A step-by-step guide to calibrating marketing mix models with experiments

Harpreet Patter, Igor Skokan, Gufeng Zhou, Will Shepherd and Arturo Esquerra

Calibration is the process of aligning marketing mix modeling (MMM) with a causal, ground-truth measurement such as experiments.

1. Understanding the importance of calibration

The ability to accurately measure the incremental impact of all marketing and non-marketing activities is crucial for informed decision making. Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), a decades-old technique, has re-emerged as a popular approach to estimating incrementality and quantifying the effectiveness of various channels due its holistic nature, as well as flexibility, robustness and customizability.

To minimize human bias and ensure accuracy, reliability and validity of MMM, calibration plays a vital role. Calibration is the process of aligning the model with a causal, ground-truth measurement such as experiments. Experiments are the practitioner’s fundamental tool for...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands