Our documentation ROI Calculator helps you quantify the potential business impact of improving your technical documentation. Here’s a detailed guide to help you understand each metric and provide accurate inputs.
Getting started
- Gather your current documentation metrics
- Use realistic, conservative estimates
- Consider both direct and indirect costs
- Include all stakeholder time investments
What you will submit
Before diving into the metrics, let’s understand the input data that powers our ROI calculator:
| Input Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Content Creation Costs | The investment in creating documentation content, including writer fees, design, and video production. |
| Content Distribution Costs | The cost of distributing and promoting your documentation, including tools and promotion. |
| Implementation Cost | The cost of implementing a new documentation system or modernizing your existing solution. |
| Team Time Investment | The number of hours your team will spend on the documentation project. |
| Hourly Rate | The average hourly rate of team members working on documentation. |
| Annual Support Ticket Deflection | The number of support tickets you expect to eliminate annually through improved documentation. |
| Existing Traffic | Your current monthly traffic to your website or documentation pages. |
| Increase in Conversion Rate | The percentage point increase in conversion you expect from improved documentation (e.g., from 2% to 2.5% = 0.5%). |
| Customer Lifetime Value | The average revenue generated from a customer during their entire relationship with your business. |
| Customer Acquisition Cost | The average cost of acquiring a new customer. |
Need help gathering these metrics? Contact us for a free consultation to help identify your documentation ROI potential.
What you will get
Our calculator estimates impact across several key areas:
- Customer experience
- Business performance
The report you receive will include:
- Core financial analysis
- Customer acquisition analysis
- Traffic and conversion analysis
- Customer experience analysis
- Support and operational analysis
- Documentation effectiveness analysis
- Customized recommendations
Core financial analysis
These metrics provide the foundation of your documentation ROI analysis:
Total investment
Definition: The total cost of your documentation modernization project.
Formula: Content Creation Cost + Content Distribution Cost + Implementation Cost + (Team Time Investment × Hourly Rate)
Why it matters: Establishes the baseline for calculating ROI and determining how much value your documentation needs to generate.
Cost savings
Definition: The financial savings from reduced support load and improved operational efficiency.
Formula: (Annual Support Ticket Deflection × 0.5 hours × Hourly Rate) × 12 months
Why it matters: Quantifies the direct operational savings from having better documentation that prevents support tickets.
Projected revenue
Definition: Additional revenue generated through improved conversion rates.
Formula: Monthly Traffic × (Increase in Conversion Rate / 100) × Customer Lifetime Value
Why it matters: Shows the revenue impact of documentation on your customer acquisition and sales.
ROI percentage
Definition: The percentage return on your documentation investment.
Formula: ((Cost Savings + Projected Revenue - Total Investment) / Total Investment) × 100
Why it matters: Provides a standardized way to compare the return against other potential investments.
Break-even point
Definition: Number of months until your documentation investment is fully recovered.
Formula: Total Investment ÷ (Monthly Cost Savings + Monthly Projected Revenue)
Why it matters: Helps stakeholders understand the timeline for realizing the return on documentation investment.
Customer acquisition analysis
These metrics focus on how documentation impacts your customer acquisition efforts:
Improvement in customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Definition: The reduction in your cost to acquire a customer due to improved documentation.
Formula: Current CAC - (Current CAC ÷ (1 + Conversion Rate Increase))
Why it matters: Demonstrates how documentation can make your marketing spend more efficient by helping convert more prospects into customers.
Impact on customer lifetime value (CLV)
Definition: The increase in customer value due to better onboarding and engagement from improved documentation.
Formula: Current CLV × 8% (Average Retention Improvement)
Why it matters: Shows how documentation can help retain customers longer and increase their overall value to your business.
Projected new customers
Definition: Estimated additional monthly customers gained through improved conversion rates.
Formula: Monthly Traffic × (Increase in Conversion Rate / 100)
Why it matters: Quantifies the impact of documentation on your customer growth rate.
Traffic and conversion analysis
These metrics examine how documentation affects your traffic and conversion performance:
Projected traffic growth
Definition: Expected percentage increase in traffic due to improved documentation and SEO.
Formula: Estimated based on industry benchmarks (15% base improvement)
Why it matters: Better documentation improves SEO, drives referrals, and increases return visits.
Lead-to-customer conversion improvement
Definition: Projected improvement in your lead-to-customer conversion rate.
Formula: (12% base improvement + scaled investment factor) × 100
Why it matters: Documentation helps qualify leads better and moves them through the funnel more effectively.
Customer experience analysis
These metrics focus on how documentation enhances the customer experience:
Customer retention improvement
Definition: Projected increase in customer retention from better documentation.
Formula: 8% (Average retention improvement from documentation quality) × 100
Why it matters: Better documentation leads to better user adoption, reducing churn and increasing loyalty.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) growth
Definition: Expected percentage increase in average revenue per user.
Formula: (6% base growth + scaled content quality factor) × 100
Why it matters: When users can easily discover and use more features through documentation, they extract more value from your product.
Time saved per user
Definition: Minutes saved per user by finding information through documentation instead of contacting support.
Formula: 8 minutes (base time) × scaled content quality factor
Why it matters: Quantifies the user experience improvement by reducing friction in finding answers.
Support and operational analysis
These metrics measure the impact on your support team and operations:
Monthly ticket reduction
Definition: The number of support tickets eliminated monthly due to improved documentation.
Formula: Annual Support Ticket Deflection ÷ 12 months
Why it matters: Directly measures the reduction in support workload, allowing your team to focus on more complex issues.
Ticket reduction percentage
Definition: Percentage reduction in total support volume.
Formula: (Monthly Ticket Reduction ÷ Estimated Total Monthly Tickets) × 100
Why it matters: Contextualizes the ticket reduction relative to your overall support volume.
Operational efficiency gain
Definition: Hours saved monthly by your support team through reduced ticket volume.
Formula: Monthly Ticket Reduction × 0.5 hours (average resolution time)
Why it matters: Quantifies the time savings that can be redirected to other valuable activities.
Documentation effectiveness analysis
These metrics assess the effectiveness of your documentation:
Documentation engagement score
Definition: A composite score indicating the expected user engagement with your documentation.
Formula: (Quality Factor + Distribution Factor) × 10 (scaled to 0-100)
Why it matters: Provides a benchmark for measuring documentation quality and engagement potential.
Revenue per documentation visitor
Definition: Average revenue generated per visitor to your documentation.
Formula: Customer Lifetime Value × (Increase in Conversion Rate / 100)
Why it matters: Helps conceptualize documentation as a revenue-generating asset rather than just a cost center.
Note: This guide is based on the ROI calculation methodology used in our ROI calculator. All formulas and benchmarks are derived from industry research and our experience working with software companies on documentation modernization projects.
Our ROI calculator uses conservative estimates based on industry benchmarks, but your actual results may vary depending on your specific circumstances. For a personalized ROI analysis, book a call with our team.