Economic cost over your selected period.
Obsessed with performance
What should your
marketing return?
Find your break-even point. Set a meaningful target. See the sales or bookings your next campaign needs to deliver.
Run the numbers Free to use. No signup needed.
Your marketing ROI plan
01 / Run the numbers
Give your marketing a clear target.
Start with what a customer is worth.
Use your own figures where you can. All amounts are in AUD.
Including GST, after discounts and refunds.
After variable delivery costs, before marketing.
Average group size, not total bookings.
Share of booked guests who actually attend.
How much ad-attributed demand would not have happened without the ads? Attribution alone does not prove this.
Checking your numbers…
Include the whole investment.
These are editable planning examples, not a service quote.
Platform spend before invoice GST.
Agency or internal campaign costs, ex GST.
Before GST. Spread across your evaluation period for ROI; payable upfront.
Other campaign costs
Content, tools and other costs, ex GST.
Landing pages or implementation, ex GST.
GST & cash-flow settings
Example tax assumptions. Adjust these to match your invoices and GST entitlement. Use 0% sales GST for untaxed sales.
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Fees, setup and other costs share one GST rate. For mixed tax treatment, enter equivalent blended amounts or obtain a tailored calculation.
Define what success looks like.
Set a return after the full marketing investment.
months
A planning horizon, not a contract term.
%
50% means $0.50 left per $1 invested.
Extra guests you can actually serve in the promoted sessions.
A 50% return is a planning example. Your target should reflect your margins, capacity and appetite for growth.
Your monthly targetUpdates live
Target: 50% contribution ROI
—ad-attributed bookings / month
Break-even point—bookings per month
Media cost per booking at target—ad spend only · not total acquisition cost
Monthly marketing cost—
Monthly setup share—
Contribution needed at target—
Left after marketing, at target—
A calculated target, not a prediction. Contribution is before fixed business overheads and income tax.
Starting figures are illustrations, not industry benchmarks or promised results. Marketing costs include setup spread across your selected period. Other costs start at $0; add any that apply.
See the calculation ↗02 / The commercial picture
The numbers behind your target.
Your full investment over 5 months, including setup.
Includes setup and invoice GST, before credits.
Cumulative break-even across 5 months.
| What needs to happen | Break even | 50% ROI target |
|---|---|---|
| Ad-attributed confirmed bookings | — | — |
| Genuinely additional attending guests | — | — |
| Additional guests per week | — | — |
| Additional revenue, excluding GST | — | — |
| Additional sales, including GST | — | — |
| Media cost per confirmed booking | — | — |
| Implied attributed revenue / ad spend | — | — |
Counts round up independently. Revenue uses the unrounded threshold, so whole bookings may deliver slightly more. The revenue / ad spend ratio uses ex-GST revenue and excludes management and setup from its denominator; it is not ROI.
Add your spare capacity in “Your goal” to check whether the target can fit.
Already have a volume in mind?
Test your own estimate against the full marketing cost.
Use deduplicated confirmed bookings, before the attendance adjustment.
Estimated contribution left after marketing / monthAdd your estimate
Your forecast appears here when you enter a monthly volume.
Return on full marketing cost—
The same monthly volume is assumed throughout the selected period.
03 / Make it happen
Good numbers.
A better starting point.
Let’s turn your target into a practical marketing plan. We’ll review your assumptions and discuss what it would take to get there.
- Sanity-check your costs and margins
- Identify what to measure from day one
- Discuss a campaign built around your goals
Your calculator inputs and results will be included with your enquiry.
A little clarity
Know what’s
behind the number.
A useful target starts with honest assumptions.
How is marketing ROI calculated?
We strip GST from customer spend, apply your contribution margin, and count only demand you estimate is genuinely additional. From that contribution, we deduct advertising, management, other campaign costs and the setup share. Recoverable invoice GST is excluded from the economic cost.
Contribution ROI = (additional ex-GST revenue × contribution margin − full marketing cost) ÷ full marketing cost.
For bookings, additional guests = confirmed bookings × guests per booking × attendance rate × genuinely additional share. Sales mode uses one unit per sale and a fulfilment rate. Both modes use the same financial model.
Is this profit, a forecast or a guarantee?
The target is a mathematical requirement, not an expected campaign result. Contribution left after marketing is before fixed business overheads and income tax. It is not whole-business net profit. Your optional volume estimate is a scenario that assumes the same volume and costs each month; it does not include seasonality or a campaign ramp-up.
Why is the revenue / ad spend ratio different from ROI?
A platform can report strong revenue relative to ad spend while the full campaign loses money. Revenue / ad spend excludes your delivery costs, management and setup. ROI includes your contribution margin and the full marketing cost. Never add overlapping platform-attributed revenue across channels.
What does “genuinely additional” mean?
Some people counted by an ad platform would have bought anyway. This setting estimates the share that happened because of the campaign. Use a defensible assumption, then compare against booking or sales records and appropriate measurement tests. Platform attribution or a simple before-and-after comparison alone does not prove causality.
How should I use setup costs, GST and capacity?
Setup is counted once across the selected period and spread across months for the monthly target. It remains payable upfront; the cash figure includes invoice GST before any credits. Confirm tax rates and recovery eligibility for your circumstances. Capacity means genuinely spare capacity during the promoted periods, not your venue’s or business’s total capacity. Targets that exceed it need a different offer, margin, cost base or service plan.
Where do the starting figures come from?
They are editable planning illustrations, not industry averages, a price list or evidence of typical results. The booking example uses $70 guest spend, a 50% contribution margin, four guests per booking, 90% attendance and 70% additional demand. Both examples start with $1,000 media, $1,000 management and $1,250 setup across five months. Replace these before making a business decision.
What happens to the information I enter?
The calculator runs in your browser. Your inputs are not submitted as you type, and this standalone page loads no advertising or analytics trackers. When you request an ROI review, your contact details, calculator assumptions, results and any campaign tags in the page address are sent with that enquiry. Downloads and printing do not submit your details. Hosting services may still keep standard request logs.