Google reports surge in marketers adopting Marketing Mix Models for cross-channel campaign evaluation

Google's Meridian aims to guide teams towards their future goals and will eventually be widely available.

Because of fragmented media consumption and privacy changes, marketers are using Marketing Mix Models (MMMs) more often to assess the overall value of their cross-channel media campaigns, according to a blog on Google.

According to Kantar research, 58% of US advertisers plan to use MMMs in the future, while 60% of advertisers now use them. A growing number of clients, particularly performance and full-funnel marketers, are using MMMs.

In response, Meridian, an open-source MMM, is being released, enabling teams to create MMMs that are best in class and improve business results.

Introducing Meridian, our new open-source Marketing Mix Model (MMM)! We built Meridian to unlock advanced, privacy-durable measurement that meets the needs of today's marketers. Learn more ↓ https://t.co/kvf00uNXNv

— Google Ads (@GoogleAds) March 7, 2024

It's designed to reach advertisers where they are and provide advanced measurement that is privacy-durable simultaneously. Meridian rests on:

Innovation

Meridian is introducing a strategy to increase the accuracy, relevance, and analytical rigour of multimedia marketing messaging (MMMs). These include measuring guidelines unique to search channels, calibration for incrementality experiments, and integration of reach and frequency.

Transparency

Meridian is an open-sourced system that makes its creative techniques and code available for anybody to evaluate. It allows users to change code and model parameters to meet their business needs, just like modelling clay. Meridian offers consumers a starting point from which they can expand and improve.

Education

Meridian users will have access to a range of installation and usage resources, including technical documentation, answers to commonly asked questions, and channels for contacting Google and partner support for open issues.

Actionability

It offers cross-channel budget optimisation, modelling guidance, and better data inputs for marketers. To create models, it offers YouTube reach, frequency, and indexed Google query-volume data. To facilitate cross-channel media allocation with an eye toward the future, users can perform scenario planning and budget optimisations.

According to a study by Deloitte, a British multinational professional services network, C-level executives are more likely to surpass revenue targets by 10% or more if they give priority to marketing mix modelling. Meridian is designed to use data exchange and innovation to guide teams toward their future North Star. Meridian is currently only available to marketers and data scientists, but it eventually intends to become widely available.