Affiliate MarketingSales
ProgrammaticToFu

Do the Math

What makes digital marketing more science than art is that when done correctly it relies heavily on data and probability. Not unlike other probabilistic models such as meteorology (or casino games), one can make a reasonable assessment of the following data:

  • Volume of visibility (website searches, ad impressions, emails sent)
  • Rate of interaction (click-through rate, open rate)
  • Rate of conversion (lead forms, phone calls)
  • Rate of sales

And, of course, there’s one more data point of importance: money.

Can you afford to pay for the volume necessary to achieve a return on investment? Play with our Lead Conversion Calculator to find out!

Measure for Success

Once you’ve drawn up your strategy, and you begin to implement it, you need to be able to accurately track against your well-defined goals.

This, of course, requires clean data and reliable tracking systems (for more on this, read about Data Intelligence).

Over time, we can help identify what is working and what needs improvement. And each point of data reveals a part of the plan. Is the click-through rate low? Perhaps the ads need adjustment. Is the traffic high but the conversion rate not? Maybe the page isn’t answering their questions. And so on.

The best way to know whether digital marketing is right for your business is to get your free analysis today.