SMB Tools / Marketing ROI
What does a marketing dollar return?
See your cost per lead, cost per customer, and the real return on a campaign (measured on gross profit, not revenue) so you know what to scale and what to cut.
What this means
- What moves it
- It pays with room: the cost per customer can rise to $180 before the campaign stops paying. Owners who scale usually do it in steps and watch that number.
- What to check
- 20% of leads became customers. Count only customers you can trace to the spend; a campaign credited with walk-ins looks better than it is.
- Where this goes next
- Save it, then set up the Google Business Profile and the two or three channels the model names; measure each the same way. Open →
Worked out from the numbers on this page. A description of the math and an estimate, not advice; what to do is your call, with your adviser.
Spend and results
Marketing spend
$
Leads generated
New customers
What a customer is worth
Revenue per customer
$
Gross margin on that revenue
%
Gross profit per $1 spent$1.80
Return on marketing spend
80.0%
$1.80 gross profit per $1 spent · $1,600 net
Paying for itself12 to break even
It pays for itself with room: 12 customers cover the spend and you brought 20. Even with a fifth fewer conversions it returns 44.0%. Worth putting more budget behind, watching cost per customer as you do.
- Cost per lead
- $20.00
- Cost per customer
- $100.00
- Lead to customer rate
- 20.0%
- Most you can pay per customer
- $180.00
- Revenue generated
- $6,000
- Net with 20% fewer customers
- $880
Gross profit generated$3,600
Marketing spend-$2,000
Net return$1,600
ROI is shown on gross profit, not revenue, and ignores conversion lag and word-of-mouth lift. A self-assessment estimate for comparing channels, not exact accounting and not advice on what to spend.