Thinking about starting a search engine optimization campaign but not sure if it’s worth it? Or perhaps you’re on a marketing team and you know that search engine marketing should be a part of your company’s strategy, but you need a way to demonstrate to your CEO that you’ll gain more in sales to offset the cost of the campaign. We have developed a search engine marketing ROI calculator to help.

All you need are seven data points:
• the lifetime value of one customer
• your search engine optimization campaign budget
• the length of your SEO campaign
• the aggregated monthly estimated search volume of all your keywords
• the click through rate you expect based on rankings you obtain
• the conversion rate of customers that click through to your site that you are able to convert to leads (or sales if you are an online retailer)
• the percentage of leads that you usually convert to sales (which is 100% if you are an online retailer)

Not sure about what some of these metrics might be for your company? Try doing some research online. We’re linked to the tools you’ll need. The release of the AOL user search data led to some great research on click through rate by rank position. Websites like www.shop.org and index.fireclick.com can help you determine what might be an average conversion rate.

Play with the tool. Start out conservative – can you return a favorable ROI? What happens if you get more aggressive with your campaign or your estimates? What would happen if you focused on increasing conversions by 25%? How would that impact your revenues? Have fun; let us know your thoughts and feedback!