SEO ROI calculator: is that SEO quote worth it

Compare a monthly SEO price to what you already spend on ads, or forecast a year of return from your analytics. You'll see what a new customer costs you today, and what SEO would need to bring in to pay off.

Basic: compare to my ads Advanced: forecast from my analytics

Your numbers

Rough guesses are fine. Leave a box empty if you don't know it.

In an average month, what do you spend on ads? ($)

Google, Facebook, Instagram, all of it. If it changes with the seasons, average your last 12 months.

Do you know how many customers your ads bring in, or just leads?

Customers Just leads

In an average month, about how many new customers do those ads bring in?

Jobs booked or sales you can trace back to an ad.

What's a new customer worth to you? ($)

What an average job or sale brings in.

What's the monthly SEO price you've been quoted? ($)

Your ads

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Cost per customer from ads

Fill in your ad spend and customers to see what each one costs you.

The SEO quote

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Customers a month to match your ads

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Customers a month to pay for itself

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Business type

Ecommerce Lead generation

Monthly organic sessions

From GA4: organic search sessions, averaged over the last few months.

Conversion rate (%)

Average order value ($)

Gross margin (%)

Leave margin at 100% to measure return on revenue. Enter your real margin for a stricter, profit-based ROI.

Traffic lift by month 12 (%)

Monthly SEO investment ($)

Start with a conservative lift. You can always try a higher one.

Compare to paid ads (optional)

Monthly ad spend ($)

Orders from ads per month

Your 12-month estimate

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Added revenue over 12 months

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Added revenue per month by month 12

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12-month investment

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Return on revenue

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Pays back

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See the month-by-month breakdown

Month	Traffic lift	Added revenue	Cumulative return	Cumulative investment

Ads vs. SEO

The difference the math doesn't show

Ads work the day you turn them on

And they stop the day you stop paying.

SEO usually takes a few months to start

But rankings keep bringing in customers after the work is done.

Judge SEO over a year, not a month

Comparing month one of SEO to month twelve of ads isn't a fair fight.

How the numbers work

Basic

Cost per customer from ads: what you spend on ads, divided by the customers they bring in.
If you only know leads: leads, times how many out of 10 become customers, divided by 10.
Return per $1: what those customers are worth, divided by what you spent.
Customers to match your ads: the SEO price, divided by what an ad customer costs you.
Customers to pay for itself: the SEO price, divided by what a customer is worth.

Advanced

Today's organic revenue: sessions × conversion rate × average value (and the lead-to-customer rate, for lead generation).
The lift ramps in evenly each month and reaches your full number in month 12, because SEO doesn't land all at once.
ROI: what you got back (times your margin), minus what you spent, divided by what you spent.
Payback: the first month the running total you got back covers the running total you spent.

What neither one counts

Seasonality. A flat monthly number won't match a business with a big Q4 or a busy summer.
Customers who find you by searching your name. They'd likely find you anyway.
Clicks lost to AI Overviews, which can lower traffic even when rankings hold.
Repeat customers and referrals, unless you count them in what a customer is worth.

Want these counted too? Let's talk. I can build a version of this model around your business: your busy and slow seasons, your repeat customers, and what your data actually shows. Book a 15-minute intro call

Bring these numbers to a call

I'll tell you what I'd ask before signing, and what your data says is realistic.

Book a 15-minute intro call