Anyone here tracked ROI in dating marketing

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So, I’ve been messing around with dating marketing for a while, and one thing that always confused me was how to actually see if the campaigns were paying off. Like sure, you can look at clicks and impressions, but at the end of the day, if the money going in is more than the money coming out, then what’s the point, right?

I remember when I first started, I thought ROI tracking was just about checking ad spend against conversions. Simple math, I figured. But once you get into dating campaigns, it’s not that straightforward. The traffic is different, user intent varies a lot, and some networks love to throw inflated numbers your way that don’t always turn into real sign-ups or paying users.

The pain point for me was figuring out what really counts as ROI. Like, do you measure sign-ups, actual paid members, or just engagement? For example, I once ran a push campaign that gave me hundreds of sign-ups in a week. Looked amazing on paper. But when I checked a month later, only a tiny fraction stayed active, and barely any upgraded to paid. So technically, my “ROI” was way lower than I thought. That was a hard lesson.

What I started doing was breaking ROI into smaller checkpoints instead of one big number. First checkpoint: did the ad bring real, active people (not bots)? Second: how many of those people interacted beyond just signing up? Third: did they actually pay or subscribe? Tracking at these levels helped me avoid the “vanity metrics” trap, where everything looks good upfront but doesn’t add up later.

Another thing I noticed is that the network you choose makes a big difference. Some dating networks give you transparent tracking tools, while others just feed you generic reports. I used to trust the reports blindly, but now I always back them up with my own tracking links or simple spreadsheets. It sounds old-school, but even jotting down spend vs. returns in Google Sheets gave me a clearer picture.

There was also the whole issue of time. ROI in dating isn’t instant. You might not see the return the same day or even the same week. I had a campaign where users came in slow, but retention was super strong. The ROI looked poor at first, but by the third month, it actually outperformed my “quick win” campaigns. Patience is something I wish I had more of in the beginning.

For anyone starting out, I’d suggest keeping things simple at first. Don’t drown in ten different tools. Just track spend, track sign-ups, and track how many of those turn into paid users. Once you’re comfortable, then you can dive into fancier stuff like user lifetime value and retention curves.

One resource I found super handy was this blog I stumbled across that broke things down in a way that actually made sense without all the buzzwords. If anyone’s curious, here’s the link: Track ROI in Dating Marketing Campaigns. It basically confirmed a lot of the trial-and-error stuff I was already doing, which was reassuring.

At the end of the day, ROI in dating marketing is kind of a balancing act. You don’t want to obsess over every cent, but you also don’t want to run blind. I’d say test small, track honestly, and learn from the data even when it’s disappointing. Some campaigns will flop, and that’s fine—what matters is spotting patterns so you don’t repeat the same mistakes.

Anyway, that’s been my take on it. Curious how others here track ROI—do you guys go deep with fancy analytics, or just stick to the basics like me?