Investors, business owners, marketers, and stakeholders use a wide range of strategies and equations, including B2B marketing ROI, to estimate the stability of a business.
Every business owner who wants to show their customers the human side of their business knows the importance of digital marketing, unlike in the late 20th century, when marketing was predominantly considered a tool to entice customers to buy a product or service through famous celebrities and sports personalities.
Marketing has to be effective and foster meaningful relationships between the business and its customers. Effective marketing in the B2B industry takes the helm when generating the right amount of ROI that impacts the business’s bottom line.
Calculating the ROI on your B2B marketing helps you determine if all your efforts and money invested in your marketing are on the road to success and tied to the desired profit margin.
Unlike B2C marketing, where emotions drive a customer’s buying behavior, B2B marketing focuses on logical and process-driven buying decisions. Measuring B2B marketing ROI is the first step an entrepreneur should take to ensure all the money and time spent on marketing campaigns go in the right direction and favor the organization.
By the end of this article, you will clearly understand what B2B digital marketing ROI is and how to measure ROI on B2B marketing.
What is ROI in B2B marketing?
Understanding ROI helps identify where most marketing ideas and efforts go right and wrong. ROI is an acronym for Return On Investment, a direct, easy-to-understand metric used to measure and understand the profitability of a business’s investments.
Measuring ROI in B2B marketing is a great way to evaluate and analyze the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and the sales they generate for your organization. B2B ROI is a percentage of how much money you gain from B2B marketing compared to what you spend on it.
What Is A Good B2B Marketing ROI?
A good B2B digital marketing ROI benchmark means a great deal for any organization in the B2B industry. This is mainly because marketing to businesses is more competitive and complicated than marketing to individual consumers.
Although determining a good B2B marketing strategy is challenging, an effective ROI benchmark is integral to the B2B industry. Typically, in B2B marketing, a good ROI helps marketers justify marketing spending and allocate reasonable budgets for ongoing and future marketing campaigns.
Distributing marketing budgets is the most essential part of B2B marketing. And this is where a good B2B marketing ROI comes in and takes the strategy to a higher gear. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to calculating and measuring a good B2B marketing ROI. A tried and true method to measure a more accurate and efficient B2B ROI includes a comprehensive view of marketing strategies and spending.
How do we measure ROI in B2B marketing?
Communication is the core of marketing. And so is a good ROI benchmark. Measuring the right marketing factors at the right time informs your next step toward achieving your targeted ROI. The ability to get more out of your marketing budget is what every business wishes to achieve but misses one of the most essential aspects of B2B marketing—measuring ROI on B2B marketing. Though it can be a tedious job to measure B2B digital marketing ROI precisely, there are some easy and actionable ways to do it. Here are four simple and effective ways to measure an impactful ROI on B2B marketing:
Start with Google Analytics
No B2B company does not leverage Google Analytics in its marketing strategies. If your business is online, then Google Analytics, the powerful web analytics tool, is your friend. As a business owner, you should be aware of your business’s number of monthly visitors. This is the easiest way to determine a considerable part of your ROI. Moreover, Google Analytics is free—there is also a paid version for advanced analytics—and lets you track everything you need to know about the leads that you have probably been targeting. B2B companies and their marketers have more and better data available on the Internet that can potentially be utilized to measure your business’s good B2B digital marketing ROI seamlessly.
Apply The Roi Formula
The easiest way to calculate and analyze ROI on B2B marketing is to apply the ROI formula as below:
| B2B ROI = Revenue — Investment/Investment X 100 |
Calculating the revenue you achieved from the B2B marketing, followed by the amount of money invested in the marketing tools and strategies, gives you an approximate value that helps you calculate the return on investment on B2B marketing. Suppose you are a digital marketer who spends most of your time and money on email and content marketing. In that case, it is crucial to determine and sort the leads you receive each month from whatever marketing strategy your business relies on. Applying this easy and direct formula will save a lot of effort and time in figuring out the right marketing tool and strategies your business needs. Get accurate B2B digital marketing ROI numbers with total visibility on all your B2B marketing activities.
Looking At The Right Data Makes A Huge Difference
Good website traffic does not always mean your business is reaching the right people and driving success for your business. Not every insight you have has the potential to help your business. You should be aware of many types of leads and website traffic before investing in B2B digital marketing. You need to monitor what matters. If you are more focused on gaining more leads and ROI from your website and social media marketing, below are the most critical factors you should consider when measuring B2B marketing ROI:
- Analyze the number of unbranded, organic, and branded organic traffic your websites and social media receive every month. A good amount of organic traffic from the right industry or domain is a great sign that many of your B2B marketing ideas and efforts are paying off. Most importantly, this is the right data you need to take into account when measuring your B2B digital marketing ROI.
- Paid traffic helps you calculate a near-accurate ROI on your B2B marketing because this is what you have paid and invested in. Closely monitor and adjust your marketing strategies and tools whenever your Google Ads, email marketing, and content marketing chalk up many leads that have converted into prospective clients.
- Most companies overlook or seldom focus on their referral traffic. When your existing customers find your product or service worth their investment, they are more likely to refer your business to someone they know. This traffic is referral traffic, and you are probably not paying much attention to it. Segregating the referral traffic is one of the cost-cutting strategies to improve your B2B digital marketing ROI.
See Where Your Conversions Occur And Where They Don’t
All the data you need to measure your B2B ROI is at your fingertips; all you have to do is identify the right data that helps you understand where your efforts are paying off and where your campaigns are not on the right track. For example, suppose you’ve been receiving good responses or feedback for a recent blog post or a newsletter. In that case, you should analyze the number of leads converted to sales and result in a good number of client acquisitions. This way, you can easily track and record the lead-to-conversion ratio, which is instrumental in planning your future marketing campaigns. Also, you can consider implementing the Pareto analysis, the 80/20 principle, to figure out the strongest side of your business. This way, you could apply the same strategy to improve your B2B ROI.
Informative, Relevant Content Is Key To Favorable ROI In B2B Marketing
According to Demand firm, a prominent marketing advisor in the world, content marketing is the most effective form of marketing which costs 62% less than any other form of marketing. Moreover, content marketing generates a good number of leads that mostly get converted compared to traditional marketing. Delivering an impactful B2B message is very different from delivering a powerful B2C message. This is why reviewing your existing marketing strategies is paramount when you need to improve your B2B digital marketing ROI. Looking to reach more potential B2B customers and turn your website traffic into prospects? ContentGo offers the right, engaging content marketing that adds a unique voice to your business.
