How to Increase Digital Marketing ROI

Only 1 in 3 marketers can confirm they accurately measure ROI across their marketing efforts. That's a major issue because if you can’t measure what’s working, you can’t scale what’s profitable.

After 16+ years running SEO, paid media, content, and web design campaigns, I’ve seen what separates struggling brands from scalable ones. The winners don’t guess. They track, test, and optimize every stage of their funnel.

Take The International Kitchen, for instance. After a bad website redesign tanked their results, my team rebuilt their digital strategy from the ground up, delivering a 2,585% marketing ROI with a 486% organic traffic boost.

In this guide, I’ll share the 7 steps I use to consistently improve marketing ROI — so you can stop guessing, stop wasting budget, and start scaling with clarity.

Your ROI Could Be 2 to 3X Better

Most businesses I work with are surprised to discover that their true ROI potential is 2–3x higher than they expected. Ready to see what you’re leaving on the table?

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What Is a Good ROI for a Digital Marketing Campaign?

Return on Investment (ROI) tells you how much revenue your marketing generates compared to what you spend. It’s one of the clearest ways to measure campaign profitability.

Here's a simple ROI formula you can use:
ROI = (Revenue – Marketing Cost) / Marketing Cost × 100

Remember: There’s no universal “good ROI,” as it depends on your industry, sales cycle, margins, and even how well your sales team closes leads.

I recommend setting a clear benchmark to measure your marketing ROI. While return ratios like 3:1 are considered strong (getting $3 for every $1 spent), many businesses can beat that by refining their marketing costs, improving their customer lifetime value, and dialing in better targeting.

High-performing marketing campaigns often outperform the 3:1 ratio significantly.

Legal: It's typical to see 3:1 to 5:1, especially in high-value practice areas.
Healthcare: Benchmarks average around 3.6:1, thanks to patient lifetime value.
Home Improvement: Our clients see 4:1 to 6:1 returns, especially in remodeling and roofing.

The bottom line: If your ROI is below 3:1, it’s time to take a hard look at your targeting, offer, sales process, or follow-up. If it’s above 4:1, you’re in a strong position and may have room to scale further.

Want to know if your ROI is actually good or just average? Use this step-by-step guide to accurately measure marketing ROI and uncover where your returns can improve.

7 Steps to Optimize Your Marketing ROI

What Is a Good ROI for a Digital Marketing Campaign?

1. Define Your ROI Goals

Start by defining what success means for your future marketing efforts. Whether you want to generate $500K in revenue or acquire 200 qualified leads, having clear, measurable goals helps you better calculate marketing ROI with purpose.

One of the biggest mistakes I see? Teams launching campaigns with vague goals like “get more traffic” — without ever asking what that traffic is supposed to do.

Instead, get specific. What kind of traffic are you trying to attract? What exact action do you want them to take?

That’s why I always recommend setting SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. They keep your team aligned, your strategy focused, and your performance easy to track.

Example of a SMART goal: Generate 200 qualified leads in 90 days through paid search, with a 25% close rate and $500K in new revenue.

At the end of the day, if you don’t know exactly what you’re aiming for, how can you expect to hit the target?

2. Focus on Audience Targeting

I’ve seen campaigns fail not because the offer was bad, but because it reached the wrong people. Great marketing starts with knowing exactly who you’re talking to.

Start by digging into your Google Analytics data to see where your traffic comes from, what pages they visit, and how long they stay. Then layer in insights from tools like Meta Audience Insights or your CRM to spot patterns in demographics, behavior, and lifetime value.

Some of my highest-performing campaigns came from noticing things like, “high-ticket clients seem to come from organic traffic, not paid ads or social.”

Pro Tip: I always segment audiences by high-value behaviors (repeat purchases, booked consultations, or time spent on service pages), not just by age or location. That way, you’re not just targeting who someone is, but what they’re likely to do next.

When you align your message with that level of readiness, you get higher conversions, lower ad costs, and a far more persuasive campaign overall.

3. Rely on Long-Term SEO to Build a Foundation for Growth

When maximizing marketing ROI, SEO is your best friend. I like to think of it as digital real estate — every blog post, service page, or backlink you invest in today pays you back in traffic (and leads) tomorrow.

And unlike ads, SEO doesn’t shut off when your marketing budget does. I’ve had clients still getting leads from content we published 18 months ago. Here’s some of what works in SEO:

Answer real questions people are Googling.
Use internal linking to keep visitors engaged.
Build backlinks naturally with value-first content.
Create content clusters around core topics.
Use schema markup to help Google understand your content.
Refresh and update older content regularly.
Focus on page speed and mobile optimization.
Track and refine based on performance.

SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Over time, it lowers your customer acquisition costs and increases the quality of inbound traffic. That’s a win-win for your marketing investment.

4. Local SEO Is a High ROI Marketing Strategy

Local SEO offers one of the highest ROIs from all the different marketing channels I’ve seen, especially for law firms, healthcare providers, and home service businesses.

When someone searches “roof repair near me” or “divorce lawyer Chicago,” they're not just browsing — they’re looking for local options.

46% of all Google searches are local, and over 70% of the clicks go to businesses in the top 3 Map Pack. So if your business isn’t showing up there, you’re likely invisible to most potential customers searching in your area.

That’s why I always recommend optimizing your Google Business Profile, gathering local reviews, and building location-specific pages.

Here’s what makes local SEO so powerful:

You show up exactly when people are ready to buy.
You don’t pay per click.
It keeps working even if your budget pauses.

Bottom line: If you serve a local market and you’re not investing in local SEO, you’re missing one of the most effective strategies for improving marketing ROI.

P.S. Do you run a law firm? Check out my full local SEO guide to see how lawyers are turning their local visibility into a 400%+ marketing ROI.

5. Optimize Your Lead Funnel to Improve PPC ROI

Running paid ads? Don’t just track clicks, track what happens after the click.

I’ve worked with companies spending tens of thousands on Google Ads, but their landing pages were clunky, and nobody was following up with leads. It's no surprise their ROI was weak!

To fix that, I would:

Build high-converting landing pages (with one clear CTA).
Use conversion tracking to monitor which ads bring real leads.
Align ad copy with landing page headlines for better relevance.

Then I would test and refine everything from keyword intent to form layout. That’s how you turn a decent campaign into a high-performing one that earns more than it spends.

Use this Facebook Ads ROI guide to measure performance, fix what’s leaking, and potentially quadruple your returns, like my other clients did.

6. Increase Your Website Design ROI

Is your site slow, confusing, or hard to navigate?

If so, you’re losing leads before they even reach your contact form. In fact, 40% of users will abandon a site that takes over 3 seconds to load. One of the fastest ways I’ve improved client ROI is by making their websites easier to navigate and faster to load.

Here’s what I focus on:

Clear CTAs above the fold — Tell visitors exactly what to do next (book a consult, request a quote, etc.).
Fast load speeds — Compress images, remove bloated code, and use caching/CDNs.
Trust signals — Showcase testimonials, certifications, security badges, and case results.
Mobile-first layout — Over 60% of visitors come from mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, your bounce rate will spike.
Simple navigation — Make it easy for users to find what they need in under 3 clicks.

Pro Tip: Use tools like Hotjar or Clarity to see where users drop off and fix those friction points. Small UX changes can lead to big ROI gains.

Want your website to convert more visitors into clients? Start A/B testing smarter. Read the guide today.

7. Implement Marketing Automation to Scale Efficiency

If you want to grow without doubling your headcount or burning out your team, automation is key.

Using a smart marketing analytics platform, you can track engagement, lead quality, and performance automatically, freeing up time for strategic decisions.

I use tools like HubSpot, LeadTool, or even Zapier to streamline repetitive tasks like:

Email follow-ups
Lead nurturing workflows
Social media scheduling

But here’s the catch: automation should enhance human connection, not replace it. I still recommend personal follow-up for sales calls, high-ticket services, or complex consultations.

The sweet spot? Use automation to save time on what’s repetitive, so your team can focus on client-facing tasks and what moves the needle.

I recommend these top 25 AI tools to streamline your business (especially useful if you run a law firm)!

Discover Your ROI Potential

Not sure if your marketing campaigns are driving growth? Let us help you uncover actionable insights with our comprehensive ROI analysis tools!

**Curious to See What Your ROI Should Look Like?**

If your marketing initiatives aren’t producing returns, it’s not a data issue — it’s a strategy issue.

The 7 steps I’ve laid out here are how I help businesses cut waste, increase lead quality, and finally see their marketing generate real revenue.

At Comrade Digital Marketing Agency, every campaign we run is tied to ROI, tracked in real time through our Client Portal, and built to scale.

A fantastic example is Lehmbecker Law. After partnering with us, they saw a 645% marketing ROI, a 1,425% increase in organic traffic, and a 1,067% boost in qualified leads — all from a data-backed strategy built to drive growth.

Don't risk your growth. Your marketing ROI could easily be 3X higher.

Schedule your free consultation today.