Marketing mix modeling agency vs software: what each offers, and how to choose
An MMM agency or consultancy builds and runs the model for you; MMM software gives your own team a platform to build, refresh and use models. An agency suits businesses that want the work done; software suits teams that want to own the measurement.
Many businesses use both. A third option, the media agency that buys the ads offering to measure them, raises a separate question about independence.
What a marketing mix modeling agency does
- What it delivers: each channel's contribution, response curves and a recommended budget split.
- How it is sold: a project, often once or twice a year, or a retainer with refreshes.
- Trade: experienced analysts' judgement, but the model lives with the agency and runs on its schedule.
- Providers vary: econometrics consultancies, media agency analytics teams, and data companies.
What marketing mix modeling software does
- What it does: connects to ad and sales systems, refreshes models, and plans scenarios and budgets.
- Support varies: self-serve, or with vendor analysts; some include experiment design and calibration.
- Strength: ownership and speed, without waiting for a project cycle.
- Requirement: someone in-house with the time and skill to use it.
- Cadence: a refreshing model can be consulted before each budget change.
When the media agency measures its own work
- The arrangement: an agency reporting on media it recommended evaluates its own work. That says nothing about intentions.
- When it matters: a result has to convince finance or a board.
- The safeguard: the client's team, a consultancy or a client-controlled platform can inspect and rerun the model.
The differences, dimension by dimension
- Who does the work: the agency's analysts, or your team.
- Cadence: agency, often quarterly or annually; software, as often as the data allows.
- Assumptions: agency, visible if it shares them; software, adjustable where the platform allows.
- Skills in-house: enough to question findings, or enough to run the model.
- Cost: project fees or a retainer, or a subscription plus internal time.
- Continuity: the model sits with the agency, or with the business.
Who should audit the measurement
- The test: can a reviewer see the specification, who set the assumptions, past fit and raw outputs?
- Agencies vary: some share the full model, others only the findings.
- Software exposes what the platform allows.
- Quick check: in a demo or pitch, ask to see an assumption and change it.
Questions to ask an MMM agency
- Can we see the specification and assumptions, and who sets them?
- How often is it refreshed, and at what cost? A yearly model is out of date most of the year.
- How are experiments used? Calibration with geo or lift tests holds up better.
- What do we keep if we leave? Data, outputs and settings, agreed at the start.
- Is the agency also buying our media? Then agree an independent check.
Questions to ask an MMM software vendor
- How much of the work does our team do? From setup to interpretation.
- Can we see and change the assumptions, and export the outputs?
- How are experiments handled? Run in the platform, accepted as inputs, or not supported.
- What support is included, and for how long?
- Can an agency partner use it on our behalf?
What neither option fixes
- Data: enough history and spend movement per channel, whoever builds it.
- Causality: experiments separate a channel that drove demand from one that moved with it.
- Use: findings have to arrive when budgets are set, in the planners' terms.
How to choose
- No analytics capacity, an annual question, or complex data: an agency or consultancy.
- An analyst who can run it, and a need for frequent answers: software.
- Keep the agency, own the model: software run by the agency for you.
- Your media agency offers to measure its own work: agree first how someone else will check the method.
Cassandra, on the software side, also does the work: an AI marketing brain for growth teams, with a Bayesian marketing mix model checked by live geo experiments. For agencies, a marketing brain for every client, under the agency's brand.
Moving from an agency to software
- Ask the agency for its data, outputs and settings: faster setup and a reference point.
- Run the new model on the last study's period and compare channel by channel.
- Name the day-to-day owner first: a platform nobody has time to own goes unused.
- Keep the agency as an adviser for the first cycle, working on your platform.
Questions
What does a marketing mix modeling agency do?
It builds and runs a model on the business's data and delivers each channel's contribution, response curves and a budget split, as a project or retainer.
Which vendors are best for marketing mix modeling?
It depends on the model of service. Consultancies do the work; software suits teams that want to own the model. Our best-of page lists five platforms and the criterion used to choose them.
Should our media agency measure our marketing?
It can, provided someone else can inspect the method and reproduce the result, because an agency that buys the media and measures it is evaluating its own recommendations.
Is MMM software cheaper than an agency?
Often over time, because the cost is a subscription rather than analyst time per project. It also needs internal time to run, which should be counted.
Can an agency use MMM software for us?
Yes. Many businesses keep the model on a platform they control and have an agency or consultancy run the work on it.