The Challenge

Better Rhodes had a real measurement problem masquerading as a performance problem. Their campaigns were being evaluated on ROAS alone — a metric that looked fine on paper but was masking true profitability, especially as they expanded into Canada. Their paid channels weren’t optimized for blended business efficiency, and scaling into a new market without the right north-star metric was bleeding margin.

What We Did

We replaced ROAS as the primary KPI with MER — Marketing Efficiency Ratio — a blended measure of total revenue divided by total ad spend across all channels. This shift immediately changed how we made decisions: instead of optimizing individual campaigns in isolation, we started optimizing the full system.

For Canada, we didn’t just port over what was working in the US. We tested market-specific creative angles and geo-targeted regions separately, discovering that Canadian audiences responded to entirely different messaging. The approach that drove 61% YoY growth in the US needed meaningful adaptation before it would work north of the border.

We ran Meta ads as the primary acquisition engine paired with Google PMAX for intent capture, constantly feeding learnings between markets to accelerate testing velocity. Every creative iteration was evaluated against its MER contribution, not just its isolated ROAS.

The Results

• 6.38 MER in Canada — efficient blended return on every dollar spent in a new market
• 5.95 MER in USA — sustained profitability across an established channel mix
• 61% YoY revenue growth in USA — driven by ~$1.2M in incremental annual revenue

The Takeaway

If you’re optimizing for ROAS, you’re optimizing for the wrong thing. MER gives you the full picture of how paid media is contributing to your business — and it’s the only metric that scales with you as you add channels and enter new markets.