How Small Businesses Can Calculate Marketing Return on Investment

Posted Nov 18, 2021

Small business owners don't usually have a marketing degree or time to learn it and run the day-to-day business. While most understand that marketing is essential to produce leads, it is hard to know where to start. It is also challenging to decide how much time and money is enough to get results without overspending on areas that don't work.

Companies spend a lot of money on marketing efforts without much data to help them make informed decisions. With some luck, leads start rolling in. But how can you prove it was from the marketing efforts vs. referrals or other avenues. The answer seems simple on the surface; tracking the data. But that means you have to remember to ask customers how they heard about you. Then calculate how much you earned from their business vs. how much you spent to market to them. This tedious tracking and calculations are why recent surveys suggest 75% of marketers struggle with figuring the revenue returns on their marketing investments (ROI or ROMI).

It can be time-consuming to track manually in a spreadsheet or within your customer relationship management (CRM) software. Some software can save you time and reduce the risk of errors by automating this process. Systems such as Contractor Accelerator will allow you to input all the marketing data into the same software that manages your bid to billing process, allowing the system to calculate your return on marketing investment automatically. Other valuable tools such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads can also help you better understand your customer's journey. Google Analytics is free and provides information about how people reached your website, how long they were there, and what pages they clicked. Conversion tracking tools like Google Ads and Facebook Ads tell you where people go after seeing your paid digital advertisements.

Even if you don't have a lot of time, technology can help you get started. Track your spend on flyers, signage, truck decals, etc. Then, start tracking how each lead found you, whether or not you provided an estimate, whether you won their business, and how much revenue you received from that job. With this information, you can determine how many leads you received from a specific campaign, how many of those leads turned into meetings or sales, and most importantly whether or not you earned more money than you spent on the advertising so you can make more informed decisions about your marketing efforts.

Learn How Contractor Accelerator Can Help

Thanks for reading our Blog. We love getting to know contractors so please reach out and let us know how we can help! Contractor Accelerator is a leading mobile software provider for residential contractors that seamlessly integrates job estimates, digital drawings, customer management, appointment scheduling, and more features in a single platform. The Kansas City based company focuses on creating easy-to-use technology for residential repair contractors to help them organize and automate their business and become more efficient to grow without sacrificing work-life balance. For more information, visit Contractor Accelerator at www.contractoraccelerator.com.