Stacking Growth | The B2B Marketing Podcast How to Calculate ROI
Sep 2, 2025
Dale Harrison, a speaker known for his insights on Brand and Performance marketing, joins Matt Sciannella to break down how to accurately calculate Marketing ROI. They explore the flaws in traditional ROI calculations, especially in B2B, where lengthy sales cycles complicate revenue recognition. Dale emphasizes the importance of understanding the timing of investments versus returns, and challenges misconceptions about brand marketing's impact. The conversation highlights how historical efforts can influence future ROI, offering a fresh perspective on measurable marketing success.
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Align Costs With Revenue Timing
- Revenue events are fixed points in time and easy to measure, while marketing costs are spread out and harder to link to revenue.
- Matching marketing expenses to revenue requires accounting for sales-cycle latency, not just current-period costs.
Marketing Stops Matter Once Sales Starts
- Marketing has minimal influence once a prospect enters the sales process; most determinants of close timing are outside marketing's control.
- The biggest predictor of winning is day-one consideration driven by prior brand awareness.
Chunk Marketing By Sales Cycle
- Aggregate marketing expenses into time blocks that match your average sales cycle before calculating ROI.
- Use quarter-by-quarter aggregation for 90-day cycles and monthly for ~30-day cycles to align costs to revenue.