The Long and Short of ROI

Illustration featuring three people looking at a graph.

The Long and Short of ROI

Why Measuring Quickly Poses Challenges for Digital Marketers

The Long and Short of ROI

Why Measuring Quickly Poses Challenges for Digital Marketers

Image of a male and female professional sitting on a couch engaged in conversation. The female professional is explaining something to the male professional.

Topline research overview

Digital marketers deliver tremendous impact to their businesses. In order to more effectively highlight this impact, digital marketers can start measuring ROI over a longer timeframe. Through a global survey of 4,000+ digital marketers, LinkedIn uncovers how measuring ROI over the length of the sales cycle can lead to more accurate reporting, greater marketer confidence, and improved campaign management.

Download snapshot Download full report

Key Findings

Measuring too soon

Digital marketers often measure ROI too quickly. While the average length of a B2B sales cycle is 6 months, only 4% of marketers measure ROI over 6 months or longer.

Bar chart showing that most marketers (77%) measure return within 1 month of a campaign, about half (52%) with a sales cycle 3+ months long, and the least (4%) measuring ROI over 6 months or longer.

Table explaining the difference between KPI and ROI. If your campaign were a book, KPI would highlight what happens after each chapter, whereas ROI would highlight what happened after the entire story. KPI is a forward-looking predictor of end performance, while ROI is a backward-looking informer of future budget allocation decisions.

Mixing metrics

Measuring value in less time than the length of the sales cycle results in the calculation of KPIs, different than ROI. Think of ROI vs. KPI in terms of reading a book: KPIs highlight what happens after each chapter and are used as forward-looking predictors of end performance. ROI highlights what happened after the entire story and is used as a backward-looking informer of future budget allocation decisions.

Marketing under pressure

Internal pressures drive digital marketers to measure and report ROI sooner than the length of their sales cycle. Digital marketers who measure ROI in one month or less are 2x as likely to have budget allocation discussions at least once a month. Compounded on these frequent discussions is the fact that 58% of digital marketers feel the need to prove ROI in order to justify spend and get approval for future budget asks.

Infographic showing that 58% of digital marketers say they need to prove ROI in order to justify spend and get approval for future budget asks.

Infographic showing that 63% of digital marketers don’t feel very confident in their ROI measurements today and that 40% of them do not actively share ROI metrics.

Missing out on marketing
the value of marketing efforts

Digital marketers continue to drive incredible value to their businesses. Unfortunately, the pressure to quickly measure ROI results in lower marketer confidence and less motivation to share ROI. 63% of digital marketers do not feel very confident in their ROI measurements today. Marketers can start measuring over the length of their sales cycle to better and more confidently market their own marketing efforts.

Illustration featuring four people looking at different shapes and figures on a screen.

Learn how you and your team can take your time to more accurately measure ROI.

Download the report

Learn how you and your team can take your time to more accurately measure ROI.

Download snapshot Download full report