maitiq guide
How to calculate marketing ROI, ROMI and ROAS correctly
maitiq · Published
ROAS, ROMI and marketing ROI are not synonyms. ROAS compares attributed conversion value with advertising cost. ROMI or marketing ROI assesses a defined business impact against a defined marketing expenditure. In lead generation, valid leads, qualified leads, sales opportunities and customers must first be connected. Without a source of results, a cost scope, an adequate follow-up period and a formula, a percentage cannot support a decision.
Which question does ROAS answer?
In principle, ROAS is defined as:
attributed conversion value / advertising cost
A ROAS of 4 means that the chosen attribution system assigns four units of conversion value per unit of advertising cost. It does not automatically mean that four units of additional revenue were generated. ROAS does not automatically deduct agency fees, internal time or fixed costs. Whether margin is reflected depends on the configured conversion value. The conversion value can also be revenue, margin, a modelled value or an assigned lead value.
So publish alongside the ROAS: the source of the value, the currency, the attribution, the conversion window, the cost source and the period. If you assign a nominal value to a lead, state that assumption.
What does ROMI or marketing ROI mean?
The terms are not used consistently. Two common forms are:
marketing result / marketing costs
or
(marketing result - marketing costs) / marketing costs
The first form is a gross return-to-cost ratio: it sets the marketing result against the marketing costs without deducting those costs in the numerator. The second form is the net return on the defined marketing costs: it deducts the same costs in the numerator. The marketing result is a defined monetary result in both forms – not a count or a vague success metric – and must be measured before deducting the marketing costs included in the denominator, so that costs already deducted are not subtracted twice. Multiplying a ratio by 100 expresses it as a percentage; the two forms still differ. Always write the formula out in full. The term alone is not enough.
Which costs belong in the denominator?
The cost scope depends on the question. A platform ROAS uses media spend. A campaign ROMI can include media spend, creative, landing page, tracking, tools and management. A complete acquisition comparison additionally accounts for internal sales and processing time where it differs between scenarios.
Separate one-off setup costs from ongoing operations. Document shared costs and their allocation. Keep original currencies separate or apply a dated, documented exchange rate. Unknown costs must be marked as unavailable; do not enter zero for them.
How does a lead enter the calculation?
A click is not a lead, and a lead is not a customer. MQL stands for marketing-qualified lead, SQL for sales-qualified lead. Use a funnel table:
- valid enquiry;
- MQL under a documented rule;
- SQL or a lead accepted by sales;
- a concrete sales opportunity;
- new customer;
- revenue and contribution margin.
Calculate cost per lead, MQL, SQL and opportunity on the same cohort. The denominator contains the number of leads or opportunities at that stage; the numerator contains the defined cost scope. A low CPL can result from many unsuitable enquiries. Cost per qualified lead is therefore an important intermediate step, but not yet proof of profit.
How mature does the cohort need to be?
B2B sales often close weeks or months after the click. A report on the current month therefore contains many immature leads. Define an adequate follow-up period for the sales cycle and show younger cohorts separately. Record changes to earlier cohorts, because standard Google Ads conversion columns attribute later results to the ad interaction time.
Do not compare periods if the definition, attribution, conversion window or CRM process changed. Mark the breaks. An apparent improvement can come from a new counting rule rather than from better performance.
How are pipeline and close probability handled?
Pipeline value is not revenue. An opportunity can be recorded with an amount and a stage, but the probability must come from a stable, verifiable method. Do not use an arbitrary percentage to stand in for missing closed deals.
For operational decisions, cost per opportunity or matured pipeline per unit of cost can be helpful. An ROI claim needs realised results or clearly identified estimates with their limits. A pipeline forecast remains a forecast, not realised ROI. Show won, lost and open opportunities separately.
Why is attributed return not the same as incrementality?
Attribution distributes credit across observed touchpoints. It answers which channel a system assigns value to. Incrementality asks what would not have happened without the measure. A customer may click an ad but would have bought even without it; the conversion is attributed but not fully incremental.
Google’s Conversion Lift uses treatment and control groups and distinguishes standard conversions from estimated incremental conversions. The iROAS derived from it divides incremental conversion value by advertising cost. Study design, eligibility, sample size and uncertainty limit the estimate. A single A/B test on a landing page answers a different question.
What does a robust ROI worksheet look like?
Start your worksheet with the purpose (the decision it supports) and the formula version. Then record the period, time zone, currency, cohort, follow-up period and attribution. The cost block separates media, management, creative, technology, tools and internal time. The results block separates leads, MQL, SQL, opportunities, customers, revenue and contribution margin.
Record each cell’s source and status: observed, calculated, estimated or unavailable. Give estimates a range and name the person responsible. Calculate a metric only when both the numerator and denominator are available and the denominator is non-zero. A valid zero or negative numerator is not missing. Otherwise show the specific gap.
Which misinterpretations are particularly common?
- ROAS is described as profit.
- Revenue is used as the marketing result without margin.
- Only media spend sits in the denominator, although providers are being compared.
- Immature leads are compared with mature customers from the previous year.
- MQL and SQL change their definition without a version marker.
- Several currencies are added together.
- Attributed and incremental effects are treated as equivalent.
- Missing values appear as zero.
A good report states these limits alongside the number. Precision without definition is merely false precision.
How does maitiq fit into the calculation?
maitiq helps you assess the advertising costs and conversion data available in the account. With the relevant information from your business, your team can relate these figures to lead quality, revenue and additional management costs. This helps identify which campaigns warrant further investigation and where evidence is missing. A complete marketing ROI also requires your organisation’s revenue and cost data.
Test the assumptions with a sensitivity analysis
If margin, close rate or internal costs are uncertain, calculate a low, middle and high scenario. Do not use a single optimistic assumption as the result. Show which input changes the decision the most and who can improve it.
A sensitivity analysis does not replace missing data, but it prevents false precision. If the decision stays the same in all plausible scenarios, it can be more robust. If it flips with small changes, better evidence is needed first. Keep assumptions, version and approval together with the result.
Show which two input assumptions have the greatest effect on the result. Readers can then see whether margin, close rate or cost boundary dominates the value. That protects the decision from false precision.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good ROAS?
There is no universal target. A sustainable ROAS depends on margin, repeat purchases, returns, fixed costs and the growth target. Calculate the break-even from your own business model and state whether the conversion value is revenue, margin or a modelled lead value.
Is ROMI the same as marketing ROI?
The terms are used inconsistently. What matters is the formula written out. Show whether marketing costs are deducted in the numerator, which result figure is used and which costs sit in the denominator. Only compare values that use the same formula version.
How do you calculate ROI with long sales cycles?
Use matured lead cohorts and connect opportunities and closed deals through stable IDs. Show open pipeline separately from revenue from closed-won deals. An early operational report may show cost per MQL or opportunity, but must not pretend that the final ROI is already known.
Do agency fees belong in ROAS?
The standard ROAS uses advertising cost. For a complete marketing or provider comparison, management, creative, technology, tools and internal time can be relevant. In that case, label the broader measure explicitly and define which costs it includes.
Can attribution prove marketing ROI?
Attribution assigns credit to observed touchpoints. It helps with allocation, but it does not prove which value would have been missing without marketing. Incremental impact needs a credible counterfactual and an interpretation of uncertainty.
Sources and how to read them
The two Google sources support the definitions of attribution and Conversion Lift. They do not establish a universal target ROI or access to your company’s revenue data. Information about how maitiq works is available at maitiq.com.
Google Ads access alone does not evidence the entire measurement chain. Verifying website tracking, CRM quality or revenue attribution requires the relevant systems and evidence to be provided.