ROMI or bust: Why last-click lies to you

A month ago, I watched a marketing director get taken apart in a Gurgaon boardroom. Her presentation had all the usual hallmarks of success — Instagram engagement up 120%, half a million YouTube views, WhatsApp click-through rates that most brands would celebrate. The deck was polished.

The numbers were solid. The room nodded. Until the CEO asked the one question every marketing team in India dreads, “But what’s the actual ROI?”

Silence.

This wasn’t the first time I’d seen it. Smart marketers, people who deeply understand their audience, are reduced to scrambling for words when posed with such questions by the management. They fumble with vague mentions of ‘customer journeys’ while budgets evaporate in real time. The work itself isn’t the problem. The problem is how we measure success.

Why ROI doesn’t work in India

Let’s talk about a hypothetical urban Indian consumer, who we will call Priya. She sees a skincare brand on Instagram during her lunch break, scrolls for a minute, maybe clicks, then gets distracted by work.

A few days later, a WhatsApp newsletter pings her while she’s waiting at her kid’s school to pick him up. She adds something to her cart, but doesn’t complete the purchase.

A week later, she’s on YouTube, sees the brand again, doesn’t click, but the name sticks. Eventually, she Googles it and buys.

Now guess which channel gets the credit for that sale? Google. Every single time.

That Instagram post? Worth nothing in traditional ROI terms. The WhatsApp message? Ignored. YouTube? Forgotten.

This is exactly why marketers across India are getting shortchanged. We’re measuring impact with a lens designed for a world that no longer exists —one where linear funnels and last-click wins made sense.

But Indian consumers aren’t linear. They’re fast, distracted, mobile-first, and often platform-agnostic. Every touchpoint matters. But traditional ROI only measures the last one.

ROMI: A smarter, modern metric

That’s why smart marketers have shifted to Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI). Unlike traditional ROI, which often credits only the final click or conversion, ROMI takes a more holistic view.

The formula is straightforward:

(Revenue Attributed to Marketing – Marketing Spend) ÷ Marketing Spend × 100

This is simple in theory and game-changing in practice.

We recently worked with a real estate developer in Mumbai who was spending INR 4 lakhs monthly across Facebook, Google, and Times Property. Traditional metrics showed Facebook as a disaster, with low clicks and poor conversion. The team was ready to pull the plug.

But when we analysed ROMI across the full buyer journey, a different story emerged. Facebook ads were responsible for over 40% of the eventual sales, driving awareness that nudged users into searching on Google later. We rebalanced the budget based on ROMI, not gut feel.

Six weeks later, marketing efficiency was up by 47% with the same budget, same team and smarter measurement.

Perfect attribution is a lie

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: you will never track 100% of your customer journey. And you don’t need to. What you do need is better approximation.

We use a weighted attribution model. Awareness channels like Instagram and YouTube get partial credit, while closing channels like search and direct traffic get more. The weights are based on actual data, and we keep refining them over time.

This approach has exposed some surprising truths. One Delhi fashion brand nearly killed their Instagram campaigns as the last-click data showed poor performance.

However, ROMI revealed that Instagram was bringing in high-value, repeat customers. They weren’t converting immediately, but they were returning, and spending more.

The metrics that actually matter

If you want to run a marketing function like a business, focus on these three:

• Return on ad spend (ROAS): This can vary by channel. You can aim for 4:1 on YouTube awareness, 6:1 on Google Shopping, and 5:1 on Facebook. LinkedIn might justify 3:1 for high-value B2B leads.

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): A campaign may look great on ROMI, but if you’re spending INR 2,000 to acquire a customer worth INR 1,500, it’s still a loss. So, identify that customer value first.

• Customer lifetime value (CLV): Take the long view. One fintech client’s Facebook ads brought in more volume, but LinkedIn customers stayed longer and spent three times more. So, it is a no-brainer where the money went?

And in case you are wondering what good ROMI looks like, let me break it down for you. 5:1 ROMI is a sweet spot; enough for overhead, enough to grow. 10:1 ROMI sounds great, but it often means you’re under-investing. It also means you’re leaving growth on the table.

And lastly, 2:1 ROMI is break-even territory. After salaries, tools, and taxes you’re probably losing money.

Your ROMI targets should shift based on objectives. For brand awareness, 3:1 might be enough. For direct response, push for 7:1 or more.

When it ROMI, do as the marketers do

Start by auditing your tracking setup. Most teams in India capture less than half of the actual journey.

Next, tag everything. UTM codes, event tracking, funnel mapping. Yes, it’s tedious, but it’s foundational. The next step is setting up the baseline, and then optimise.

You can track ROMI by channel. Test different attribution models and then continuously. Most teams that do this will see 25–30% efficiency gains in just a few months.

At the same time, there are some common mistakes that you can avoid. For starters, don’t indulge in short-term thinking. Not every campaign pays off in 30 days and brand building takes time.

Opt for equal weighting. Instagram story views are not equal to high-intent Google searches. So, don’t treat them like they are.

Also, check for bad data because garbage in will result garbage out. If your tracking is broken, your ROMI will lie to you.

Traditional ROI was made for a different era, when people saw a print ad, walked into a store, and bought something. That world is gone.

Contemporary Indian consumers are multitasking across Instagram reels, WhatsApp chats, YouTube tutorials, and late-night Google searches. If your measurement model ignores 90% of that journey, it’s not just inaccurate, it’s dangerous.

Companies that embrace ROMI aren’t just getting better numbers. They’re making better decisions. They’re shifting budgets to what actually works, doubling down on what drives value, and building stronger relationships with their customers.

Everyone else? They’re guessing. And in a chaotic, competitive market like India, guesswork is a luxury you can’t afford.

- Poonam Prahlad, Co-founder, BornHi