Free tool ROI calculator for marketing campaigns
ROI tells you how much a campaign earned back for every unit it cost. Enter the revenue it brought in, what you spent and your gross margin, and the calculator shows the return on profit, not just on sales.
- Revenue, cost and margin
- Updates as you type
- Runs locally
Work out the return on a campaign
Revenue and cost are required. Add a gross margin to base ROI on profit; leave it empty to base it on revenue.
Sales attributed to the campaign in the period, in your currency.
Ad spend plus any agency, creative or tool costs you want to include.
Share of revenue left after the cost of goods, e.g. 40. Optional.
Marketing ROI
+100.0%
Profit from the campaign divided by what it cost.
Share these inputs: the values go after the # in the link, so they never reach a server.
https://tapcub.com/tools/marketing-roi-calculator
Version v1.0Updated Update history
What the three numbers tell you
ROI answers "did this make money?". ROAS answers "how much revenue did each dollar bring?". They only agree when margin is 100%.
Marketing ROI
Above 0% the campaign paid for itself and left profit; below 0% it lost money. +100% means every dollar spent came back with one dollar of profit on top.
Profit after marketing cost
The same result in money. Useful when two campaigns have similar ROI but very different size: +50% on $200,000 matters more than +200% on $1,000.
ROAS
Revenue per unit of spend. A 5.00× ROAS can still be a loss if margins are thin, which is why the ROI here uses margin when you give it.
With and without margin
Leave margin empty and $25,000 revenue on $5,000 cost reads as +400%. Add a 40% margin and it becomes +100%. The second number is the one finance will recognise.
ROI here covers one period and one campaign. It does not include repeat purchases later, or the time value of money. For returns over several years, use an annualised rate.
Three ways to use the calculator
The same three inputs answer different questions before, during and after a campaign.
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1
Review a campaign
Take revenue and cost for the same date range from your analytics and ad accounts, add your margin, and read ROI.
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2
Compare channels
Run each channel through with the same margin. Rank by ROI and check profit, so a small, high-ROI test does not outrank a large earner.
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3
Set a floor
Try revenue figures until ROI reaches 0%. That revenue is the least the campaign has to bring in to break even.
ROI = (revenue × margin − cost) ÷ cost
Marketing ROI compares the gross profit a campaign generated with what it cost. Without a margin the calculator falls back to revenue, which is how many ad dashboards report it.
- Use revenue and cost from the same period and the same campaign
- Gross margin = (revenue − cost of goods) ÷ revenue; include shipping and payment fees if they scale with sales
- ROI = ROAS × margin − 1, so the two convert into each other once margin is known
ROI with margin
ROI = (revenue × margin − cost) ÷ cost
$25,000 revenue at 40% margin, $5,000 cost → ($10,000 − $5,000) ÷ $5,000 = +100%
ROI without margin
ROI = (revenue − cost) ÷ cost
($25,000 − $5,000) ÷ $5,000 = +400%
ROAS
ROAS = revenue ÷ cost
$25,000 ÷ $5,000 = 5.00×
Four channels, one margin
A month of spend across four channels for a store with a 40% gross margin. ROAS ranks them one way; ROI shows which ones actually made money.
| Channel | Spend | Revenue | ROAS | Profit after cost | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid search | $4,000 | $18,000 | 4.50× | $3,200 | +80.0% |
| Paid social | $3,000 | $9,000 | 3.00× | $600 | +20.0% |
| $500 | $4,000 | 8.00× | $1,100 | +220.0% | |
| Display | $2,000 | $4,500 | 2.25× | −$200 | −10.0% |
At a 40% margin a channel needs a ROAS of 2.5× just to break even. Display brings in more revenue than it costs and still loses money. Search makes the most profit; email has the highest ROI. Sample figures.
Where ROI calculations go wrong
The formula is one line. Most errors come from what goes into it.
Using revenue as profit
Revenue-based ROI ignores the cost of what you sold. A +400% that becomes +100% with margin is the same campaign.
Leaving costs out
Agency fees, creative production, discounts and tools are part of the cost. Count them, or state clearly that ROI is on media spend only.
Counting the same sale twice
Each ad platform credits itself. Add their reported revenue together and channel ROI looks better than the business does.
Mismatched windows
Spend from this month and revenue from a 30-day attribution window that runs into next month do not describe the same thing.
ROI per channel, without the spreadsheet
TapCub reads UTM parameters and ad click IDs on arrival, keeps the source on the visitor, and puts revenue next to each campaign. Import spend and the channel ROI column is attributed revenue divided by spend, a revenue-based multiple you can apply your margin to here.
Campaign and channel reports
Sessions, conversions and conversion rate per campaign, source and medium.
Learn moreChannel ROI
Import spend and see return per channel next to the traffic it bought.
Learn moreFirst and last touch
The campaign that introduced a customer and the one that closed, on the same person.
Learn moreMarketing ROI questions
Still have a question?
Chat with the team behind TapCub — we usually reply within a few hours on business days.
How do I calculate marketing ROI?
The marketing ROI formula is (gross profit from the campaign − marketing cost) ÷ marketing cost × 100%. Gross profit is the revenue the campaign brought in × your gross margin: $25,000 revenue at a 40% margin is $10,000; minus $5,000 cost is $5,000, divided by $5,000 is +100%. The general form is ROI = (gain − cost) ÷ cost.
Can I use this as a general ROI calculator for an investment?
Yes. Put the final value (or total returned) in revenue, what you put in as cost, and leave margin empty. $12,000 back on a $10,000 investment is +20%. The result does not account for how long the money was tied up; use the CAGR calculator for an annual rate.
What is marketing ROI?
Return on investment for marketing: the profit a campaign generated, divided by what it cost. +50% means each dollar spent came back with 50 cents of profit. Below 0% the campaign lost money.
What is the difference between ROI and ROAS?
ROAS is revenue ÷ ad spend and is shown as a multiple, such as 4.00×. ROI subtracts costs and is shown as a percentage. With a 40% margin, a 4.00× ROAS is a +60% ROI. See the ROI and ROAS glossary entry or the ROAS calculator.
What is a good marketing ROI?
Anything above 0% after all costs covers itself, but what is good depends on your margin, how long customers keep buying and what else the budget could do. Compare channels against each other and against your own past campaigns rather than a single industry figure.
Should ROI include repeat purchases?
For a single campaign review, use revenue in the period. For acquisition channels where customers come back, compare the cost per customer with their lifetime value instead; the customer lifetime value calculator helps with that.
Why does my ad platform show a different ROI?
Most platforms divide revenue they attribute to themselves by spend, with their own attribution window and often view-through conversions. That is closer to ROAS than to profit-based ROI, and several platforms can claim the same order.
Update history
New features, fixes and data refreshes for this tool, newest first.
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· v1.0
LaunchedFirst release.
Missing something or found an error? Tell us — requests that come up often go into the next update. All tool updates
See which channels pay back
Connect your site and every tagged campaign shows visits, conversions and revenue beside its cost.