Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)

Often called "Blended ROAS," MER measures the total efficiency of your marketing ecosystem by comparing total revenue to total marketing spend.

How to Calculate MER

MER = Total Revenue / Total Marketing Spend

MER vs. ROAS

While ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) looks at specific channels (e.g., Facebook ROAS), MER looks at the business as a whole.

ROAS (Micro)

Subject to attribution errors, cookie blocking, and cross-device signal loss. Good for day-to-day ad optimization.

MER (Macro)

The source of truth. It tells you if your marketing dollars are actually printing profit, regardless of which channel claims the credit.

What is a good MER?

A "good" MER depends on your margins:

• 3.0 (300%): Standard target for high-growth ecommerce.
• 4.0+ (400%): Highly profitable, usually implies strong organic/branded traffic.
• Below 2.0: Dangerous territory unless you have very high LTV or venture backing.

Related Benchmarks

ROAS Benchmarks Return on Ad Spend data

Frequently Asked Questions

By Benchmarketing Research Team Reviewed by Performance Marketing Editorial Reviewed March 2026 · observations Q1 2023 – Q4 2024