Business Context

NimbusHR, a SaaS company selling HR software to mid-market businesses, ran a 6-week multi-channel campaign across LinkedIn ads, Google Search, webinars, email nurtures, and partner referrals. The CMO wants to know whether the campaign generated positive ROI and which channels should receive next quarter's budget.

Metric Scenario

The campaign spent $420,000 total: LinkedIn $160,000, Google Search $110,000, webinars $70,000, email nurture $30,000, and partners $50,000. It generated 3,600 marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), 1,050 sales-qualified leads (SQLs), 210 opportunities, and 42 closed-won deals within 90 days. Average first-year contract value is $24,000, gross margin is 78%, and average customer retention is 3.2 years. Closed-won deals by attributed first-touch channel were: LinkedIn 14, Google 11, webinars 9, email 3, partners 5. Sales reports that average deal cycle is 75 days, so some pipeline remains open.

Leadership is debating whether ROI should be measured on booked revenue, gross profit, or expected pipeline value, and whether to use first-touch, last-touch, or multi-touch attribution.

Requirements

1. Define the primary ROI metric you would use for this campaign and explain why.
2. Show how you would calculate campaign ROI, CAC, and payback period using the data provided.
3. Explain how you would account for delayed conversions and open pipeline in a B2B sales cycle.
4. Decompose performance by channel and funnel stage to identify what drove results.
5. Recommend which channels to scale, cut, or investigate further.

Data Available

• campaign_spend: channel, date, spend, impressions, clicks
• lead_funnel: lead_id, source_channel, created_at, MQL_date, SQL_date, opportunity_date, closed_won_date, deal_value
• attribution_log: lead_id, touch_timestamp, channel, campaign_id, touch_type
• accounts: account_id, company_size, industry, region, contract_value, gross_margin, renewal_status