How to Calculate ROI in Marketing
Return on investment in marketing is one of the most discussed and least well-understood metrics in business. For financial services firms — where buyer cycles are long, trust-building takes time, and conversion points are often non-linear — measuring marketing ROI requires a more nuanced approach than a simple cost-per-lead calculation.
The Basic Formula
The standard marketing ROI formula is straightforward:
Marketing ROI = (Revenue Attributed to Marketing − Marketing Cost) ÷ Marketing Cost × 100
If a campaign generates £100,000 in revenue against £20,000 in marketing spend, the ROI is 400%.
The difficulty in financial services is not the formula. The difficulty is attribution — determining what revenue was actually influenced by which marketing activities.
Attribution in Long-Cycle Financial Services Marketing
In institutional finance, a prospect may discover a firm through search, read three or four pieces of content over several months, engage on LinkedIn, and then receive a personal introduction before finally making contact. Which touchpoint gets credit?
Several attribution models exist:
- First-touch attribution: credits the initial source of discovery
- Last-touch attribution: credits the touchpoint immediately before conversion
- Linear attribution: distributes credit equally across all touchpoints
- Time-decay attribution: weights touchpoints more heavily as they approach conversion
For financial services firms, a time-decay or custom model often provides the most accurate picture, since the research phase is extensive and multiple touchpoints matter.
What to Measure Beyond Revenue
In financial services marketing, direct revenue attribution is not always possible — particularly for brand-building, content, and visibility programs. Useful proxy metrics include:
- Organic search visibility: Are priority terms improving in search rankings?
- Inbound inquiry quality: Are the inquiries coming from the right buyer profile?
- Time to first contact: Are prospects arriving with existing familiarity and trust?
- Content engagement: Are the right people reading, sharing, and returning?
- AI search presence: Is the firm being referenced or summarized in AI-generated answers?
These leading indicators often predict revenue outcomes before direct attribution is available.
The Right Framework for Financial Firms
For most financial services marketing programs, a measurement framework should track:
- Visibility metrics (search rankings, AI mentions, traffic)
- Engagement metrics (content consumption, time on page, return visits)
- Pipeline metrics (inquiries, qualified conversations, proposals)
- Revenue metrics (engagements, mandates, AUM, deal flow)
The goal is not to report on vanity metrics. The goal is to identify what is working, where the gaps are, and how to improve the program over time.