Marketers face increasing complexity in measuring the full value of their cross-channel media strategies, driven largely by fragmented media consumption and ongoing privacy changes. As advertisers search for comprehensive and privacy-durable measurement solutions, Marketing Mix Models (MMMs) are experiencing a renaissance. MMMs are statistical analyses that help companies measure the holistic impact of cross-channel marketing on key outcomes like sales. According to a study with Kantar, 60% of US advertisers are currently using MMMs, and 58% of those not using these models are considering doing so in the future. We have observed more customers turning to MMMs, especially performance and full-funnel marketers.

That’s why we’re increasing our investment in the future of MMMs. Today, we’re announcing Meridian, an open source MMM that empowers teams to build best-in-class MMMs and drive better business outcomes. It’s built to enable privacy-durable, advanced measurement while meeting marketers where they are. Meridian anchors on:

1. Innovation: Meridian will include methodology innovations to help make MMMs more accurate, actionable and analytically rigorous. Innovations at launch include calibration with incrementality experiments, reach and frequency incorporation to link outcomes with planning, and guidance on measuring search. These innovations will be applicable to all media channels that can provide the necessary inputs. We will continue to develop new methodology innovations to help marketers modernize their measurement strategies and maximize MMM’s value in planning and budgeting.
2. Transparency: By nature, as an open-sourced solution, Meridian will be completely transparent — anyone can evaluate the underlying code and methodology innovations. Meridian is designed to give the user control as any modeler is fully empowered to change the code and model parameters to meet their unique business needs. Think of Meridian as modeling clay: a starting point that allows users to iterate and develop further.
3. Actionability: Meridian will help marketers make more informed decisions by providing richer data inputs, offering modeling guidance aligned to the innovations, and enabling cross-channel budget optimization. We will provide YouTube reach and frequency and indexed Google query-volume data on top of other Google data inputs for model building. Users of Meridian will be able to run scenario planning and budget optimizations to support future-looking cross-channel media allocation.
4. Education: Meridian users will have access to a breadth of resources supporting implementation and use. We will provide comprehensive technical documentation, including a list of technical FAQs for troubleshooting. For some questions not addressed by existing documentation, users may have the opportunity to connect with Google and partner support for answers.

According to Deloitte measurement research, C-Level leaders that placed high importance on Marketing Mix Modeling were over 2X more likely to exceed revenue goals by 10% or more.

MMMs today are not perfect, but are evolving. With Meridian, we look to help your team navigate toward your future North Star, both through innovation, and by sharing our data in conjunction with an open source model. We welcome everyone to join us in this effort.

Meridian is currently offered in limited availability, with plans to offer general availability to all marketers and data scientists coming soon. You can sign up for and learn more about Meridian here.