Fully loaded investment
agency fee + media + creative and production + software and data + internal labor
Platform ROAS excludes costs outside the ad account. A commercial plan has to carry every cost required to produce and close the customer.
Free tool · marketing economics
Know the CAC and CPL your marketing must beat.
Add the agency fee, media, production, software, and internal labor. Then work backward from gross margin, close rate, and target ROI to the qualified leads and customers the plan must produce.
Interactive calculator
Replace the example with one period of verified data.
Use a month, quarter, or campaign window—just keep the same period across costs, revenue, lead volume, and close rate. Outputs are planning thresholds, not channel forecasts.
Your inputs
Fully loaded cost and customer economics
The starting numbers are an example, not a benchmark. Replace every field with figures from your finance system, CRM, and proposed scope.
Required economics
What the plan must produce to clear your target
Fully loaded investment
$10,000
Agency, media, production, software, data, and internal labor combined.
Target qualified leads
25
5 customers required at the entered close rate.
Maximum qualified CPL
$400
The qualified-lead cost ceiling at 50% target ROI.
Maximum fully loaded CAC
$2,000
The acquisition-cost ceiling after every included marketing cost.
Break-even boundary
Break-even customers
3.3
16.7 qualified leads at the entered close rate.
Break-even qualified CPL
$600
$3,000 fully loaded CAC at zero marketing profit.
Planned-volume scenario
If the plan delivers 20 qualified leads
- Expected customers
- 4
- Expected revenue
- $20,000
- Gross profit before marketing
- $12,000
- Profit after marketing
- $2,000
- Expected marketing ROI
- 20%
- Qualified-lead gap to target
- 5 more
Planning estimate only. The model assumes the entered leads are qualified, the close rate and revenue use the same period, and revenue is incremental. It does not predict channel performance or guarantee an outcome.
Transparent formulas
Every result can be checked without trusting the calculator.
Gross contribution per customer
revenue per new customer × gross-margin percentage
Revenue is not profit. Gross contribution is the amount available to recover marketing cost before overhead, financing, and taxes.
Maximum CAC at target ROI
gross contribution per customer ÷ (1 + target marketing ROI)
This is the highest fully loaded customer-acquisition cost compatible with the entered contribution and target return.
Maximum qualified CPL
maximum target CAC × qualified-lead close rate
The lead ceiling depends on sales conversion. A cheaper unqualified lead can still produce worse economics than an expensive qualified lead.
Target customers
fully loaded investment × (1 + target ROI) ÷ gross contribution per customer
This reverses the ROI equation and shows how many incremental customers the plan must create inside the measurement window.
Target qualified leads
target customers ÷ qualified-lead close rate
This connects the finance target to a CRM stage an agency and sales team can define, monitor, and reconcile.
Measurement boundary
The calculator is only as honest as the inputs.
Define a qualified lead in the CRM, import closed outcomes when appropriate, assign conversion values based on real business value, and state the attribution model and reporting window.
Primary implementation references
- Google Ads: conversion values explains how values support business-impact and ROI measurement.
- Google Ads: qualified and converted leads defines deeper lead-funnel outcomes instead of treating every inquiry as equal.
- Google Ads: offline conversion imports describes connecting online clicks or calls to offline contracts and sales.
- Google Analytics: attribution models documents how assigned channel credit changes under the reporting model.
Marketing ROI calculator questions.
What costs should a marketing ROI calculation include?
Include every incremental cost required to plan, produce, distribute, measure, and support the campaign: agency or freelancer fees, media, creative and production, landing pages, software, data, and the loaded internal labor assigned to marketing and lead follow-up. Keep the period consistent across every input.
Why does this calculator use gross margin instead of revenue?
Revenue includes the direct cost of fulfilling the sale. Multiplying incremental revenue by gross margin estimates the contribution available to repay marketing investment. A revenue-only ROAS can look positive while the campaign loses money after product or service delivery costs.
What is the difference between CPA, CAC, and qualified CPL?
CPA can mean any platform conversion and often includes only ad spend. Fully loaded CAC is total included marketing cost divided by new customers. Qualified CPL is total included marketing cost divided by leads that meet a documented qualification standard. The definitions and cost boundary should be written into the report.
Should lifetime value be used as revenue per customer?
Only when the value is supported by retained-customer data and the time horizon is explicit. For a conservative first plan, use revenue expected inside the same measurement window. Do not turn an optimistic lifetime-value assumption into permission to overspend today.
Does the calculator forecast marketing performance?
No. It calculates the thresholds implied by the inputs. Channel conversion rates, lead quality, sales capacity, attribution, seasonality, and operational constraints still have to be validated with actual data. No output is a guarantee.
Does Spec receive the numbers entered into the calculator?
No. The calculator runs in the browser and does not submit the inputs to Spec Social. Copying the plan writes the generated text to your clipboard only after you click the button.
Take the economics into the agency decision.
Require every proposal to state its cost boundary, qualified-lead definition, close-rate assumption, target CAC, attribution window, and owner for each measurement step.