metriq vs Northbeam

Northbeam sits in the serious attribution conversation. Multi-touch models, incrementality thinking, media mix — the language your $10M+ brand or agency partner may already use.

metriq does not try to replace a full attribution science project. We help operators who need to run the business this week with honest margin math and clear next steps.

What you are buying

Northbeam — measurement infrastructure, model sophistication, enterprise-grade reporting workflows.

metriq — operational profit dashboard + AI analyst for campaign-level decisions.

At a glance

	metriq	Northbeam
Typical buyer	Founder / lean growth team	Growth org with analytics support
Setup complexity	Minutes (OAuth)	Higher; implementation matters
Pricing	$19–$79/mo published	Custom / scale-based
Profit after COGS	Core	Depends on configuration
AI campaign guidance	Core	Not the primary value prop
Attribution models	Practical unified view	Advanced multi-touch focus

Where Northbeam wins

You have budget and staff to implement attribution properly.

Incrementality and media mix are executive priorities, not nice-to-haves.

You need vendor-grade reporting for a large agency ecosystem.

Your data team already maintains pipelines and definitions — Northbeam plugs into that maturity.

Where metriq wins

You are sub-$5M and the founder still approves weekly spend changes.

You need answers in plain English today, not a six-week modeling project.

You want campaign-level profit ranking without hiring an analytics lead.

You care about price transparency and a 14-day trial without sales calls.

The honest tension

Attribution purity and operational profit can conflict. A campaign can look great in a model and terrible after returns and COGS. metriq biases toward contribution margin reality because that is what pays payroll.

Northbeam biases toward measurement rigor because at scale, rigor prevents million-dollar channel mistakes.

Recommendation

• Northbeam if you are building attribution as a capability.
• metriq if you are fixing daily paid media profitability now.

Some teams graduate into Northbeam later and keep metriq for media ops. That is a reasonable path.

Do not buy attribution infrastructure to avoid entering COGS once. That delay costs more than any subscription.