Reading

What we're reading.

Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) and measurement writing from around the industry, curated weekly. Each entry links to the source, with one line on why it's worth your time. Filter by topic.

8 items
1 July 2026 Why Powerful ML Is Deceptively Easy — Part 2 This technical examination of data leakage explains why model accuracy is often overstated, offering practitioners specific criteria to challenge the validity of results derived from complex machine learning architectures. methodsdatapractice Towards Data Science 29 June 2026 The Model Was Right. The Data Was Not. This technical walkthrough demonstrates how omitting price and promotion variables leads to inflated marketing return on investment (ROI), offering a clear case for why data quality often matters more than model architecture. datamethodspractice Medium · MMM tag 28 June 2026 I Pitted XGBoost Against Logistic Regression on 358 Matches. The Boring Model Won. The data comes from sports betting, but a simple model beating XGBoost on 358 matches is a useful parallel for the small datasets typical of marketing measurement. methodspractice Towards Data Science 22 June 2026 Binet: Think big like investors to avoid the returns death spiral This summary of Les Binet’s recent talk provides clear arguments for practitioners needing to justify long-term brand investment to finance partners focused on immediate attribution. practice The Australian 22 June 2026 More Controls Isn’t Always Better: Choosing the Right Ones for Your Business A useful technical reminder that adding more control variables can introduce bias rather than remove it – a sound basis for challenging a model specification. Written by a software vendor. methodspractice Recast 20 June 2026 The Great MMM Comeback Is Half a Lie An assessment of the risks in automated, black-box modelling tools that put speed ahead of causal rigour – worth reading before your next vendor demo. vendorspracticetools Medium · MMM tag 15 June 2026 Counterfactuals: A Practitioner’s Guide A rigorous technical breakdown of counterfactual construction and propensity score matching, with code for applying it in incrementality testing. Written by a software vendor. methodsincrementalitypractice Recast 11 June 2026 (Almost) Everybody Hates MMMs Worth reading for its account of why models so often fail to move budgets: what the analysis delivers rarely matches what executives need to decide. practicevendors Substack