MER (Gross Sales): Marketing Efficiency on Gross Revenue

MER (Gross Sales) measures what percentage of your gross order sales is spent on advertising—marketing efficiency before discounts and refunds.

Formula

MER (Gross Sales) = ( Total Ad Spend ÷ Gross Order Sales ) × 100

Formula Components

Metric	Definition
Total Ad Spend	Combined spend across all advertising platforms
Gross Revenue	Order revenue before discounts and refunds

Metadata
Type	Percentage
Data Source	Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads
Aggregation	Ratio

Example

Your Shopify store spent $20,000 on ads and generated $200,000 in gross sales.

Component	Value	Calculation
Ad Spend	$20,000	Total advertising
Gross Sales	$200,000	Before discounts
MER (Gross)	10%	$20,000 ÷ $200,000 × 100

How It Works

MER (Gross Sales) uses gross revenue before discounts and refunds are applied. This shows marketing efficiency against your top-line sales number. Lower is better—a 10% MER means you spend 10 cents to generate every dollar of gross sales.

When to Use

Scenario	Action
Tracking top-line efficiency	Monitor MER against gross revenue
Comparing to net MER	See how discounts impact efficiency
Benchmarking	Compare against industry gross MER standards
Budget planning	Set spend limits based on gross revenue targets

Metric	Relationship
MER	MER using total revenue
MER (Net Sales)	MER using net revenue
Gross Revenue	Revenue base for calculation

See all Performance metrics →

⌘I

​Formula

​Formula Components

​Example

​How It Works

​When to Use

​Related Metrics

Formula

Formula Components

Example

How It Works

When to Use

Related Metrics