Reference table
Multi-touch attribution vs marketing mix modeling vs incrementality
A side-by-side comparison of the three main ways to measure marketing: multi-touch attribution, marketing mix modeling and incrementality testing. It covers the unit of analysis, core technique, data each one needs, whether it handles offline and brand media, how it copes with identity loss, speed, whether the output is causal and how each typically fails. Use it to choose a measurement approach.
Where this appears
What's in this reference table
| Multi-touch attribution | Marketing mix modeling | Incrementality testing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit of analysis | The individual user journey | Aggregate spend and sales, usually weekly | A randomized or quasi-randomized group |
| Core technique | Rule-based or algorithmic credit splitting | Regression on time series, increasingly Bayesian | Randomized controlled trial, geo holdout, matched market |
| What it needs | User-level identity across touchpoints | 2-3 years of spend and sales history | Ability to withhold ads from a real group |
| Handles offline and brand media | No | Yes | Yes, with geo designs |
| Survives identity loss | Poorly | Yes | Yes |
| Speed to answer | Near real time | Weeks to months per refresh | Weeks per test, one question at a time |
| Is the output causal | No | Only under strong assumptions | Yes, within the tested population |
| Typical failure mode | Credits demand it did not create | Confounds correlated spend, opaque baseline | Underpowered, narrow, expensive |
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/mta-vs-mmm-vs-incrementality-comparison-table"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/mta-vs-mmm-vs-incrementality-comparison-table/mta-vs-mmm-vs-incrementality-comparison-table.png" alt="Table comparing multi-touch attribution, marketing mix modeling and incrementality testing on data needs, offline media, identity loss, speed and causality." width="1200" height="1035" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/mta-vs-mmm-vs-incrementality-comparison-table">Multi-touch attribution vs marketing mix modeling vs incrementality</a>, Koji</p>
