How do I track marketing ROI?
TL;DR
ROI = (revenue from marketing - marketing cost) / marketing cost × 100. Track it by channel using UTM codes, unique promo codes per campaign, and a simple spreadsheet. Most small businesses skip this and have no idea what works.
Detailed answer
- 1.Tag every link with UTM parameters (source, medium, campaign).
- 2.Give each channel a unique promo code (IG10, FB10, EMAIL10).
- 3.Track first-touch and last-touch attribution monthly.
- 4.Compare cost per customer acquired to average customer lifetime value.
- 5.Set a 90-day measurement window — most channels need that long to show real signal.
Common mistakes
- 1. Looking only at vanity metrics (likes, impressions) instead of revenue.
- 2. Attributing every sale to the last touchpoint and ignoring discovery channels.
- 3. Switching channels every 30 days before they have time to work.
What to do instead
Build one spreadsheet with channels as rows and spend/leads/customers/revenue as columns. Update it monthly. This single habit puts you ahead of 90% of small businesses.
Use a customer-marketing platform that auto-tags referrals and attributes revenue back to the source customer. Manual attribution falls apart past 10 campaigns.
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