# Quickstart Guide to Bonsai

Welcome to Bonsai. This overview is designed to help you quickly understand **what Bonsai does**, **what data you need**, and **how to get live in the platform** as fast as possible.

Whether you are onboarding for Business Reporting, Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA), Incrementality, or Algorithms—your first step is always the same: **connect your data sources** so Bonsai can build a trusted measurement foundation.

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## What Bonsai Helps You Do

Bonsai is a measurement and optimization platform that unifies marketing and business data to help teams:

* Understand what is driving revenue and customer growth
* Measure marketing performance across digital and offline channels
* Attribute outcomes across touchpoints (not last-click)
* Quantify true causal lift with incrementality modeling and testing
* Optimize marketing spend and bidding using algorithms trained on attributed buyers

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## What You Need Before You Start

To ensure a smooth onboarding, we recommend having the following ready:

* Admin access (or credentials) for your marketing and analytics platforms
* A primary business system source of truth (POS / ecommerce / CRM)
* A clear reporting definition for core KPIs (e.g., revenue, orders, new customers)
* A point of contact from your marketing and/or data team for validation

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## Get Up and Running

#### 1. Connect your data sources

Bonsai uses secure integrations (“Connect Cards”) to ingest data from platforms such as:

* Digital marketing (Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, Amazon, etc.)
* Analytics (GA4, Adobe Analytics)
* Business systems (POS / ecommerce / CRM / order management)
* Offline media (TV/OOH spend and delivery)
* Google Search Console (for branded demand insights)

Once connected, data will flow automatically into your Bonsai cloud data warehouse.

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th><th data-hidden data-card-cover data-type="files"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Connect to Bonsai</strong></td><td>Securely connect your sources and destinations. Start here if you’re new to Bonsai.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/wBudqXqxQ4IAeXerm1Hd/onboarding/connect-cards">Connect Cards</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Review the Data Schema</strong></td><td>Understand required fields for business data onboarding.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/wBudqXqxQ4IAeXerm1Hd/onboarding/business-data-and-point-of-sale-pos-requirements">Business Data</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Understanding Analytics</strong></td><td>Read how we use analytics data for marketing attribution.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/wBudqXqxQ4IAeXerm1Hd/onboarding/etl-overview-for-analytics-data">Analytics Data</a></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

#### 2. Configure your business KPIs

Business Reporting is the foundation for everything in Bonsai.

During onboarding, Bonsai works with your team to define and configure:

* Revenue and order KPIs
* New vs returning customer logic
* Custom business metrics (LTV, repeat rate, frequency)
* Aggregation rules and date definitions

#### 3. Validate the data

Before launching measurement views, Bonsai runs a validation process to confirm:

* data completeness (missing days, gaps)
* schema and formatting consistency
* correct KPI definitions and mappings
* reconciliation against your source of truth (when available)

#### 4. Launch measurement products

Once onboarding is complete, you can begin using Bonsai measurement views:

* **Business Reporting**: Executive-ready reporting on business outcomes + marketing investment
* **Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA)**: Customer journeys + fractional credit across digital touchpoints
* **Incrementality (Modeling + Testing)**: Causal lift and ROI measurement across channels
* **Budget Planner**: Forecast outcomes and optimize spend allocation
* **Algorithms**: AI-driven bidding optimization trained on attributed buyer behavio

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## Explore the APIs

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th><th data-hidden data-card-cover data-type="files"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Developer Docs</strong></td><td>One place for endpoints, parameters, and examples for every Bonsai API.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/Sc7oU2m62deMCHXGIJKu/getting-started/overview">Overview</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Multi-Touch Attribution API</strong></td><td>Journey and touchpoint endpoints plus fractional attribution metrics.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/Sc7oU2m62deMCHXGIJKu/multi-touch-attribution-api">Multi-Touch Attribution API</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Business Reporting API</strong></td><td>Spend, impressions, DMA/time dimensions, and modeled business results.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/Sc7oU2m62deMCHXGIJKu/business-reporting-api">Business Reporting API</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Audience Analytics API</strong></td><td>Create, list, and retrieve audiences for activation.</td><td><a href="broken-reference">Broken link</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Incrementality Modeling API</strong></td><td>Modeled ROI, lift, and forecast curve data for incrementality modeling.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/Sc7oU2m62deMCHXGIJKu/marketing-mix-modeling-api">Marketing Mix Modeling API</a></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

## Help & Resources

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th><th data-hidden data-card-cover data-type="files"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Resources Overview</strong></td><td>A guided index of external resources for marketers and analysts.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/wBudqXqxQ4IAeXerm1Hd/">Getting Started</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>FAQs</strong></td><td>Answers to common setup, authentication, platform logic, and data questions.</td><td><a href="https://app.gitbook.com/s/wBudqXqxQ4IAeXerm1Hd/getting-started/faqs">FAQs</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Troubleshooting</strong></td><td>Common errors and how to fix them quickly.</td><td><a href="broken-reference">Broken link</a></td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Release Notes</strong></td><td>What’s new in the APIs and documentation.</td><td><a href="broken-reference">Broken link</a></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

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Pro tip: Bookmark the **Developer Docs** index for quick navigation across all API references.
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