Merlin · Managed Ad Profitability Desk

Know which ads are actually profitable.

Merlin combines ad spend, orders, COGS, discounts, refunds, shipping, fees, and other variable costs to show contribution by channel, campaign, ad, and funnel, then tells you what to scale, cut, or fix.

Request a Profitability Check →

One existing report. One cost model. No new dashboard to learn.

Keep Triple Whale, Polar, Ads Manager, or your spreadsheet. Merlin replaces the manual stitching and maintains the operating read.

ShopifyReconciled

AmazonReconciled

Meta18m delayed

EmailCurrent

InventoryCurrent

Collected revenue$84,620After discounts + refunds

COGS + variable costs$46,500Product + shipping + fees

Paid-media spend$14,280Meta + Google

Contribution after ads$23,84028.2% of collected revenue

Break-even ROAS2.22xCurrent first-order cost model

Morning read

Paid acquisition cleared the blended profit gate. Contribution after marketing remains positive under the current cost model.
Meta deserves a controlled increase. Its commerce-matched contribution stayed above the approved hold line.
Google needs a funnel inspection. Purchase volume held while contribution per order compressed.

MetaScale carefully$8,420$51,800$17,120

GoogleInspect funnel$5,860$32,820$6,720

Paid total$14,280$84,620$23,840

Website sessions12,480

100%

Added to cart1,124

9.0%

Reached checkout612

4.9%

Purchases339

2.7%

Why the weekly report still feels incomplete

The platforms show revenue. The operator needs profit.

Merlin closes the gap between seeing attributed sales and knowing whether the business should keep buying that traffic.

01 · Revenue is not profit

ROAS can look healthy while the order loses money.

Ad platforms report attributed revenue. They do not know your full COGS, discounts, refunds, shipping subsidy, fees, and other variable costs.

02 · Manual reconciliation

The profit answer lives in a spreadsheet.

Someone still has to combine ad spend, orders, costs, and funnel performance every day or week before the team can trust the result.

03 · No next move

A report without a decision is unfinished.

Merlin turns the reconciled economics into a clear operating read: what to scale, what to cut, what to fix, and what still needs more evidence.

What the Profitability Desk owns

The profit decision, assembled and maintained for you.

The value is not another ROAS chart. It is having one accountable owner combine campaign performance with contribution economics and keep the decision current.

Reconcile spend and orders

Bring Shopify, Amazon, paid channels, website events, and finance inputs into one governed reporting workflow.

Apply the real cost model

Define collected revenue, COGS, discounts, refunds, shipping, fees, and every variable expense that changes contribution.

Show contribution by decision level

See profitability by channel, campaign, ad, and funnel where the available attribution supports that level of detail.

Deliver the scale, cut, or fix read

Receive the daily or weekly brief, KPI pacing, exceptions, and managed repairs without rebuilding the spreadsheet.

A low-friction first step

Start with a fifteen-minute Profitability Check.

Bring the report you use to judge ads and the place you keep COGS or variable costs. We will identify the first blind spot between reported revenue and an actionable profit decision.

Progressive commitment

01 · Request the fifteen-minute checkTell us where you currently see ad performance and where you keep COGS or variable expenses.
02 · We inspect one live reporting pathShare the current report, spreadsheet, or screen. No account connection is required for the first conversation.
03 · We return the profitability blind spotYou get the missing cost, attribution gap, or manual handoff that most weakens the current scale, cut, or fix decision.
04 · White-glove installationIf the gap is worth fixing, we connect the sources, define the economics, and operate the profitability workflow.

You choose the easiest starting point

Share the current report on screen
Forward one report you already receive
Authorize a guided read-only connection

Request the Profitability Check

Where does the profit answer break down?

Paid-client proof

The underlying reporting workflow is already running.

An anonymized ecommerce client system already reconciles company-specific KPIs, Shopify and Amazon reporting, paid-channel diagnostics, daily and weekly delivery, and source exceptions.

That proves we can operate the reporting workflow. It does not imply a universal performance, ROAS, or profit lift.

EconomicsCompany-specific definitions

CommerceShopify + Amazon

Decision layerDaily + weekly operating read

ExceptionsSource health + backfills

InventoryStockout-risk alerts

Keep your stack

Merlin sits between the tools and the profit decision.

Triple Whale, Polar, Ads Manager, spreadsheets, and finance systems can stay. Merlin reconciles the overlaps, applies the cost model, and owns the scale, cut, or fix read.

Triple WhalePolarSpreadsheetsSource platforms

Merlin Profitability DeskCosts · attribution rules · reconciliation

Scale · cut · fixOne governed operating decision

Fit

Best for operators spending money without a clean profit read.

Good fit

Paid acquisition is already active
COGS and variable costs exist but live elsewhere
Performance is reconciled in a daily or weekly spreadsheet
The team cannot confidently say what to scale, cut, or fix

Probably not yet

You are not running paid acquisition yet
You do not know product or variable costs
You only want campaign management or new creatives
You want a guaranteed profit or ROAS lift

One place to start

Find the first gap between reported revenue and real contribution.

Fifteen minutes. Bring one report and the cost inputs you already use. We will show you the first profitability blind spot worth fixing.