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MER AND BLENDED EFFICIENCY CALCULATOR

Channel return arguments dig trenches. Blended efficiency asks a calmer question: for the revenue you are willing to count, what did you spend across paid media, and is that getting better or worse? Enter the period and get the ratio, the mix and the words to say in the room.

How it works

  1. Name the period and say which revenue you are counting. The definition is the argument, so write it down.
  2. Enter revenue and total paid media spend for the same period.
  3. Add the prior period if you want a direction, and channel rows if you want the mix.
  4. Read the meeting copy as written. It says what the number is and what it is not.

Calculate blended efficiency

Written on the output so nobody can quietly reinterpret it later. For example: online store revenue, new business closed, bookings.

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Channel rows (optional)

Spend is enough. Platform reported revenue is optional and stays labelled as platform reported, because it is not additive to your store or CRM revenue.

Nothing you enter here leaves your browser. Close the page and it is gone.

Your blended figures and the meeting copy will appear here.

Read the meeting copy as written, including the caveats. If the argument you are actually in is about marketing-sourced pipeline rather than paid spend against revenue, the pipeline contribution calculator is the right one.

A planning aid, not financial, tax or investment advice. Definitions of revenue differ between businesses and this tool uses the one you typed. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.

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If you would rather have this done with you than to you, this is the work I do. See services

Why blended ends the argument

Every platform reports the revenue it believes it caused, and the sum of those claims is always larger than what the business actually took. That is not dishonesty, it is overlapping attribution windows, and no amount of arguing in a meeting resolves it. Blended efficiency sidesteps the argument by using one revenue figure the business already agrees on and one spend figure, then leaves the channel question to tests rather than to whoever presents most confidently.

What it cannot tell you

It cannot tell you which channel to cut. Promotions, seasonality and price changes move the ratio more than most media decisions, and none of them are modelled here. One period is not a trend and three is the minimum before anyone changes strategy on it. Where the argument is about marketing-sourced pipeline instead of paid spend against revenue, the pipeline contribution calculator is the right tool.

COMMON QUESTIONS

What does MER mean here?

Marketing efficiency ratio: the revenue you chose to count divided by paid media spend for the same period. The output shows it both ways, and prints the definition you typed.

Is platform return on ad spend wrong?

It is incomplete for a budget decision. It stays optional here, labelled as platform reported, and it is never added together across channels because that overstates what the business took.

Does it replace the pipeline calculator?

No. Use pipeline contribution when the argument is about marketing-sourced pipeline. Use this when the argument is paid spend against revenue.

Is this marketing mix modelling?

No. Mix modelling isolates channel effects statistically over long periods. This divides two numbers and says so.