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ROMI calculator

Return on marketing investment: by what percentage the return attributable to marketing exceeded its costs.

Return on marketing investment (ROMI)

The return is the increase attributable to marketing, e.g. extra sales compared with the same period without the campaign.

ROMI
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What ROMI is and how it's calculated

ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) measures what percentage marketing activities earned above their costs:

ROMI = (return − costs) / costs × 100

The hardest part of ROMI isn't the formula but the numerator: sales probably wouldn't have been zero even without the marketing, so the return is the increase attributable to the campaign, for example against the same month last year.

A real-world example

In December 2020 a website sold courses and consultations worth 81,000 Kč. A year later, after a campaign costing 17,000 Kč (a graphic designer and a cameraman), it was 121,500 Kč:

  1. Sales increase: 121,500 − 81,000 = 40,500 Kč.
  2. ROMI: (40,500 − 17,000) / 17,000 × 100 = 138.2 %.

The campaign paid for itself and earned an extra 138 % of its costs.

What to watch out for

  • ROMI is always calculated for a specific period: the campaign and the window in which its effect is measured. Without defining the period, everything creeps into the return.
  • An estimated increase is an estimate. Seasonality, weather or a competitor's move can shift a year-on-year comparison; treat the result as a representative guide, not accounting truth.
  • Short-term ROMI understates brand building. A campaign whose effect comes in six months looks loss-making in a monthly window; CLV gives the long-term view.

Where to go next

You can do the maths. But what next? How to turn customers who bought once into customers who buy repeatedly is the subject of the book Opakovaný prodej.

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