Introduced last year in a restricted beta roll out, Google has opened up Meridian to the unwashed PPC masses.
What is Meridian Supposed to Solve?
Marketing attribution has never been more of a guessing game – especially with increasing privacy restrictions, evolving digital behaviors, and Googles boundless ambition to kill third party cookies. Google claims Meridian, built with Bayesian-based modeling, offers transparency, flexibility, and deeper insights into marketing effectiveness.
However, serious marketer skepticism is warranted. The search giant has a vested interest in shaping how marketers evaluate performance, and past tools have often nudged advertisers toward increased Google spend rather than true cross-channel optimization.
Claims vs. Real-World
- Open-Source and Customizable—But at What Cost?
- While Meridian offers open-source access, how practical is it for the average marketer to customize it? Unless you have a entire data science team, the bottom-line reality is that businesses will rely on Google’s interpretation of the data.
- Performance Measurement—Yet Google-Centric
- Google touts Meridian’s ability to measure cross-channel media, but how well does it handle non-Google ad spend, such as social media or programmatic buys? Past experience suggests that Google-driven tools often favor their own ecosystem. (GA4 much?)
- Privacy-Centric—Or Just Another Data Black Box?
- Meridian avoids user-level tracking, but this means marketers are still left with aggregated data. The lack of transparency on how data is weighted and adjusted raises concerns about the reliability of its outputs.
- Budget Optimization—Whoa Big Fella – For Who?
- Google’s claim that Meridian helps allocate budgets more effectively sounds great—until you consider the likelihood that it may subtly prioritize Google Ads over other platforms.
- Reach & Frequency Optimization—Or just another Broad Match Budget Slayer?
- The focus on reach and frequency is useful, but it assumes Google’s dataset can truly represent full consumer behavior. How well does this work when balancing cross-platform campaigns?
- Integration with Experiments—Yet More Google Data Reliance
- Google says Meridian integrates experimental data, but this relies on Google’s experiment methodology, which often limits transparency into non-Google channels.
Forgive us for being skeptical, but the pain of Amp Pages, and AdWords forced Broad Match are fresh in our memory. Especially in light of Google drive to eliminate Affiliate programs (erm, I mean Third party Cookies)
As the CEO and founder of Pubcon Inc., Brett Tabke has been instrumental in shaping the landscape of online marketing and search engine optimization. His journey in the computer industry has spanned over three decades and has made him a pioneering force behind digital evolution. Full Bio
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