Every business wants to maximize its marketing Return on Investment (ROI). You can start with quick wins from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Or, you can commit to the long game with content marketing, creating evergreen content and/or blog posts that help your ideal client.
The true financial impact of these choices, especially a strategic blend over time, can be really hard to predict.
So, our Investment Strategy Calculator compares three distinct 24-month scenarios:
- Pure PPC Strategy,
- Content Only Strategy, and
- Dynamic Investment Strategy that gradually shifts budget towards content.
Input your own figures or estimates below to see how each might perform for your website. More details on where to find the right information for your business can be found below.
Investment Strategy Comparison
Compare Pure PPC, Content Only, and a Dynamic Investment strategy (using a steady, linear budget shift to content over 24 months).
Estimate the stable monthly visitors expected from content ranking #1 for its target keyword(s). Used for 'Content Only' and 'Dynamic' strategies here.
1. Average Sale Value ($):
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Description: The average revenue generated from a single successful sale or conversion event (e.g., a closed deal, a product purchase).
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Source: Your accounting software, CRM (for average deal size), e-commerce platform analytics (for Average Order Value - AOV). If you have multiple products/services, calculate a weighted average if possible, or use a typical/representative value.
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Example:
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B2C E-commerce: $75 (average order value)
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SaaS: $1,200 (annual subscription value)
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B2B Service: $10,000 (average project value
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2. Website Conversion Rate (%):
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Description: The percentage of website visitors (from any relevant traffic source like organic search or PPC) who complete the desired action that leads to a sale (e.g., make a purchase, submit a qualified lead form that later converts).
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Source: Google Analytics (Goal Completions / Total Visitors or E-commerce Conversion Rate), CRM (for lead-to-sale conversion if the website action is lead generation), e-commerce platform analytics.
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Example:
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E-commerce direct purchase: 1.5%
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B2B Lead Form Submission: 3% (Note: this might need a further "lead-to-sale" rate applied offline if the $ amount is per sale)
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3. Total Monthly Marketing Budget ($):
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Description: The total amount you plan to spend on marketing activities each month. This budget will be allocated across PPC and content in the "Dynamic Investment" strategy and fully to one channel in the "Pure PPC" and "Content Only" strategies.
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Source: Your company's marketing budget planning documents or financial projections.
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Example:
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Small Business: $3,000
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Medium Business: $10,000
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4. Estimated Monthly Traffic for a #1 Ranking Article/Cluster:
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Description: The stable number of monthly organic search visitors you anticipate one high-quality article (or a closely related content cluster) will attract once it achieves and maintains a #1 ranking for its primary target keyword(s). This is a per-article/cluster estimate used for the "Content Only" and "Dynamic" strategies.
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Source:
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SEO Tools (e.g., Ahrefs, SEMrush, Ubersuggest): Look at the monthly search volume for your target keyword and the estimated traffic of current #1 ranking pages.
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Your own historical data for similar successful content pieces.
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Example:
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Niche long-tail keyword: 150 visitors/month
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Moderately competitive keyword: 800 visitors/month
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Broad, high-volume keyword: 3,000+ visitors/month
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5. Average PPC Cost Per Click (CPC) ($):
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Description: The average amount you pay each time someone clicks on one of your pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements (e.g., on Google Ads, Bing Ads).
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Source: Your PPC platform dashboard (e.g., Google Ads "Avg. CPC" column for relevant campaigns or ad groups). Industry benchmark reports. Keyword planning tools can also provide estimates.
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Example:
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Low competition niche: $0.75
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Moderate competition: $2.50
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Highly competitive (e.g., legal, finance): $10.00 - $50.00+
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