Most link building campaigns start with a link cost conversation. Someone quotes a per-link price, a budget gets approved based on how many links that buys, and the campaign runs until the money runs out or the rankings move. The problem with this sequence is that it reverses the actual logic. The link budget should follow from the ROI target, not the other way around. Running the ROI calculation before you approve the first dollar of link spend is not a complicated analytical exercise. It takes less than 30 minutes and produces a number that tells you how much the campaign is worth spending - and when to stop. The Core Calculation Link building ROI comes from one thing: the revenue value of a ranking improvement. Start with a target keyword. Look at your current position and the position you want to reach. Use estimated click-through rates by position to calculate the traffic difference. Multiply by your visitor-to-lead or visitor-to-revenue conversion rate and the average value of a conversion.…