Polar makes it easy to track contribution margin by channel and campaign, as long as the Polar Pixel is installed on your store and the necessary data sources are connected. This guide walks you through how contribution margin is calculated in Polar and how to apply it at the campaign level.
Contribution Margin Metrics in Polar
Polar provides four out-of-the-box Contribution Margin (CM) metrics, plus percentage versions for easier comparison and visualization.
CM1: Net Sales – Total Costs (Shopify Product Costs + Google Sheet Costs)
CM2: Net Sales – Total Costs – Expenses
CM3: Net Sales – Total Costs – Ad Spend
CM4: Net Sales – Total Costs – Ad Spend – Expenses
Where:
Net Sales = Gross Sales – Discounts – Returns (automatically imported from Shopify)
Total Costs = Shopify Product Costs (imported automatically from Shopify if available) + Google Sheet COGs (this is a manual import - see How to Import Costs to Polar)
Expenses = Imported via Google Sheet (see the template here for How to Import Expenses into Polar)
Ad Spend = Automatically imported & blended from connected ad platforms
Prerequisites:
Before analyzing Contribution Margin by Campaign, make sure the following are set up:
Polar Pixel installed on your store.
Shopify connected to bring in sales and product cost data.
Google Sheet imports set up for any additional costs or expenses.
Ad platforms connected to automatically sync spend.
Viewing Contribution Margin by Campaign
Go to the Reports or Attribution section in Polar.
Add your desired Contribution Margin metric (CM1, CM2, CM3, or CM4, or the percentage version).
Apply the Campaign or Channel breakdown (or both).
Polar will use Polar Pixel attribution to match Net Sales from each campaign with the associated costs, giving you a clear view of contribution margin at the campaign level.
Example Use Case:
If you select CM3 and apply the Campaign breakdown, you’ll see:
Net Sales attributed to each campaign
Minus product costs and other costs
Minus ad spend from the connected ad platform
This shows you the profitability of each campaign, beyond just revenue.