You Can’t Spell Attribution Without AI

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Business loves triangles
And pinwheels, too

From Drucker’s “cost-quality-time” triangle to Shaan Puri’s “Triangle of Talent,” marketers love a good three-point diagram.

Even HBO’s Silicon Valley couldn’t resist, parodying us with its Conjoined Triangles of Success.

And yet… we still hang those posters on the wall.

So let’s lean in.

Today, I’m sharing the most useful triangle in marketing—and how AI turns it from a static model into a spinny little flywheel that drives real growth.

The Modern Measurement Triangle

Three tools. Three purposes. One framework:

• Incrementality Tests → Prove your spend drives lift

• Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) → Spot high-level channel impact

• Attribution → Assign credit and steer in real time

Each one has legacy baggage.
Each one gets an AI glow-up.

Pinwheel Mental Model

Picture this:
Three colorful blades: Incrementality, MMM, Attribution.
Now add a gust of AI wind—and boom —the whole thing spins into motion.

Incrementality

What it does: Proves if your ad spend actually moves the needle

• Old pain: Manual holdouts. Slow. Costly.

• AI fix: Auto-selects high-lift groups and builds controls in minutes

TL;DR: This is your “truth serum” for what’s working vs. what’s wasting money.

MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling)

What it does: Zooms out to see which channels impact the big picture performance

• Old pain: Quarterly reports. Stale data. Static models.

• AI fix: Weekly refreshes. Real-time inputs. Regression on autopilot.

TL;DR: Your CFO’s favorite tool just got a Red Bull.

Attribution

What it does: Gives credit where credit is due—even without cookies

• Old pain: Signal loss. Click bias. Incomplete paths.

• AI fix: Rebuilds customer journeys. Corrects bias. Fills in blanks.

TL;DR: Still useful post-cookie, thanks to AI’s data stitching magic.

From Triangle to Flywheel

Here’s how to go from poster on the wall to engine of insights:

1. Start with Incrementality → Ground-truth your data

2. Feed into MMM → Retrain models every week

3. Use Attribution → Fill in the gaps for micro-decisions

4. Repeat → Each insight triggers the next test

It’s not just a cycle—it’s a pinwheel.

With every spin, the system gets smarter.

The Takeaway

If Shaan’s talent triangle balances Builders, Sellers, and Culture-Keepers,
This one balances Testing, Modeling, and Attribution.

But here’s the kicker:

A triangle just sits there.

AI is the wind that makes it spin.

So aim your leaf blower.
Let the pinwheel whirl.
And watch insights light up the boardroom faster than you can say “growth hack.”