Last-click says one thing. Your CFO doesn't believe it. Your incrementality test says something else entirely.

None of those numbers are wrong — they're just not measuring the same thing.

In this episode of Inside the Blurb, I sit down with Madan Bharadwaj, founder and CEO of M-Squared. Madan has built four companies inside the attribution and measurement space, including Visual IQ (one of the first multi-touch attribution platforms) and Measured (the industry's first pure-play incrementality company).

We cover:

-Why nearly everything brands use to measure marketing is "correlational" and carries built-in bias .

-Why incrementality testing is deceptively hard to run well

-Triangulation — turning conflicting attribution, MMM, and incrementality numbers into one multiplier and one decision

-A real story about an AI model recommending a brand cut $25M in Amazon ad spend, and why it was wrong

-Why causal data has to be built, not mined

-Who actually needs this level of measurement (and who doesn't)

Read the full breakdown + key takeaways: www.themartechatrix.com

Check out M-Squared on Blurbs: https://www.trustblurbs.com

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Introduction: welcome to the Matrix

01:00 — Madan's origin story: from computer science to a $10M/month PPC bidder

07:01 — 2005 vs. 2026: what's changed in measurement, and what hasn't

10:55 — How GDPR, CCPA, and walled gardens shrank trackable behavior

13:07 — Why brands still lean on last-click even though it's incomplete

16:10 — Why incrementality testing sounds simple and is actually hard

18:30 — Designing a "feasible test" before you run it

20:07 — Do marketers use data to confirm what they already believe?

24:42 — Why the best marketers combine data with business instinct

26:45 — Causal vs. correlational, defined

30:08 — What makes M-Squared different

33:51 — Triangulation, explained

38:38 — The causal insights program

41:38 — Who actually needs advanced measurement

42:58 — Why AI can't manufacture causal data

44:07 — The $25M Amazon ad spend story

46:56 — Why domain expertise still matters

47:10 — Squared Collective: next workshop September 10, Boston

49:10 — Closing thoughts

ABOUT INSIDE THE BLURB Inside the Blurb is a podcast by The MarTech Matrix where Sean Simon interviews founders and leaders from the vendor side of marketing technology.

Website: https://www.themartechmatrix.com

Blurbs: https://www.trustblurbs.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madanbharadwaj/