Both Google and Meta have built low-cost, open-source marketing mix modelling tools, and Google rewards internal teams for driving adoption of its Meridian solution. Handing your independent measurement to a company that sells ads is a conflict worth naming.
A free measurement tool from the company selling you the ads is not free. You pay for it in whose channel gets the credit.
Marketing mix modelling is having a moment as marketers look for measurement that survives the death of cookies and the mess of cross-channel attribution. AdExchanger raises the question that matters most when you pick one. Should your MMM tool be built by a company that also sells you ads?
Both Google and Meta have released open-source, low-cost MMM tools. Google has bet heavily on its Meridian solution and reportedly rewards internal teams for getting marketers to adopt it. The pitch is compelling, sophisticated measurement at little to no software cost.
Here is the conflict, and it is not new. Marketers have complained for years that Google and Meta take credit for conversions that actually happened after a TV spot, an out-of-home campaign or a dozen other touchpoints. An MMM built by an ad seller has a structural reason to make its own channel look good. That does not make the tool useless. It makes independence something you have to think about, not assume.
Why it matters
MMM is meant to be the neutral referee that tells you what your whole media mix actually did, especially the channels that resist click tracking like TV, radio and outdoor. The moment the referee is employed by one of the teams, the neutrality is worth questioning. For Australian marketers investing in cross-channel measurement, the choice of who builds the model is not a technical footnote. It shapes which channels get the credit and therefore where your next budget goes.
Both Google and Meta now offer their own low-cost MMM tools to the marketers who buy their ads. Source: AdExchanger.
What to do about it
Name the conflict before you adopt. A free tool from an ad seller is a commercial decision, not just a technical one.
Sanity-check the output. If your MMM keeps crediting the vendor's own channel, treat that as a flag, not a finding.
Consider genuine independence. A neutral MMM costs more and is worth it when the results decide millions in spend.
Feed it clean, complete data. Any model is only as honest as the inputs, and the offline channels are the ones easiest to leave out.
Measurement decides where your money goes. Make sure the thing doing the measuring is not quietly on commission.