“How do you measure the ROI of your digital marketing efforts? What metric or tracking method do you find most insightful?” Here is what 17 thought leaders have to say.
- Track Revenue Attribution for Clear Insights
- Compare CAC to LTV for Profitability
- Focus on CLV for Long-Term Value
- Track Conversions for Revenue Insights
- Monitor Organic Traffic Growth
- Align Metrics with Business Goals
- Link Marketing Activities to Outcomes
- Use AI-Driven Analytics for Optimization
- Gamify Marketing for Increased Engagement
- Focus on CLV for Long-Term Relationships
- Track Conversions and CAC for Insights
- Calculate ROI with Accurate Cost Estimation
- Use ROI Formula for Marketing Success
- Track Key Metrics for Campaign Effectiveness
- Monitor Conversions and CTR for Impact
- Account for All Costs in ROI Calculation
- Measure Lead Generation for Effectiveness
Track Revenue Attribution for Clear Insights
Revenue attribution tracking tells the clearest story. By connecting our CRM to Google Analytics, we track exactly how website traffic converts into paying clients. For instance, last quarter we identified that blog posts about website redesign tips generated 40% more qualified leads than our general web design content.
Our most insightful metric is the client lifetime value to customer acquisition cost ratio. When we noticed our Facebook ads had a 5:1 LTV:CAC ratio compared to 3:1 for Google Ads, we shifted budget accordingly and improved overall marketing ROI by 30%.
Key metrics we monitor daily:
- Cost per qualified lead
- Conversion rates by channel
- Return on ad spend
- Client acquisition source
- Average project value by source
For example, tracking these metrics revealed that leads from organic search typically have a 25% higher project value than paid traffic. This insight helped us optimize our content strategy.
Harmanjit Singh, Founder and CEO, Origin Web Studios
Compare CAC to LTV for Profitability
The method I use to measure the ROI of our digital marketing efforts is tracking the customer acquisition cost (CAC) and comparing it to the lifetime value (LTV) of a client. This metric provides a clear picture of how efficiently a campaign is driving profitable growth.
For law firms, I break this down into actionable data. We first calculate the total marketing spend for a certain campaign or period, which includes ad spend, management fees, and other related costs. Then, we track the number of clients directly acquired through that effort. To do this, we use tools like call tracking, dedicated landing pages, or CRM integrations to attribute leads accurately. Dividing the total cost by the number of clients gives the CAC.
Next, I compare this number to the LTV, which represents the average revenue a law firm earns from a client over their relationship. This involves analyzing historical data, factoring in service fees, repeat business, and even referrals generated. If the LTV is significantly higher than the CAC, the campaign is considered profitable and scalable.
In one campaign, a personal injury law firm saw their CAC drop from $2,500 to $1,200 after refining their Google Ads strategy and using targeted landing pages. With their LTV averaging $8,000 per client, this provided a clear and measurable return on investment that justified continued spending and optimization.
This method ensures every dollar spent is tied to tangible results, making it easier to make decisions about scaling or reallocating resources. It’s a straightforward yet effective way to track real value from digital marketing efforts.
Mushfiq Sarker, Chief Executive Officer, LaGrande Marketing
Focus on CLV for Long-Term Value
Over the years, we’ve experimented with various metrics and tracking methods to help us keep a firm grasp on our ROI, but I’ve personally found that the most insightful approach is to focus on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) in relation to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). This metric gives us a comprehensive view of not just how much it costs to acquire a customer, but how much value they bring to our business over time.
We track CLV by analyzing purchase frequency, average order value, and customer retention rates (all conveniently stored and tracked in our third-party analytics app). By segmenting this data based on acquisition channels, we can see which digital marketing efforts are bringing in the most valuable long-term customers. For instance, we discovered that customers acquired through our influencer partnerships and content marketing efforts tend to have a higher CLV compared to those from paid social ads. This insight has been transformative in allowing us to allocate our marketing budget more effectively and focus on strategies that build lasting customer relationships.
