Google’s new open-source MMM solution
Introducing Google Meridian
Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is a discipline to measure Media efficiency. It uses data to measure how marketing activities impact revenue and KPIs. It's privacy-safe by using aggregated data with no individual user info - a cookie-less solution. Meridian is a product from Google which is highly customizable, handles different levels of input data, and provides reports & scenarios to inform on marketing decisions. It can even incorporate experiments and reach/frequency data for better results. With the MMM Tool Meridian questions like the following can be answered:
- What is the impact of marketing channels and activities on sales or revenue?
- What is the return on investment (ROI) per marketing channel?
- How can marketing budget allocation be optimized for the future?
Digitl is an official Google certified Meridian Partner
Digitl is officially certified partner of Google Meridian. Our proven expertise in MMM combined with Meridian's powerful AI capabilities allows us to deliver insights and results for our clients.
We leverage MMM with Meridian to help businesses:
- Optimize marketing spend: Understand the true impact of every marketing spend for all marketing activities and allocate budgets effectively.
- Drive better ROI: Achieve a higher return on investment through data-driven marketing strategies.
- Gain a competitive edge: Make informed decisions based on a deeper understanding of marketing performance.
How Meridian works
Meridian simplifies Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) with a clear three-part framework:
1. Data
1. Data
Gather your marketing data (spend, impressions, etc.), sales data, and any external factors (like economic indicators or seasonality). Meridian can handle granular, geo-level data for deeper insights.
2. Model
2. Model
Build a customized MMM with Meridian's flexible options . Incorporate your prior knowledge, account for saturation and lag effects, and even use reach and frequency data. Meridian uses Bayesian statistics for robust and accurate modeling.
3. Insights
3. Insights
Get clear, actionable insights from your MMM. Meridian provides reports, visualizations, and optimization recommendations to guide your marketing budget allocation and strategy. Explore "what-if" scenarios to understand the potential impact of different decisions.
Why using Meridian
Open Source
Meridian MMM is an open-source solution developed by Google that allows businesses to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. It uses aggregate data and statistical modeling to assess the impact of various marketing channels on business outcomes, such as sales or conversions.
Overall, Meridian MMM offers a valuable solution for businesses looking to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns while respecting user privacy. Its open-source nature, transparency, and customization options make it a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes.
Key Considerations
- Privacy-centric approach: Meridian MMM prioritizes user privacy and does not rely on individual user data or cookies. It leverages aggregated and anonymized data, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.
- Transparency and customization: As an open-source tool, Meridian MMM provides transparency into its methodology and allows businesses to customize the model to their specific needs. This flexibility enables businesses to tailor the model to their unique data and industry dynamics.
- Comprehensive measurement: Meridian MMM enables businesses to measure the impact of various marketing channels, including digital and offline channels, providing a holistic view of marketing effectiveness.
- Improved ROI: By understanding the effectiveness of different marketing channels, businesses can optimize their marketing budget allocation and improve their return on investment.
- Data-driven decision-making: Meridian MMM provides businesses with data-driven insights into marketing performance, enabling them to make informed decisions about future marketing strategies.
Meridian Data Integration
Meridian MMM Data Platform for easy Data Gathering
Data can easily be integrated - especially for Google products and marketing channels. The Google MMM Data Platform is a privacy-preserving platform designed to help advertisers understand the effectiveness of their marketing efforts across various channels. It uses aggregated and anonymized data, ensuring user privacy while providing valuable insights.
- Comprehensive data integration: Combines data from various sources, including Google Ads, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360, and Campaign Manager 360, as well as offline data like TV and print.
- Privacy-safe environment: Based on aggregated media data to respect user privacy. What is the impact of marketing channels and activities on sales or revenue?
Easy Access to Google Data
Easy Access to Google DataThis media data is accessable via MMM data platform per default: Google Ads, Display & Video 360, YouTube (via DV360), Google Query Volume
Cloud-agnostic
Cloud-agnosticMeridian can be used with all three hyper-scaler: Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure
Works with Digitl Cloud Connector
Works with Digitl Cloud ConnectorThe Digitl Cloud Connector can help to gather all other marketing data from different sources (e.g. Teads, Meta, Pinterest), store them in a BigQuery table and make the data accessible for Meridian MMMs.
Integrating Google Query Volume (GQV) Google Query Volume (GQV) is a data source within Google Meridian that helps marketers accurately measure the impact of their paid search campaigns. Here's how it works:
- Understanding GQV: GQV represents the number of times people search for specific keywords on Google. It reflects the overall interest in a product or service.
- GQV as a Control Variable: In Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), GQV is used as a control variable to isolate the true impact of paid search advertising. This is because external factors (like seasonality or trends) can influence both search volume and sales, making it difficult to determine the actual contribution of paid search.
- Accurate Evaluation with Meridian: By incorporating GQV data, Meridian can more accurately attribute sales to paid search campaigns, separating the effects of advertising from organic search interest.
Clear Insights & Reportings
The channel contribution charts make it is easy to understand the revenue and sales drivers. Whereas the charts referring to the return on investment (ROI) help to understand how specific media activities impacted revenue or sales. The ROI can be compared across channels.
There are further charts and findings for each channel, such as the response curves per marketing channel and e.g. information on optimum frequency capping for each available channel.
The outcome of the optimizations give guidance how to adopt future budget planning in terms of optimal budget share and what it means in terms of change in optimized spend for each channel. As a final result, the optimized incremental revenue can also be provided across all channels.
“With its innovative methodology, transparency and actionability, Meridian empowers companies to build best-in class MMM models for optimized budget allocation. Especially, the Google MMM data platform with access to data such as Google Query Volume is a huge advantage of Meridian”
Dr. Tim Hasenpusch
Managing Partner Digitl
Dr. Tim Hasenpusch
Managing Partner Digitl
“With its innovative methodology, transparency and actionability, Meridian empowers companies to build best-in class MMM models for optimized budget allocation. Especially, the Google MMM data platform with access to data such as Google Query Volume is a huge advantage of Meridian”