ROI Is the New Ranking

By Julie Batten, ClickZ, October 26, 2009. "I often talk about how there are no guarantees in SEO. Unlike with paid search, where the amount you spend typically correlates with the results (volume-wise anyways), with SEO, you can put a lot into it and get very little out of it. That's why it's so important to treat your SEO efforts just like you would any marketing or promotional activity -- with a strong focus on value and bottom-line impact. And to truly measure and evaluate the impact your SEO initiatives are having, you need to have a strong measurement framework in place..."

What Is Your 'R' for ROI in Social Media?

By Liana Evans, Search Engine Watch, September 28, 2009. "A few weeks ago I wrote "Can Social Media be Measured?" There was a bit of debate among readers in the comments, so I'd like to circle back around and address a burning topic for companies that are looking to venture into social media marketing..."

Can Using Real-Time, Raw Data Be Cost Effective? Opening Up the Discussion

by Cecily Robyn Lough. Web Analytics Association, 11 August 2009. "I want to open up for discussion on how working with real time raw data can be cost effective. And, it can provide greater ROI if and only if the analytics product's surrounding eco-system is set up in a way that enables the data to be leveraged effectively..."

Measuring ROI of social media

by Billie Andersen. Foviance Newsletter, 6 August 2009. "Calculating the return on investment when using social media can be tricky. The inability to measure its impact can be a huge barrier for companies wishing to employ social media. And for those who do use social media in their business, it's difficult to see how well, or indeed, how badly, a campaign is going..."

Measuring SEO ROI – What You May Be Missing

by Laura Callow. Search Engine People, July 22, 2009. "Yes, I realize that measuring SEO ROI sounds simple enough. It's not so much a case of 'measuring' per se, as a case of 'is what you’re measuring enough?'..."

How to Use Search to Calculate the ROI of Awareness Advertising

By Augustine Fou, ClickZ, March 12, 2009. "What is the return on investment of search, social marketing, or digital marketing or advertising in general? To me, ROI had always been calculated from sales. And I was curious why advertisers and marketers were not constantly asking for ROI for television, print, and radio campaigns while they kept harping on it with digital and social marketing. Then, it occurred to me that advertisers and marketers could have very different definitions for the term ROI. Perhaps there is indeed a way to reach common ground on the definition of ROI and use it to compare campaigns that run in different media or channels..."

Simple Lesson in Public Sector/Non-Profit Website Return on Investment (ROI)

by Mike Kujawski. Public Sector Marketing 2.0, March 17, 2008. "... Currently, performance measurement in most departments is limited to very uninformative web analytics which are not tailored to the website's objectives and as a result are quite meaningless since they do not gauge quality of traffic but rather sheer quantity. The first step of good Performance Measurement is identification of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's)..."

Calculating ROI - Website Optimization

Clickz. "There is value in optimizing your website. How much value? Depending on your desired outcomes, the ZAAZ Calculator is designed to estimate the return on investment. Plug in the numbers and see how it changes the present and future value of your business..."

Framework for Public Value Proves Its Worth

While IT has clearly transformed government, making many programs and services more effective and cheaper to deliver, the battle to communicate the public benefits of these investments has never been harder to wage, by Sue Bushell. CIO, 5 September, 2008. "Every investment decision requires a leap of faith — sometimes a large one — into an uncertain future. But after decades of investments and billions of dollars sunk into IT, governments worldwide remain largely unable to convincingly demonstrate a return on investment (ROI) that is widely understood or based upon well-grounded measures, according to a new issues brief from the New York-based Center for Technology in Government..."

Search Illustrated: The ROI Of SEO

by Elliance. Search Engine Land, July 29, 2008. "... This week's infographic shows off the additional benefits and return on investment that comes along with properly optimizing a site and pursuing targeted keywords..."

Money's tight? ROI to the rescue

How some IT shops are putting good old ROI to use on projects that do more than just improve the bottom line, By Gary Anthes. Computerworld, March 10, 2008. "You might think that measuring return on investment is one of those things that never changes. You'd be wrong. To be sure, the workhorse measures of financial return haven't really changed, nor has the math behind them. But as fear of a recession spurs a renewed interest in value - and as the strategic mission of IT shifts from saving money on back-office functions to enhancing revenue - 'return on investment' has taken on new meanings and importance..."

Usability ROI Declining, But Still Strong

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, January 22, 2008: "Summary: The average business metrics improvement after a usability redesign is now 83%. This is substantially less than 6 years ago, but ROI remains high because usability is still cheap relative to gains."

Google Analytics ROI Calculation Macro

By Jeremy Aube, Google Analytics Support Tech. Google Analytics Blog from ROI Revolution, November 26, 2007. "If you have used the ROI Calculator Spreadsheet tool that Shawn came out with before, you know that it takes several steps to get to the point where you can start entering in cost data and seeing that ROI. If your need for ROI data is only occasional, then this works great... If, however, you find yourself running through these steps again and again on a frequent basis with no shortcut in sight, there is hope! Introducing...the ROI Calculation Macro..."

Optimizing A Paid Search Campaign

by John Faris. Search Engine Land, October 2, 2007. "Pay-per-click (PPC) remains a leading online marketing strategy despite ever-increasing competition and rising click costs. Why? Paid search works extremely well when you’ve established an accurate estimate of your cost per acquisition (CPA) and return on investment (ROI). However, not everyone is properly measuring their CPA and maximizing their ROI..."

New Google Analytics ROI Calculation Spreadsheet

By Shawn Purtell, Google Analytics Support Tech. Google Analytics Blog from ROI Revolution, September 7, 2007. "Due to the new Google Analytics interface, some changes had to be made to our old ROI Calculator Spreadsheet tool. Unfortunately, there's now an extra step involved before you can use the tool to figure out your ROI... The good news, however, is that the new method is a lot more versatile, and you can use it for many kinds of reports, including your non-AdWords campaign and keyword reports..."