While CLV/CAC is our north star, there are also some more immediate indicators we like to keep an eye on such as Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and conversion rates. These metrics help us optimize our campaigns in real-time. However, I’ve learned that it’s dangerous to rely solely on these short-term metrics. Early in our journey, we were overly focused on ROAS and missed out on opportunities to acquire valuable customers who might not make a large initial purchase but become loyal brand advocates over time. Now, we use a balanced scorecard approach, considering both short-term performance and long-term value creation.
Sarah Vilenskiy, Founder & CEO, Blossom Essentials
Track Conversions for Revenue Insights
Measuring the ROI of digital marketing efforts is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of your campaigns and optimizing future strategies. The key to calculating ROI is ensuring that you can directly link your marketing efforts to the business outcomes you want to achieve.
One of the most insightful ways to measure ROI is by tracking conversions. This can be anything from product sales, form submissions, or phone inquiries, depending on your business goals. By tracking these conversions, you can calculate the revenue generated from each marketing campaign and compare it to the cost of running the campaign.
Here’s a simple formula to calculate ROI:
ROI = (Revenue from Campaign – Cost of Campaign) / Cost of Campaign * 100
For example, if you spent $1,000 on an ad campaign and it generated $5,000 in revenue, the ROI would be 400%.
Beyond conversions, I also recommend focusing on a few other key metrics that give a fuller picture:
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This helps you understand how much you’re spending to acquire each customer, which is critical for ensuring your marketing budget is well spent. A lower CAC generally indicates more efficient marketing.
Lifetime Value (LTV): Knowing how much a customer is worth over the long term allows you to gauge whether your marketing efforts are bringing in high-value customers, not just one-time buyers.
Engagement Metrics: Metrics like click-through rates (CTR), bounce rates, and time on page help assess how well your audience is engaging with your content and whether it resonates with them.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): If you’re running paid ads, ROAS is a critical metric to track. It shows you how much revenue you generate for every dollar spent on advertising.
Tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads Manager, and CRM software (like HubSpot or Salesforce) are great for tracking these metrics. Additionally, using UTM parameters helps track the effectiveness of different campaigns across channels.
Ultimately, it’s important to regularly analyze these metrics in combination, not just in isolation, to get a more accurate view of your digital marketing ROI.
Nikita Shah, Digital Marketing Executive, WPWeb Infotech
Monitor Organic Traffic Growth
As an SEO agency owner, measuring the ROI of digital marketing efforts is a crucial part of my strategy. One of the most insightful metrics I track is organic traffic growth, specifically focusing on the quality and conversion rate of that traffic. This metric helps me understand not just how many visitors a site is attracting but how engaged those visitors are and whether they’re taking meaningful actions. Tracking the journey from organic search to conversion allows me to fine-tune my SEO strategies to deliver higher-value traffic and, ultimately, a higher ROI.
Another important method is setting up conversion tracking with Google Analytics and integrating it with CRM tools to understand customer acquisition costs. By analyzing the cost per acquisition (CPA) relative to revenue generated, I can calculate the true ROI of my SEO campaigns. This data-driven approach allows me to justify marketing spend, refine campaigns, and demonstrate tangible results to clients. By focusing on both traffic quality and conversion metrics, I ensure that digital marketing efforts align with business goals, providing clear value to the company.
Greg Walters, Co-Founder, SEO Modify
Align Metrics with Business Goals
To measure the ROI of digital marketing, I focus on how effectively campaigns drive business outcomes rather than just engagement. The starting point is defining a clear goal-sales, lead generation, or brand awareness-and then aligning metrics accordingly.
For me, the most insightful metric is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) vs. Lifetime Value (LTV). If campaigns bring in high-value customers at a sustainable cost, they’re doing their job.
Tracking is all about precision:
Attribution models: These help connect actions (like ad clicks) to outcomes (like purchases).
Multi-touch tracking: For instance, mapping a customer’s journey from a social ad click to a blog visit and, finally, a purchase, gives a holistic view of impact.
Revenue generated: Directly ties campaigns to bottom-line impact.
Ultimately, ROI isn’t just about numbers-it’s about whether the investment supports growth and strengthens long-term customer relationships, making digital marketing a strategic asset rather than a cost center.
