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MER Calculator

Marketing Efficiency Ratio, the truth metric.

Total revenue ÷ total marketing spend. The number that survives iOS 17 attribution loss and tells you if marketing is actually working.

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Total business revenue in the period — not just attributed
Marketing spend breakdown
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MER = Revenue ÷ Total Marketing Spend
5.00×
Marketing Efficiency Ratio
$500,000
Total revenue
$100,000
Total mkt spend
20%
Spend as % of rev
$400,000
Net contribution
Healthy — most DTC brands target 3-5× MER.

Why MER beats ROAS in 2026

ROAS measures channel-attributed revenue against channel spend. After iOS 17 + 18 broke click-through attribution for ~30% of users, platform ROAS overstates by 20-40% depending on vertical. MER bypasses attribution entirely — it just asks: did all marketing dollars produce more revenue than they cost?

2026 MER benchmarks by stage

2-3×Early-stage DTC (scaling, brand-build phase)
3-5×Growth DTC ($1M-$20M ARR)
5-8×Mature DTC ($20M+ ARR)
4-7×Local services (lead gen)
3-5×SaaS (B2B, post-PMF)
6-12×High-margin info / coaching

What to include in marketing spend

How to use MER strategically

Track MER weekly. A falling MER over 4 weeks signals one of three things: spend grew faster than revenue (over-spending), creative fatigue (no new variants), or customer mix shifted (more cold, less repeat). The fix differs for each. We diagnose this on every free audit.

Pair MER with channel-level ROAS for full visibility. Open ROAS Calculator →

Want us to diagnose your MER?

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