Multi-Touch Attribution vs. Marketing Mix Modelling: What’s the Difference?

One of the toughest challenges marketers face today is to prove the impact of their campaigns. With countless touchpoints influencing a customer’s journey, the marketer might not be able to measure the conversions accurately. That's where tools like marketing mix modelling (MMM) and multi-touch attribution (MTA) come into play. 

While these two strategies follow quite different approaches, both address similar problems. In this guide, we will go over each model’s working, pros and cons to help you choose the right one for your marketing goals. 

What is Multi-Touch Attribution?

Multi-touch attribution (MTA) is a marketing measurement model that gives each touchpoint a value before conversion. Unlike first or last-touch models that give credit to only one interaction, the multi-touch attribution model gives partial credit to various channels. These channels can be social media, email marketing, and paid ads. Advertisers can gain a thorough understanding of the user journey and how various touchpoints affect conversions with the help of this approach. MTA utilizes user-level data for more precise campaign optimization and improved budget distribution across channels.

Pros and Cons of Multi-Touch Attribution

Pros:

1. Offers detailed user-level information on the user journey.

2. Helps in tracking high-impact and underperforming channels.

3. Helps with budget distribution, which increases ROI.

Cons:

1. Unable to track offline touchpoints.

2. Can be affected by data privacy regulations.

3. Implementation can be difficult and time-consuming. 

What is Marketing Mix Modeling?

Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is an analytical method used to measure how different marketing activities affect sales or other business outcomes. Unlike multi-touch attribution, MMM evaluates both online and offline channels such as TV, radio, print, promotions, and ads, using compiled data over a longer time. 

MMM helps advertisers use past data to understand which factors influence performance and how changes in the analysis affect the results. This analysis is useful for long-term strategy and budgeting, and evaluating campaign performance when user-level tracking is not available.

Pros and Cons of Marketing Mix Modeling

Pros:

1. Records both online and offline marketing activities.

2. Beneficial for budgeting and long-term planning.

3. Considers outside variables like seasonality or changes in the economy.

Cons:

1. Requires a significant amount of historical data.

2. Lacks real-time information to make immediate decisions.

3. Less detailed than user-level attribution.

The Differences Between MMM and MTA

Both multi-touch attribution and marketing mix modeling are effective tools for measuring the success of marketing campaigns, but they take very different routes of analysis. MMM uses historical data to analyze the effect of different marketing channels, including offline initiatives like TV, print, or outdoor advertising. It is ideal for privacy-friendly, and perfect for long-term strategic planning.

In contrast, multi-touch attribution keeps track of the customer’s unique journey, giving credit to each touchpoint of a user journey before conversion. It offers detailed real-time information that helps in optimizing campaigns immediately. 

Multi-touch attribution relies on a bottom-up, granular strategy, whereas marketing mix modelling is top-down and a big-picture view. Your objectives will determine which option works best for you, or if you have the capacity, combining both can provide a more detailed picture of marketing performance throughout the funnel.

When To Use Each Model?

Your marketing goals will determine whether you choose marketing mix modelling or multi-touch attribution. Take the following factors into account:

1. Your company’s objective.

2. Data availability and quality.

3. Time sensitivity.

4. The knowledge and resources you’ll need.

5. Budget and cost factors.

If your focus is precise, real-time data for digital performance marketing, use multi-touch attribution. Campaigns with numerous digital touchpoints, including social media, email, and paid ads, where user-level data is available, are best suited for it. MTA is the model to use if you want to increase conversion rates and optimize specific digital channels. With platforms like Trackier, it is simple to implement multi-touch attribution marketing to track the customer journey so you can make smarter, data-driven decisions. 

On the other hand, when working with offline media like print, radio, television, or in-store promotions, use marketing mix modelling. It works best for long-term planning, budgeting, and figuring out how effective your marketing mix is overall. 

In many cases, the most effective approach is to combine the two models, using MMM for strategic decision-making and MTA for strategic optimization.

Conclusion

While they serve different purposes, multi-touch attribution and marketing mix modelling both provide detailed insights about marketing performance. As data regulations continue to evolve, it's important to build your strategy with a privacy-first approach. 

While MMM assesses the effects of both offline and online channels, multi-touch marketing attribution is best for tracking user-level digital interactions. 

Understanding when and how to apply each model will help you make smarter choices, optimize ROI, and build campaigns that drive steady and measurable growth.