How to communicate marketing ROI to a non-marketing board

Clear communication of marketing Return on Investment (ROI) to a board without marketing backgrounds is critical for gaining support, demonstrating value, and securing future budgets. While marketing ROI is the key metric most boards demand, especially among larger organisations, the challenge lies in translating marketing data into business impact that they understand.

1. Start from their world, not yours

Board members don’t wake up wondering about CPMs or MQLs. They care about business outcomes: profit, growth, customer numbers, and competitive advantage. So don’t begin your presentation with “Our engagement rate went up 4.2%.” That’s a bit like a pilot saying, “We took off really well,” without confirming where the plane landed.

Instead:

• Lead with commercial results. Marketing should be framed as a growth lever, not a cost centre.
• Use financial language. “For every £1 we spent, we made £3.80” sounds infinitely more convincing than “Our campaign achieved a 27% uplift in brand consideration.”

2. Simplify, ruthlessly

Marketing ROI, like many things in life (wine, electric vehicles, relationships), can be made unnecessarily complex. Please don’t do it.

Give them the cleanest version possible:

• ROI = Return ÷ Investment. Say it. Then show it.
• Only include metrics that matter. If it doesn’t move the business dial, leave it out.
• Banish jargon. Don’t say “customer cohorts”; say “people who actually buy things.”

Remember: if you confuse, you lose.

3. Tell a story, not a spreadsheet

People don’t remember numbers, they remember narratives. You’re not just reporting results; you’re telling the tale of how marketing turned money into more money (with a few heroic struggles and unexpected villains along the way).

Make it tangible:

• Link activity to clear business goals (e.g. “This campaign helped us gain 3,000 new customers in a market we were losing.”)
• Separate short-term wins (quick sales boosts) from long-term bets (brand-building). Both matter, but in different ways.
• Compare with past performance or competitors to show not just what happened, but how impressive it was.

4. Embrace candour

Contrary to popular belief, admitting something didn’t work doesn’t weaken your case. It strengthens it. Boards are more likely to trust a marketer who shares the rough with the smooth than one who insists everything was perfect all the time (it wasn’t).

So:

• Say what flopped, and what you’ve learned.
• Show what’s being optimised.
• Invite their take. They’ve likely seen a dozen business cycles; some of their input might even be useful.

5. Visuals, visuals, visuals

Tables full of tiny numbers are a form of cruelty. Use visuals.

• Pie charts, funnel diagrams, and simple before-and-after graphs. Not 12-tab Excel files in 7pt font.
• Maps of the customer journey help humanise the data.
• Simple visual metaphors, like seeing a leaky bucket or a growing tree, can anchor abstract concepts in something memorable.

6. Marketing is not a cost. It’s an investment in future cash flow

This is the crux:

Marketing isn’t just about this quarter’s sales, it’s about laying the psychological groundwork for next quarter’s purchase decisions. It builds reputation, trust, and distinctiveness, all of which compound over time like interest. And if you don’t invest now, your competitors will.

As the great Jeremy Bullmore once said:

“Brands are built not by what people buy, but by what they remember.”

So, yes, show the ROI, but also remind the board that marketing is one of the few tools in the business that builds future optionality. It’s the difference between selling and being chosen.

Your role isn’t just to prove marketing works. It’s to frame it in a way that makes the board say, “Ah, now I see the value. Let’s do more of that.”