Vaibhav Namburi, Founder, Smartlead.ai
Link Marketing Activities to Outcomes
Measuring the ROI of digital marketing efforts requires a mix of metrics that align with your business goals. The key to tracking ROI effectively is to link your marketing activities directly to the desired outcomes, such as sales, leads, or engagement.
One of the most insightful metrics I use is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) in relation to Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). This helps to evaluate how much you are spending to acquire a customer versus how much revenue that customer is likely to generate over their lifetime. A positive ROI is achieved when your CAC is lower than your CLV.
To track ROI, I typically use tools like Google Analytics, UTM parameters, and conversion tracking in platforms like Facebook Ads or Google Ads to understand the performance of campaigns across different channels. I also integrate this with CRM systems to track the full customer journey and accurately attribute conversions to specific marketing efforts.
By tracking these metrics, we can continuously refine our approach to ensure that marketing investments are aligned with business growth.
Shreya Jha, Social Media Expert, Appy Pie
Use AI-Driven Analytics for Optimization
The starting point for measuring digital marketing ROI aligns your efforts with well-defined, measurable outcomes such as revenue or lead generation and brand exposure. And connect these key objectives and performance indicators through customer-acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV) conversion rates, among others. These metrics ensure your strategies remain focused on achieving meaningful results.
AI-driven analytics tools are essential for tracking performance effectively. Platforms like Google Analytics 4, paired with UTM parameters, allow you to pinpoint which channels and campaigns deliver the highest impact. This level of insight highlights opportunities for optimization and ensures every dollar spent contributes to your goals. For instance, tracking audience engagement across multiple touchpoints can uncover critical trends that influence purchasing decisions.
Multi-touch revenue attribution provides the most comprehensive view of ROI. You see a clearer picture of what drives success by analyzing how each marketing activity contributes to the buyer’s journey. You will be empowered to reallocate resources toward the most impactful strategies, maximizing efficiency and profitability. When paired with AI and automation, these methods amplify your ability to scale efforts while saving valuable time-ensuring your marketing investments deliver measurable growth and freedom.
Kellianne Fedio, Founder, Kellianne.Me
Gamify Marketing for Increased Engagement
Personally, we used a gamification method for our internet marketing. As part of this, we made a rewards system that people could use to interact with our material and buy things. Only by making things more fun for them could we reach our business goals. People were not only more interested, but they also came back to learn more because website traffic went up by 70%. Due to more visitors, our overall return on investment (ROI) went up by a lot.
I thought this road would be a great mix of fun and business if we picked it. We thought the program would work worse than it did when we tested it during the launch of a new product. I was amazed at how our crowd responded when they learned they could get points. They took part more because of something so easy. People will be interested in something for a long time if they think they’ll get something in return.
Additionally, we made changes to the rewards program based on how people used it, and it worked so well. We gave them prizes based on the types of material they liked best. This made training special and meaningful to me. We used specific measures, such as how often people bought things, interacted with our materials, and visited our website, to track our progress. We learned to do things better after reading this. The more we measured, the better we learned how to change to make the tool work.
Filip Dimitrijevski, Business Development Manager, CLICKVISION BPO
Focus on CLV for Long-Term Relationships
For me, ROI isn’t just about tracking clicks or impressions. It’s about seeing how well my marketing efforts turn a one-time buyer into a repeat customer. Sales are great, but the real success is in building trust and loyalty that lasts long after the initial purchase.
The metric I find most telling is customer lifetime value (CLV). It goes beyond the short-term numbers and helps me understand the true worth of a customer over time. By focusing on CLV, I can figure out which strategies are creating long-term relationships, not just quick transactions.
Dinesh Agarwal, Founder, CEO, RecurPost
Track Conversions and CAC for Insights
I measure the ROI of digital marketing efforts by tracking conversions and attributing them to specific campaigns through tools like Google Analytics. Conversion tracking reveals which channels and strategies directly impact revenue or lead generation, offering a clear picture of performance. One particularly insightful metric is customer acquisition cost (CAC) compared to the lifetime value (LTV) of customers acquired through each campaign. This helps identify cost-effective strategies while highlighting areas for improvement. Regularly reviewing these metrics ensures resources are allocated to the most profitable efforts, maximizing overall marketing efficiency and ROI.
