Measuring sponsorship ROI is one of the most common challenges brands face and one of the biggest reasons good sponsorships don’t get renewed. If you can’t clearly show the value you delivered, it becomes harder to justify the spend, even if the partnership felt like a success.
The good news? Measuring sponsorship ROI doesn’t have to be complicated. You’re probably already tracking more than you think. The key is knowing what to measure, how to connect it to business outcomes, and how to communicate it clearly to stakeholders. Here’s how we teach brands to do exactly that.
What Is Sponsorship ROI?
Sponsorship ROI (return on investment) is a way to measure the value a brand gets from a sponsorship deal compared to what they put in. It’s not just about tracking sales or clicks. ROI in sponsorship often includes things like increased brand awareness, stronger audience engagement, lead generation, or even improved brand perception.
Different sponsors have different goals, so ROI can look different for each one. The key is tying the sponsorship activity back to clear, measurable objectives. When you can do that, you’re not just reporting numbers you’re proving value in a way that makes sponsors want to renew.
Here’s How We Teach Brands To Measure Their Sponsorships
Sponsoring a sports team, charity, event, or organisation that aligns with your audience can be a powerful addition to your marketing mix.
But when budgets tighten, sponsorship is often the first to face scrutiny. Management starts asking for proof of ROI, and suddenly your budget’s on the chopping block, while the sales team claims, “we bring in money; you spend it.”
It’s no surprise. Sponsorship can feel intangible if it’s not backed by the right metrics.
So how do you defend your spend? and even grow it? Let’s look at how to measure sponsorship ROI and protect your place in the budget.
1. Know your attribution metrics
To measure sponsorship effectively, start by understanding the attribution metrics that drive your business outcomes.
For example, a car brand might know that test drives and dealership visits lead to sales — maybe 1 in 10 test drives converts to a purchase. A food brand may tie product success to how many samples reach customers. A subscription service might track trial sign-ups, knowing that 20% convert to paying users.
Other examples include customer satisfaction from surveys, staff retention from internal feedback, or brand love measured through reputation scores or recall studies. Even email marketing relies on open and click-through rates to gauge impact.
Every business goal has attribution metrics behind it, otherwise, how would you measure success?
Once you identify which metrics matter, use sponsorship to influence them. Then compare those results with your traditional marketing efforts. You’ll often find that sponsorship can outperform standard campaigns when done well.
And when your sponsorship directly supports the metrics tied to real business goals, you have a strong, numbers-backed case to protect and even grow your sponsorship budget.
2. Focus on Return on Objectives, Not Just Revenue
If you look at sponsorship purely as a transaction “we paid $xx, so we need $xx in direct sales” you’ll struggle to show a clear return.
Not all business goals are tied to immediate sales. Think about staff motivation, product adoption, customer satisfaction, or client retention. These are just as important, yet harder to track through a traditional ROI lens.
That’s why focusing solely on return on investment instead of return on objectives can be limiting and often leads to disappointment.
Using the attribution methods outlined earlier, you can start connecting sponsorship to actual business goals. Whether it’s attracting top talent, driving online sales, or retaining clients, your sponsorship strategy should align with those objectives.
For example, say one of your goals is to boost online sales. You know that having accurate customer contact details helps better targeting leads to better results. So, you run a sponsorship promotion offering free tickets in exchange for updated info. A thousand customers respond, and if each one is worth $50 more per year, that’s a $50,000 impact.
You didn’t sell through the sports team. You used sponsorship to influence a key business driver. And the best part? It’s measurable.
That’s how you turn sponsorship into something that directly supports and proves business value.
3. Leverage Metrics You’re Already Tracking
Chances are, your company is already tracking plenty of marketing outcomes through standard channels.
In our experience, backed by multiple studies, sponsorship initiatives often outperform traditional brand or product campaigns. That’s one of the many reasons we’re big advocates for sponsorship.
A smart move is to compare the results of sponsorship activities against your regular marketing efforts. Here are a few ideas to start with:
– Email: Compare open and engagement rates from sponsorship-related emails vs standard campaigns.
– Social Media: Measure engagement on sponsorship posts vs regular branded content.
– Customer Value: Look at share of wallet from customers who engage with sponsored content vs those who don’t.
– Product Sales: Compare sponsored product versions (e.g. All Blacks beer) vs standard versions.
– Retention & Satisfaction: Track whether customers or staff involved in sponsorship activations have higher satisfaction or retention rates.
You don’t have to stop here. Get creative and if these metrics don’t exist yet, build them. Measuring is the first step to proving the impact.
4. Conduct experiments
If you’re reading this thinking, “Yeah, that’s great… if we actually did any of this,” you’re not alone.
The truth is, none of the techniques mentioned above existed until someone decided to create them. That someone could be you. (Hint hint.)
If your business isn’t ready to go all-in just yet, start small. Run some experiments.
Don’t have benchmarks? Set one. Was the target too easy? Raise it. Too ambitious? Adjust it. That’s how you improve over time.
Never compared sponsorship emails to branded emails? Try it with a small sample.
Never tracked satisfaction rates for customers or staff? Test it.
Never launched a sponsorship-branded product? Give it a go.
The point is: get creative. The best way to win internal budget conversations is with data — not feelings. When you tie your sponsorships back to measurable business objectives, you’ve got something that’s hard to argue with.
So next time Dennis or Cathy from sales chime in with their usual, “We bring in revenue, you just spend it,” you’ll be ready. With real numbers, clear results and a silent, satisfying “smug face” of your own.
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