Marketing & ROI
ROI Calculator
Calculate return on investment percentage, net gain, and annualised ROI for any investment — marketing campaign, real estate, stocks, or business project.
🔒 All calculations happen instantly in your browser. No data is sent to any server.
How the calculation works
ROI = (Return − Cost) ÷ Cost × 100
Net Gain = Return − Cost
Annualised ROI (CAGR) = (Return ÷ Cost)^(1÷Years) − 1
Example: Invested $10,000 · Returned $13,500 over 3 years
ROI = ($13,500 − $10,000) ÷ $10,000 = 35% · Net gain = $3,500 · Annualised = (1.35)^(1/3) − 1 = 10.5%/year
Frequently Asked Questions
- Context-dependent. Stock market average: 7–10% annually (inflation-adjusted). Real estate: 8–12%. Marketing campaigns: 5:1 ($5 return per $1 spent = 400% ROI) is often cited as a minimum target. Compare against your cost of capital, not a universal benchmark.
- ROI is total return over the full period regardless of time. CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) — the same as annualised ROI here — expresses the equivalent constant annual growth rate. A 35% ROI over 3 years = 10.5% CAGR. CAGR enables fair comparison across different holding periods.
- ROI = (Revenue from campaign − Campaign cost) ÷ Campaign cost × 100. If you spent $5,000 and generated $20,000 in revenue, ROI = ($20,000 − $5,000) ÷ $5,000 = 300%. For a cleaner measure of ad efficiency, use ROAS instead.
- Simple ROI doesn't — a 100% ROI over 1 year is far better than the same ROI over 10 years. Use annualised ROI (CAGR) to compare investments across different time periods on an equal basis.
- You lost money. A −20% ROI means you got back $0.80 for every $1 invested. Negative ROI doesn't always mean failure — sometimes it's acceptable for brand-building investments with long-term payoff — but it needs a clear strategic rationale.