In marketing campaigns, costs are tracked to calculate metrics such as Net Revenue, Cost per Thousand, Revenue per Thousand and Return on Investment. The cost of a campaign includes the overall operational costs of the campaign and the individual costs of each "package" that is sent.
Operational costs
Operational costs include any items that are applied to the entire marketing effort, such as:
■ Paper
■ Printing
■ Letter shopping
You can track these costs at the appeal or source code level. In a basic campaign, you will probably define few source codes. In this case, it is effective to track operational costs at the source code level.
However, you may choose to track operational costs at the appeal level if you are managing a complex campaign with dozens or hundreds of source codes.
Package costs
Package costs include any items that are applied to the actual insert or package, such as:
■ Postage
■ Outer envelope
■ Business reply envelope
■ Business reply device
■ Telemarketing costs
These costs are tracked at the source code level.