Glossary
ROI (Return on Investment)
ROI (Return on Investment) is a financial metric that measures the profitability of an investment relative to its cost, calculated as (net profit ÷ cost) × 100. In marketing, ROI answers the question 'for every dollar spent, how many dollars came back?' Critically, true marketing ROI factors in all costs — ad spend, creative production, martech tools, and labor — not just media cost, making it broader than ROAS which only considers ad spend against revenue. A positive ROI means the campaign returned more than it consumed; most businesses target at least a 3:1 ratio for paid channels. CFOs and CMOs use ROI to compare marketing efficiency across channels, justify budget allocation to boards, and determine whether scaling spend will be accretive or dilutive. In agent-managed advertising, ROI is the north-star metric that bidding algorithms and budget allocators ultimately optimize toward.