Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)
01 Definition
Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) meaning: Total revenue divided by total marketing spend across all channels in a period.
MER compares all revenue in a period to all marketing spend in that period, without tying revenue to specific ads. It gives a channel neutral view of efficiency, which helps when attribution is unreliable. Unlike ROAS, it does not credit individual campaigns.
Also called
Why it matters
How Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) fits the work
It offers a simple, attribution free read on whether marketing spend as a whole is driving revenue, useful when tracking and cookies fall short.
In context
A brand earned 500,000 dollars in revenue on 100,000 dollars of total marketing spend, for an MER of 5.
Practical note
MER cannot tell you which channel worked, and revenue may include sales marketing did not cause. Use it alongside, not instead of, channel level metrics.