Marketing Science

MROI Optimizer

Optimize budget allocation across channels by equalizing marginal profit. Compare equal-split vs optimized strategies on realistic response curves.

Optimization Principle

Equalize marginal profit

Each next euro goes where it generates the highest incremental profit

Total budget200K
50K500K

Strategy

Allocation

Search
67K
TV
67K
Social
67K

Channel Parameters

Search
C-curve · K=80 · CoS=35%
TV
S-curve · K=25 · CoS=50%
Social
C-curve · K=50 · CoS=25%

Response Curves — Equal Split

Revenue (K)
0K125K250K375K500K
5003752501250
Search
TV
Social

200K

Budget

344K

Equal Split Profit

Profit Lift

Per-Channel Breakdown

ChannelCurveSpendRevenueProfit
Search
C67K281K116K
TV
S67K438K153K
Social
C67K190K76K

Interpretation

With equal split, every channel gets the same budget regardless of its saturation. TV — an S-curve channel — saturates early, so equal allocation wastes spend on a channel that has already hit its ceiling.

The optimizer reallocates: it pulls budget from saturated channels and shifts it to channels where the next euro still generates meaningful incremental profit. At the optimum, marginal profit per euro is equalized across all active channels.

Try moving the budget slider. At low budgets, the optimizer avoids S-curve channels entirely (they need a minimum threshold). As budget grows, it gradually allocates to TV once Search and Social start to saturate.

Scope

This optimizer uses Hill functions with fixed parameters to illustrate marginal profit equalization. In a production MMM, response curve parameters are estimated per channel through Bayesian inference, and the optimization accounts for constraints (minimum spends, contracts, lag effects, and cross-channel interactions). The allocation shown here is illustrative — actual optima depend on data, market conditions, and business constraints.