How to Calculate ROI in Marketing [Free Excel Templates]

It’s a brand new month everyone! It is a time for new beginnings. New email campaigns, blog posts, and social media strategies are in sight.

But aren’t we forgetting something? After the last month’s activities are over, we need to pause for a second to examine what worked and what did not. You can’t do that just by saying that last month’s activity was “great” – because “great” doesn’t pay the bills.

If you can show that your marketing activities have actually had an impact on your business, there are a lot more options available to you. More budget to play, potential new hires and more ideas to implement. Sounds like every marketer’s dream, doesn’t it?

So how do you go about first finding the right metrics and secondly showing your boss the ROI of your marketing? Why, with a monthly marketing report template, of course. Download our completely redesigned PowerPoint and Excel templates by clicking here. Read on to learn how to use Excel to calculate your ROI in marketing and use it in real life.

For example, if you ran a $ 800 campaign for three months and had average revenue growth of 5% per month and revenue growth of $ 10,000 from the previous month, your ROI calculation could evaluate this trend: (10000 – (.05 * 10000) – 800) / 800

In addition, as a HubSpot customer, you can access an ROI calculator programmed with the same formula in our CRM. But let’s go ahead and break down how it’s done in Excel for you with and without an existing sales trend.

How to calculate the ROI in Excel

Entering formulas into Excel is a quick and easy way to solve any equation, and calculating ROI can be done in seconds. For an equation with no pre-existing sales trend, the simple ROI equation can easily be pasted into Excel as follows: (Sales Growth – Marketing Costs) / Marketing Costs

When you have captured the cumulative sales growth and market cost, paste the variables into their own rows or columns. When you’re done, select a free cell to enter the formula with your data.

When these steps are complete, press “ENTER” and your ROI will be calculated. If the formula doesn’t automatically calculate it as a percentage, make sure to record the result as such by selecting the Home tab> Number> Percentage.

How to calculate the ROI in marketing

Finding return on investment with more factors – or more realistic results – doesn’t have to be a difficult task.

During a 12-month campaign, for example, your team can identify an existing sales trend in organic growth and determine a more accurate return on investment from it. Add this variable along with the original factors and enter it using this ROI equation: (sales growth – average organic sales growth – marketing costs) / marketing costs

To calculate the percentage, press “ENTER” and you will get a more accurate ROI to base your marketing decisions on for the future.

Now that we’ve looked at a few examples, let’s see how you use your data and how a HubSpot resource can make your marketing reporting a breeze.

What metrics should you be tracking?

First things first – which metrics should you look out for first? Not all metrics were created equal, and if you want to grab your boss’s attention with this PowerPoint deck, you need to efficiently tell your story through data. Click through our marketing metrics template for tips on how to put together your marketing report.

How to Create Your Own Marketing Metrics Report

So now you know what metrics you need, but how about customizing the PowerPoint slides for your business? Follow these four steps to show your boss engaging, accurate, and concise slides.

1. Download our monthly marketing reporting templates for Excel and PowerPoint.

2. Open Excel and enter the metrics you want to track.

Equations and graphs are automatically filled in based on the metrics you add.

3. Copy the diagrams and paste them into PowerPoint.

4. Adapt your graphics and diagrams to the theme of your company.

After cracking a ton of numbers, you probably need a little creative break anyway. Click on individual elements in the diagram to adjust them. If you really want to get pleasure from your presentation, check out these five simple PowerPoint tips.

5. Add relevant examples to secure your graphics.

If you really want to explain your marketing team’s success over the past month, don’t forget to include a slide here or there that addresses specific examples. For example, if you have a blog post that generated an incredible number of leads in a month, you could include this sample slide with a few bullet points after the Leads Generated by Marketing slide. These concrete examples add color to your presentation and justify the time invested in future projects.

ROI Excel templates

Excel is one of the best tools for tracking and calculating ROI on a regular basis.

Download our monthly marketing reporting templates for Excel and PowerPoint.

In the above collection of marketing report templates, you can fill in the following content (and more) according to your company:

1. Range

Use this template to calculate your marketing reach. For example, you can calculate the reach of your blog, email, or social media.

Then the following charts will help you turn your data into a visual chart.

2. Visits

You can use this template to calculate your visits. This includes visits from a variety of sources and channels, including paid traffic, direct traffic, and social media referrals.

The following graphic then creates a visualization of your data.

3. Leads

In this template you can enter how many leads will be generated with your marketing campaigns.

In the following graphic you can visualize your leads depending on the sources.

4. Customers

In this template you can calculate your customers via the traffic source. You can visualize your customers in the following graphic.

5. Exchange rates

In this template you can calculate conversion rates by entering your information.

Keep a better eye on your marketing in Excel

Excel is a tool designed to help you in your business, and it’s an organized way to track your team’s success. Make sure to use it to your advantage and who knows, after a few months you may have a bigger budget or a brand new marketer on board.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for completeness.