Payback calculations - how to make sure you get your sums right

In this article, the author provides a definitive guide to calculating payback and return on investment (ROI).

Payback calculations – how to make sure you get your sums right

Les Binet

The IPA Effectiveness Awards exist to prove to the world that advertising (in its widest sense) really does work and can be an excellent way for a client to invest its money. So a crucial part of any winning entry has to be some measure of payback.

Yet IPA authors seem remarkably ill-informed about how to measure payback and return on investment (ROI). When Peter Field and I reviewed the IPA dataBANK for our book Marketing in the Era of Accountability, we found that,...

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