Marketing Spend Analysis Overview Marketing spend is typically the largest variable cost in a DTC ecommerce business — often 15–40% of revenue. Unlike most costs, marketing spend is directly controllable in near-real-time: you can increase or decrease budgets on paid channels within minutes. This creates both opportunity (scale what works) and risk (waste capital on what does not). The core goal is to maximize total contribution profit from your marketing investment — not just revenue. A channel with high ROAS but thin margins, high return rates, or low AOV may generate less actual profit tha…