So you’ve run a marketing campaign. Maybe it’s email, ads, or a bunch of LinkedIn posts. Now you’re staring at a dozen dashboards, wondering: Did any of this actually work? If you want to move beyond “it feels like we did okay,” and actually track real ROI, this guide’s for you.
We’ll walk through how to use Thecompaniesapi analytics to track, measure, and—yes—actually understand your campaign ROI. No mystery metrics, no vague uplift claims, just straight-up tracking that helps you decide what to do next.
Why Tracking ROI Isn’t Just a Checkbox
Let’s get one thing out of the way: measuring ROI isn’t about impressing your boss with a fancy number. It’s about knowing what’s working so you can stop wasting time and money. If you’re using Thecompaniesapi, you’ll get company-level analytics—so you can see which businesses are engaging, not just which random people clicked a link. That’s far more useful if you do B2B marketing.
But here’s the other truth: no tool (including Thecompaniesapi) is magic. You need to set up tracking right and actually check the data. Otherwise, you’re just playing with pretty charts.
Ready to get practical? Let’s get into it.
Step 1: Define What “ROI” Actually Means for Your Campaign
Before you touch a dashboard, get clear on what you’re measuring. ROI is “return on investment,” but what counts as a “return” depends on your goals.
Ask yourself: - Is it leads generated? (And are those real leads, or just email addresses?) - Is it sales closed? - Is it demo requests, content downloads, or calls booked?
Pro tip:
Pick one primary metric. If you try to optimize for everything, you’ll optimize nothing.
What to ignore:
Vanity metrics. Pageviews and impressions are fine, but if they don’t tie to your business goals, don’t call it ROI.
Step 2: Set Up Thecompaniesapi Tracking Correctly
Now, let’s get the basics right. Thecompaniesapi works by identifying which companies visit your site and what they do there. If you haven’t set it up, you’re not measuring anything—so don’t skip this.
2.1. Install the Tracking Script
- Copy the JavaScript snippet from your Thecompaniesapi dashboard.
- Paste it right before the
</head>tag on every page you want to track. - Test it: Visit your site and check the real-time dashboard in Thecompaniesapi. If you see your own visit, it’s working.
Got a single-page app or a complicated setup?
Double-check documentation or talk to your developer. Tracking fragments or dynamic content can break things if you’re not careful.
2.2. Set Up Conversion Events
If you want to track more than just visits, set up conversion events. These might be: - Contact form submissions - Demo bookings - Downloads
You can usually fire a custom event using the API or by triggering it in your site’s code on key actions.
Honest take:
Don’t overcomplicate this. Start with the bare minimum (like a “lead submitted” event). You can always add more later.
Step 3: Tag Your Campaigns (or You’ll Regret It Later)
If you’re running email, ads, or social campaigns, you need to know where your visitors came from. This is where UTM parameters come in.
3.1. Use UTM Parameters Everywhere
- Add UTM parameters to your links (e.g.,
?utm_source=linkedin&utm_campaign=april-promo) - Make sure each channel and campaign is unique, so you can tell them apart in your analytics.
Why bother?
Without UTM tags, all your traffic blurs together. You’ll never know if that spike in visits was from your email or that expensive ad campaign.
Pro tip:
Keep a spreadsheet of your UTM codes. Randomly naming campaigns leads to a mess you’ll hate in three months.
Step 4: Connect Revenue (or Lead Value) to Your Analytics
Pageviews don’t pay the bills. You want to connect what happens on your site to actual revenue—or at least a lead value.
4.1. Integrate with Your CRM or Sales Pipeline
- Sync Thecompaniesapi with your CRM if possible (some platforms have built-in integrations or Zapier support).
- If there’s no native integration, export company-level leads from Thecompaniesapi and import into your CRM manually.
- Assign values to leads: You don’t need to be perfect, but estimate what a qualified lead is worth to you.
Caveat:
Attribution is never perfect. Some people will fall through the cracks. That’s fine—just don’t pretend your numbers are more precise than they are.
4.2. Map Conversions to Revenue
If you can, tie each conversion event to actual deals closed. This is the gold standard for ROI. Otherwise, use average deal size or lead value as a stand-in.
Step 5: Analyze Campaign Performance in Thecompaniesapi
Now the fun part: see what worked (and what didn’t).
5.1. Filter by Campaign and Source
- In Thecompaniesapi’s analytics dashboard, filter visitors by UTM parameters and campaign tags.
- Look for which companies engaged with your campaign content—and which ones converted.
5.2. Compare to Baseline
- Don’t just look at total numbers. Compare campaign periods to your baseline (what happens without a campaign).
- Identify which campaigns actually drove new, qualified companies—not just more noise.
5.3. Slice by Company Size, Industry, etc.
- Thecompaniesapi can show you firmographic data: size, industry, location.
- If your campaign only brought in tiny companies you don’t sell to, that’s a red flag.
- Focus on quality over quantity.
What to ignore:
Don’t obsess over every blip in traffic. Look for consistent patterns, not one-off spikes.
Step 6: Calculate ROI—For Real
Here’s the formula, stripped down:
ROI = (Revenue Attributed to Campaign – Cost of Campaign) / Cost of Campaign
6.1. Plug in Your Numbers
- Revenue Attributed to Campaign: Use actual closed deals if you can. Otherwise, use estimated lead value.
- Cost of Campaign: Add up all costs—ad spend, software, creative, even your own time if you want to be honest.
6.2. Don’t Fake Precision
- Round your numbers. ROI is directional, not an exact science.
- If your ROI is negative, don’t sugarcoat it. That’s a lesson, not a failure.
Step 7: Rinse, Repeat, and Actually Act on the Data
The best part of tracking ROI is using what you learn.
After each campaign: - Kill what didn’t work. - Double down on what did. - Adjust your messaging, targeting, or channels based on what the data tells you.
Pro tip:
Most companies spend too much time “analyzing” and not enough time acting. Don’t be that company.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What actually works: - Tracking a single, meaningful conversion event - Using UTMs religiously - Looking at company-level data, not just raw traffic
What doesn’t work: - Chasing vanity metrics - Overcomplicating your setup - Pretending attribution is perfect
What to ignore: - Industry benchmarks (your mileage will vary) - Fancy dashboard features you’ll never use - Endless “analysis paralysis”
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
Tracking campaign ROI isn’t rocket science, but it does take discipline and some setup. Thecompaniesapi makes B2B tracking easier, but it won’t do the thinking for you.
Start small, get your basics right, and treat every campaign as a learning opportunity. Keep your setup simple and improve it as you go. The goal isn’t a perfect dashboard—it’s knowing what to do next.
Now get tracking, and don’t let another “pretty good” campaign go unmeasured.