Quick answer. RCS ROI is the incremental revenue RCS generates minus its cost, divided by its cost. To estimate it: take your audience size, multiply by RCS delivery rate, then by the click-through rate, then by conversion rate and average order value to get revenue; subtract the all-in RCS cost (messages + carrier fees + platform fee + taxes). Because RCS click-through commonly runs 15–30% versus low single digits for SMS, the incremental revenue side is usually large relative to the modest per-message premium.
A simple worked example (illustrative): send a rich RCS offer to 50,000 opted-in contacts. At a 20% click-through and a 3% conversion on a $40 average order, that's 50,000 × 20% × 3% × $40 = $12,000 in attributable revenue. If the all-in cost of that send (messages + carrier fees + share of platform fee + taxes) is, say, $1,500, ROI = ($12,000 − $1,500) / $1,500 ≈ 7x. Swap in your own rates and rates of response to size it for your program.
The levers that move ROI most are click-through and conversion (where RCS's rich, branded format helps) and redemption for offers/loyalty. SimplyRCS will run this math for you, send us your volume and audience and we'll return an itemized cost and ROI estimate. Get an estimate →
Key facts
- ROI = (incremental revenue − all-in RCS cost) / all-in RCS cost.
- Revenue ≈ audience × delivery rate × CTR × conversion × AOV; RCS CTR commonly 15–30% vs low single digits for SMS.
- Include every cost layer (messages, carrier fees, platform, taxes) for an honest ROI, see Billing Transparency.