ABC Costing for Program Costs, Good or Bad Idea?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am currently trying to come up with a way to cost the different types of programs (email nuturing, webinars, etc) that we run and would appreciate any tips or recommendations.

Right now, direct costs can easily be associated with a program, for example: cost of webinar provider, creative, etc. and can be added to the program costs in marketo. However, licensing costs, database cap, list purchases, marketer hours, etc are just being added then divided by the number of programs or time. Given that not all programs are the same, I feel that program costs are being under and over stated.

I was considering using ABC costing to come up with a more exact method of costing and using the # of records in the database and man hours for cost assignment rates.

Any thoughts?

[Josh_Hill13]

Hi Monica,

I suppose you could do that. I find it difficult to do more than the direct costs involved. If you want marketo to do everything, then you should get the Financial pkg so it can include overhead costs better.

I attribute list purchases to the program intended.

[Anonymous]

This is complicated but worth doing if you want to get the right perspective on email and content programs.

One cost to consider: how many prospects unsubscribe from any given email?  This should be added as a cost to the email program or they will still underreport the cost.

Typical email program

• Cost: 0
• Revenue: $$$
• ROI: Awesome!

Email with cost of overhead

• Cost: $
• Revenue: $$$
• ROI: Great!

Email with overhead cost and unsubscribe:

• Cost: $$$$
• Revenue: $$$
• ROI: Horrible!