By Vivian Reifschneider
17. Februar 2023

What is Marketing Mix Modeling? Understanding the Basics of MMM

What is Marketing Mix Modeling? Understanding the Basics of MMM

Have you ever wondered how to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing spend? With marketing mix modeling (MMM), you can gain valuable insights to determine which specific channels and advertising campaigns are working best for your brand so that you could make smarter data-driven decisions when allocating marketing budgets. And there are even more benefits. Let’s dive in!

Content:

What is Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)?

Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is a powerful tool used to measure and analyze the effectiveness of marketing activities. It helps companies understand how their marketing investments influence their target KPIs, identify which marketing activities are most effective, and accurately predict future performance. MMM enables marketers to optimize their marketing mix in order to get the maximum return on their marketing investments.

Definition Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)
Marketing Mix Modeling is a type of statistical analysis involving multiple influencing factors, aiming to estimate the impact of the marketing mix on the target KPI. The goal is to forecast the results of future campaigns, reallocate marketing budgets and optimize the media mix to maximize the target metric.

Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is a data-driven statistical analysis technique. Data scientists develop advanced multivariate statistical models that analyze the contribution of numerous drivers to target KPIs.

To put it simply, Marketing Mix Modeling is an essential tool for marketers looking to get the most out of their campaigns. It helps better understand how different elements of the marketing strategy such as advertising, social media, and promotions are working together with external factors, e.g. weather, seasonality, or competitors' activity.

By measuring the impact of each marketing activity on the ROI, businesses can make smarter decisions which marketing activities to invest in and which ones to cut. The goal is to forecast the impact of future campaigns, reallocate marketing budgets and optimize the media mix and promotional tactics in order to maximize the target KPI, e.g. sales revenue or profit.

Which target KPIs could be optimized with MMM?

  • Sales revenue
  • Conversions
  • Transactions
  • App installs or Downloads
  • Registrations
  • Leads

Why should marketers use Marketing Mix Modeling?

Marketing Mix Modeling is an essential tool for marketers who like taking data-driven decisions based on valuable insights, aiming to refine the marketing strategy for optimal results.

With an MMM solution, marketers can identify the most effective channels that contribute to sales, ROI, or other target KPIs. Based on this, they can make better decisions about media budget allocation and refine their marketing mix in order to maximize the ROI.

With this technology, marketers can also gain a clear understanding of the effectiveness of their campaigns. As a result, they can use the insights provided by these solutions when building new or refining existing campaigns to ensure their success. Additionally, marketers can also measure the short-term and long-term effects that campaigns generate.

MMM also helps understand the impact of external factors such as the macro- and microeconomic environment, competition, and seasonality on the target KPI.

What are the benefits of Marketing Mix Modeling?

  • Develop an understanding of what influences the target KPI
  • Optimize current and future marketing campaigns
  • Allocate budgets efficiently across the media mix

What are the limitations of Marketing Mix Modeling?

While MMM is an immensely useful tool for marketers, it comes with a few limitations.

Firstly, the accuracy of the results heavily depends on the data quality and completeness of the dataset used. If the data is inaccurate or incomplete, the output of the analysis might be distorted. The time series length of the data set is also important. To get a high-quality model, data from the last few months is not enough. Depending on the model, an average of three years of data may be sufficient.

It's also important to take all (or at least most) relevant factors into account. For example, if we are modeling sales of ice cream and don't take the weather into account, the model's accuracy will always be inferior.

Additionally, modeling techniques are only as good as the software and algorithms used for analysis. If these are not updated frequently, marketers may see subpar performance compared to models using more advanced methods driven by recent machine learning developments, or sophisticated approaches like bayesian modeling.

How to build a Marketing Mix Model?

Step 1 - Define the objectives: The first step of Marketing Mix Modeling is defining the objectives relevant to your business. You should consider what success will look like in terms of profitability and sales.

Step 2 - Collect data: Before you get started with Marketing Mix Modeling, you need to collect enough data to measure the outcomes accurately. This data should include sales figures, competitor activity, media variables (both contacts e.g. reach or impressions, and spend), promotions, and external factors like weather, inflation rate, and holidays as well. Using this data, you'll be able to identify trends and create insights about your own business performance.

MMT_What variables should be analyzed for Marketing Mix Modeling MMM


Step 3 - Analyze data: Now it's time for the analysis of all the data collected previously. This process usually involves running different regression algorithms such as simple linear models or multiple regressions in order to isolate the impact of each component of the marketing mix on sales or profitability in specific markets or regions.

Step 4 - Determine the impact of activities: Using the results of the analysis, marketers can now test various hypotheses related to their campaigns without having to make any actual changes. This process helps determine which activities are effective and which ones are not, so the marketers can refine their budgets even further with optimization techniques to maximize the effectiveness and ROI across channels

Step 5 - Generate insights: Marketing Mix Modeling allows marketers to generate high-level insights into how they can optimize their activities in order to generate more leads or increase conversions at a lower cost per acquisition (CPA).

Step 6 - Monitor & adjust strategies: After analyzing the impact of individual factors on the target KPI, it’s important for marketers who do this type of modeling to follow up on its performance by monitoring campaigns against corresponding goals and metrics over time on a regular basis so they know whether their strategies are achieving the desired results or need adjustment as conditions change.

Step 7 - Reassess the objectives: Finally, once the results of these strategies have been tracked over a certain period of time, one should reassess their original goals and objectives based on recent performance metrics so that accurate forecasts of marketing ROI and growth possibilities can be made going forward to support executives and stakeholders in the decision-making process.

How MMT can help you
If you are interested in setting up a marketing mix model for your company and would like to benefit from the advantages outlined in this article, we would be happy to support you in this process, either as a consultant or with our Self-Service Marketing Mix Modeling Software, depending on your needs and available expertise.

Conclusion

Marketing mix modeling is a powerful tool for measuring and optimizing the performance of marketing activities. With efficient marketing mix modeling, marketers can gain valuable insights into their advertising campaigns and make informed decisions based on the data. The potential impact of marketing mix modeling is huge, and it is a must-have tool for any marketer who wants to maximize the value of their marketing campaigns.

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