Marketing ROI Calculator

Formula ROI = ((Revenue − Cost) ÷ Cost) × 100
$
$
ROI (%)

Related Calculators

ROI = ((Revenue − Cost) ÷ Cost) × 100

Use this free, online ROI calculator to calculate the return on any marketing investment instantly, or switch the dropdown to work backwards and find revenue or cost instead. No sign-up, no limits just enter any two known values and it solves for the third.

What Is ROI (Return on Investment)?

ROI, or return on investment, measures how profitable a marketing investment was, expressed as a percentage. Unlike ROAS, which only compares revenue to ad spend, ROI factors in total cost, giving a more complete picture of whether a campaign actually made money.

This distinction matters more than it sounds. A lot of “marketing ROI” statistics you’ll see quoted online, like “$36 for every $1 spent on email,” are technically describing a revenue multiple (closer to ROAS) rather than true ROI, which nets out the cost. A $36-per-$1 return and a 3,500% ROI describe the same underlying result, just framed two different ways. This page uses both framings side by side in the benchmark table below so you can compare against whichever version you’ve seen cited elsewhere.

How to Calculate ROI

To calculate ROI, subtract cost from revenue, divide by cost, then multiply by 100.

ROI = ((Revenue − Cost) ÷ Cost) × 100

ROI Calculation, Step by Step

  • Find the total revenue generated by the campaign or investment you’re measuring
  • Find the total cost of that campaign, including everything that went into it, not just ad spend
  • Subtract cost from revenue
  • Divide the result by cost
  • Multiply by 100 to get a percentage

Worked Examples

  • Small campaign: $15,000 revenue, $10,000 cost (($15,000 − $10,000) ÷ $10,000) × 100 = 50% ROI
  • Mid-size campaign: $88,000 revenue, $32,000 cost (($88,000 − $32,000) ÷ $32,000) × 100 = 175% ROI
  • Agency-scale account: $620,000 revenue, $145,000 cost (($620,000 − $145,000) ÷ $145,000) × 100 = 327.6% ROI

ROI Calculator Formula (Reverse Calculation)

Because this is a reverse-capable calculator, you can also start from a target ROI and solve for revenue or cost instead.

  • To find Revenue: Revenue = Cost × (1 + ROI ÷ 100)
  • To find Cost: Cost = Revenue ÷ (1 + ROI ÷ 100)

This is useful for setting realistic targets. If your team needs to hit 200% ROI on a $50,000 budget, you can work out exactly how much revenue that requires, $150,000, before the campaign starts.

What Is a Good ROI Percentage?

A commonly cited baseline for overall marketing ROI is 200% to 400% (a 3:1 to 5:1 revenue multiple), but this varies enormously by channel. The gap between the best and worst-performing channels is one of the widest spreads of any metric on this site.

Channel

Typical Revenue Multiple

Equivalent ROI %

Email marketing

36:1 – 42:1

3,500% – 4,100%

SEO (24-month)

5:1 – 15:1

400% – 1,400%

Influencer marketing

~6.5:1

~550%

Webinars

~3.1:1

~213%

Overall blended marketing (all channels)

3:1 – 5:1

200% – 400%

Google Ads / PPC

2:1 – 4:1

100% – 300%

Paid social

~1.75:1

~75%

Why the range is wide: channel choice explains most of the spread here, far more than industry does. Email marketing’s 36:1 to 42:1 return isn’t a typo, it reflects near-zero marginal cost per send against an owned audience, while paid social’s compressed ~1.75:1 reflects rising platform costs and shrinking organic reach. A blended 300% ROI can hide an email program returning 4,000% dragging up a paid social line barely breaking even.

How to Improve Your ROI

  • Track attribution properly across the full funnel, under-crediting channels that assist conversions (not just the last click) can make ROI look worse than it actually is
  • Reallocate budget toward the highest-ROI channels identified over a full sales cycle, not just the most recent week
  • Factor in customer retention and repeat purchases, not just the first transaction, when calculating true campaign revenue
  • Cut or pause campaigns that consistently sit below your break-even ROI threshold rather than letting them run on inertia
  • Grow your owned channels (email list, organic search rankings) deliberately. They consistently show the highest ROI precisely because the marginal cost per additional customer is so low
  • Align marketing-reported revenue with actual sales or CRM data to avoid inflated or double-counted figures

Frequently Asked Questions

200% to 400% (a 3:1 to 5:1 revenue multiple) is a commonly cited overall baseline, but it varies enormously by channel. Email marketing regularly returns 3,500%+ ROI, while paid social often sits closer to 75%. Compare your ROI against the specific channel, not a single blended target.

Subtract your total cost from revenue, divide by cost, then multiply by 100. For example, $15,000 in revenue against $10,000 in cost gives a 50% ROI. The calculator above does this instantly, or you can use it in reverse to solve for revenue or cost.

ROI = ((Revenue − Cost) ÷ Cost) × 100. To reverse it, Revenue = Cost × (1 + ROI ÷ 100), and Cost = Revenue ÷ (1 + ROI ÷ 100).

Yes, this calculator works for marketing ROI specifically as well as ROI on any investment, since the formula is identical. The examples and benchmarks on this page are built around marketing and advertising campaigns.

ROAS only looks at revenue versus ad spend and ignores other costs such as product cost and overhead. ROI factors in total cost, giving a truer picture of actual profit. A campaign can show a strong ROAS and still have a weak or negative ROI once all costs are included.

Use the reverse mode above: set “I want to calculate” to Revenue, enter 150 for ROI and 20000 for Cost. The calculator shows $50,000 in revenue is needed.

Both describe the same result in different formats. “$5 per $1 spent” is a revenue multiple (5:1, equivalent to a 400% ROI once cost is netted out), while “400% ROI” directly states the profit percentage. Neither is wrong; check which format a source is using before comparing it to your own numbers.