Business results aren’t unlocked by playing it safe or stacking up siloed data. At Ovative, we use triangulation, the practice of using multiple measurement methods to create a more accurate, reliable view of performance. It’s our power move that transforms scattered metrics into meaningful decisions.  

By fusing modeling, platform attribution, first-party data, and experimentation, we cut through the chaos and zero in on what drives results. Forget treating data as isolated—our approach collides perspectives, sources, and methods, delivering clarity where it matters most. When performance demands answers, triangulation turns uncertainty into action—clear, confident, and ready to drive real growth. 

But First, Testing—Your Blueprint for Smarter Decisions

Too many marketers get lost chasing a sea of metrics—confusing movement for progress and adding noise instead of clarity. The real edge isn’t in collecting more data—it’s in applying a disciplined testing mindset that keeps measurement sharp and actionable.  

At Ovative, testing is our foundation: it builds structure, sets the rules, and ensures every metric serves a purpose. Rather than drowning in numbers, we use a testing approach to zero in on what matters and turn triangulation into business-driving results. Through a testing mindset, we can: 

• Develop specific hypotheses 

• Define success 

• Isolate variables 

• Synthesize clear learnings 

Testing is the engine that powers intentional measurement, enabling metrics to work together and help you act with clarity and confidence. 

Harnessing the Components of Triangulation

Triangulation isn’t about safe bets—it’s about fusing four measurement heavyweights for long-term trends, real-time campaign data, customer insights, and high-confidence validation. Together, they turn uncertainty into complete, actionable clarity. 

So, it’s critical for us to understand the strengths—and gaps—of each. 

1. Modeling

Modeling, such as Media Mix Modeling (MMM), is the anchor of triangulation—it muscles scattered data into smart strategy. MMMs bring a statistically rigorous perspective, revealing medium and long-term trends and how different touchpoints work together to influence outcomes. 

• Pros: Accurate, holistic, and cross-comparable 

• Cons: Ineffective with real-time feedback and granular insights 

2. Platform Attribution

Platform attribution is your rapid-fire source of campaign truth—giving channel managers fast, actionable results.  

But don’t be fooled: every platform engineers metrics to boost its own story and overstate its impact. Plus, platforms are siloed and disconnected.  

• Pros: Speed of optimization, providing directional trends 

• Cons: Unrepresentative of true incremental impact 

3. First-Party Data

First-party data is your unfiltered backstage pass to the state of business, providing insight into real customer interactions and trends from CRM sources of truth. It’s the most authentic signal in a post-cookie world, giving you a pulse on behaviors, intent, and outcomes that’s impossible to fake.  

But that power comes with blind spots: when first-party data stands alone, it’s often fragmented, underleveraged, and can miss the bigger picture of how media channels shape results.  

• Pros: A holistic representation of business impact 

• Cons: Hard to receive, action on, and correlate media changes to first-party results 

4. Experimentation

Experimentation is the ultimate reality check in your measurement arsenal—the tool that slices straight through uncertainty. With geo-based designs, list-based splits, and conversion lift studies, experiments prove exactly what works and what doesn’t, locking down cause and effect with high-confidence results.  

• Pros: True incremental measurement with transparency 

• Cons: Resource-intensive and only highlights a point in time 

Testing Meta’s Omnichannel Ads with Triangulation

As an official Meta Measurement Partner, Ovative teamed up with Meta to assess the real-world impact of its Omnichannel Ads beta: a new approach designed to drive total business outcomes across online and offline channels. The product introduced enhancements across optimization, creative, audience targeting, formats, and automation to better support omnichannel conversion objectives. 

Our hypothesis? Running Meta’s Omnichannel Ads would lead to a holistic lift in both in-store and total omni sales among exposed audiences compared to control groups. 

Triangulation in Action

To test this hypothesis, we applied a structured, triangulated measurement framework grounded in experimentation and advanced analytics. We compared Omnichannel Ads to Business-as-Usual (BAU) executions across two distinct audience cells. Our approach integrated experimentation and two forms of modeling. 

Experimentation: Meta Conversion Lift (CVL)

This platform-run experiment isolated the causal impact of Meta media on incremental sales. The Meta CVL test setup for our measurement approach had two test cells, lasted 4+ weeks, and took into consideration 2-4 weeks of cool-down time. 

• Test cell 1 leveraged the new Omnichannel Ads optimization tactic, which allows brands to optimize for both store and website purchases in one campaign 

• Test cell 2 represented BAU campaigns, which ranged from Advantage+ Shopping to standard web conversion or Dynamic Ads for Broad Audience (DABA) campaigns. 

Modeling: Bottom-Up Incrementality

MTA modeling, available through Ovative’s EMRge™ Unified Model, analyzed granular performance drivers and reassigned credit more accurately across user journeys.  

The data tracked granular store and ecommerce campaign performance throughout the test flight and a three-week cooldown period to capture lagged conversions. After the cooldown period, our experts compared the trended and aggregated incremental store, ecommerce, and omni revenue driven by both test and control campaigns and incremental ROAS (iROAS).  This enabled a validation of the Meta Conversion Lift test result, necessary given challenges with offline data fidelity in-platform.  

Modeling: Top-Down Incrementality

Our MMM modeling, available through Ovative’s EMRge™Modern MMM+, validated results using macro trends and long-term omni sales drivers.  

Total media spend for the specific sub-channel was modeled using our Modern MMM+. Our experts then evaluated the performance of that sub-channel on a weekly basis, comparing efficiency changes from before and after the implementation of Omnichannel Ads relative to last year, ultimately isolating the efficiency gains from the new optimization tactic. 

The Initial Results of Meta’s Omnichannel Ads

Results varied based on each brand’s channel mix. Store-dominant clients, like Five Below, saw positive omni performance where gains in store sales more than offset ecommerce declines. In contrast, brands with more balanced ecommerce and store revenue splits experienced net declines, as store lift could not fully counter e-commerce losses.  

Triangulation didn’t just reveal the results of Meta’s Omnichannel Ads—it uncovered why it happened, arming our experts with insights to leverage the tool across our client set and validating outcomes with multiple data points. 

Unlock Clarity with Triangulation

Chasing a single measurement strategy—relying on fast-but-flawed platform data or clinging to modeling alone—will leave you trapped by blind spots and half-truths. By fusing modeling, platform attribution, first-party data, and experimentation within a strategic testing framework, you’ll trade guesswork for real clarity. 

Need help getting started? Our measurement teams are well-versed in triangulated measurement. Partner with Ovative to power business decisions with holistic, actionable measurement.