Marketing ROI & Payback Calculator
ROI, cost per customer, and payback months for every marketing channel, so you know where the next dollar goes.
Example scenario—not a forecast or verified benchmark. Enable JavaScript to edit inputs, view charts, save locally and export your analysis.
Example inputs
- Marketing channels
- [{"name":"Google Ads","spend":12000,"leads":150,"closeRate":20,"firstYearRevenue":1200,"lifetimeRevenue":2400},{"name":"Meta Ads","spend":6000,"leads":120,"closeRate":10,"firstYearRevenue":1000,"lifetimeRevenue":1800},{"name":"SEO / content","spend":4000,"leads":50,"closeRate":25,"firstYearRevenue":1200,"lifetimeRevenue":2800},{"name":"Trade shows","spend":5000,"leads":15,"closeRate":20,"firstYearRevenue":2500,"lifetimeRevenue":5000}]
- Gross margin
- 50
- Minimum acceptable lifetime ROI
- 200
Example results
Blended marketing ROI is 166% on $324K a year of spend; SEO / content leads at 338% while Trade shows trails at 50%.
- Blended lifetime ROI
- 165.9%
- Blended cost per customer
- $470
- Annual marketing spend
- $324,000
- New customers per month
- 57.5
- Lifetime gross profit from one month of marketing
- $71,800
- Best channel
- SEO / content
- Est. annual gain from moving half of worst channel's budget
- $60,375
What stands out
SEO / content returns 338% lifetime ROI
Each customer costs $320 and pays back in 6.4 months. It is the first place to add budget, until cost per lead starts rising.
Trade shows returns 50% at $1,667 per customer
That is 5.2x the cost of a SEO / content customer. Fix its close rate or cut it before scaling anything else.
Trade shows takes over 12 months to pay back
Slow payback ties up cash. Fund these from profit, not a credit line, or improve first-year revenue per customer.
2 of 4 channels miss your 200% ROI target
Together they spend $132K a year.
Next actions
- Increase SEO / content spend in 20% steps and watch cost per lead; stop when its ROI falls to your 200% target.
- Give Trade shows 60 days to lift close rate (faster follow-up, better qualification); if ROI stays under target, move half its budget to SEO / content.
- Tag every lead with its source in your CRM so close rate and revenue are measured per channel, not estimated.
Model assumptions & limitations
- ROI = (customers × lifetime revenue × gross margin − spend) / spend, using one month of spend and the customers it produces.
- Payback = cost per customer ÷ monthly gross profit in the customer's first year.
- Assumes leads and closes are attributed to the correct channel; multi-touch journeys are not modeled.
- Reallocation gain assumes the receiving channel keeps about 70% of its current ROI at higher spend (rule of thumb for diminishing returns).