Brenton Thomas, Founder, Twibi
Calculate ROI with Accurate Cost Estimation
When measuring ROI of digital marketing efforts, first of all, it is necessary to accurately estimate and sum up all relevant marketing expenses. This includes not only advertising costs, content production costs, and operational expenses, but also the time cost of the team, platform usage fees, and so on.
Next, the revenues brought about by digital marketing activities should be calculated. The sources of revenues can be direct sales revenues or even an enhancement of brand exposure. The revenues for each objective need to be specifically measured according to the actual situation.
Finally, based on the calculated costs and revenues, the formula “ROI = (Revenues – Costs) / Costs * 100%” is used to calculate the investment return rate.
When measuring ROI, the conversion rate is one of the most important metrics. Website traffic and bounce rate are also crucial data that cannot be ignored. In addition, the sources and quality of traffic can also help us understand the effectiveness of different channels and further optimize marketing strategies. And customer retention rate and loyalty are key metrics for evaluating long-term investment returns.
Eve Bai, International Partnerships and Operations Manager, StudyX.AI
Use ROI Formula for Marketing Success
Measuring the ROI of digital marketing efforts is important for understanding the effectiveness of your campaigns. A simple formula for measuring ROI is:
ROI = Digital Marketing (CostRevenue – Digital Marketing Cost * 100)
This formula makes it possible for you to understand exactly how much money you make for each dollar spent on marketing. Fundamental metrics include cost per lead, customer lifetime value, and ROAS. Cost per lead will show you how much you have to spend to get every lead, and CLV offers insights into the total revenue that a customer will generate throughout their relationship with your business.
Tools like Google Analytics 4 are necessary to track such metrics effectively. The tool allows for source and medium tracking of traffic, as well as conversions and user behaviour, and gives a good view of the marketing performance. Furthermore, with integrated social media analytics, you can have even more input on which platforms are contributing to the overall ROI. Focusing on such metrics and using the right tools will allow you to understand your digital marketing success well.
Sheraz Ali, Founder & CEO, HARO Links Builder
Track Key Metrics for Campaign Effectiveness
Measuring the ROI of digital marketing helps businesses understand whether their efforts are actually driving value and contributing to their overall growth. By focusing on key metrics like conversions, leads, and sales, businesses can pinpoint which channels and campaigns are working best. For instance, tracking cost per acquisition (CPA) is a strong way to evaluate efficiency. If you’re spending less to acquire a customer than that customer’s lifetime value, it means the marketing strategy is not only cost-effective but also sustainable. Ultimately, tracking these metrics helps optimize future campaigns, ensuring resources are being allocated to the most profitable efforts.
Justin Abrams, Founder & CEO, Aryo Consulting Group
Monitor Conversions and CTR for Impact
In digital marketing, I often track ROI in terms of conversions and CTRs. Conversion rates allow me to see which channels or campaigns produce the most action, such as sign-ups or purchases and are useful for seeing where to focus my resources to make the most impact.
On the other hand, CTR is the measure of how much attention or clicks our content or ads generate for our website. Adding these two measures together gives me an idea of not just the number of people consuming our content but also how many are moving on.
Katarina Mirković Arsić, Content Marketing Manager, Recharge Health
Account for All Costs in ROI Calculation
To effectively measure the ROI of digital marketing efforts, it’s crucial to account for all associated costs-this includes ad spend, salaries of team members working on the campaigns, and the cost of tools or software being used. Next, we track the revenue generated through these campaigns, whether it’s direct sales, qualified leads, or other tangible outcomes. By comparing the total revenue generated against the total investment, we can calculate the ROI. This approach provides a clear understanding of campaign performance and helps identify areas for optimization.
Shubham Ahuja, Digital Marketing Manager, BigOhTech
Measure Lead Generation for Effectiveness
The metric I use to measure our digital marketing efforts is lead generation. This is important for us because it directly reflects how well our marketing strategies are connecting with potential clients. For our business, generating high-quality leads is a clear sign that our content, targeting, and messaging are effective. Each lead represents a person or company interested in our certified equipment appraisals, which is exactly what we’re aiming for.
Tracie Crites, Chief Marketing Officer, HEAVY Equipment Appraisal
