A website is an investment with running costs — and should make a measurable contribution. With the investment sum, running costs, visitor and conversion assumptions, it is possible to calculate how much revenue the website must contribute per year to pay for itself.
Frequently underestimated: over five years, the running costs (hosting, maintenance, content, updates) usually amount to several times the one-off investment. Anyone who only counts the build investment significantly flatters the business case. The honest comparison is five-year total cost against five-year contribution.
A B2B mid-sized company website with 3,000 monthly visitors and a 1.5% conversion rate to enquiry generates around 540 enquiries per year. At a 20% close rate and an average order value of €8,000, that is a good €860,000 in contributed revenue. Anyone at that level has a website that works.