What is Incremental Attribution?

Incremental attribution is a marketing measurement approach that focuses on isolating the additional impact of specific campaigns or marketing activities. Unlike traditional attribution models that may give credit to all touchpoints or channels involved in a customer’s journey, incremental attribution hones in on the channels, tactics, or ads that truly drive incremental lift—the new outcomes directly attributable to marketing efforts beyond what would have happened without them.

In essence, incremental attribution ensures that you’re attributing success only to the marketing actions that genuinely influenced a customer to take action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service.

At Rockerbox, incremental attribution is a key part of our unified measurement solution. By combining incremental attribution with Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) and Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), we provide a complete view of how each marketing activity contributes to your business. Additionally, Rockerbox offers professional services to help guide you through the incremental attribution process and ensure that you’re making the most informed decisions.

Why Incremental Attribution is Critical in Marketing

Identify True Revenue Drivers
Incremental attribution allows marketers to pinpoint the specific campaigns, channels, and touchpoints that are driving real value. Rather than attributing success to a wide range of interactions that may not have had a significant influence, incremental attribution provides a more accurate and focused assessment of which actions are driving conversions and sales.
Optimize Ad Spend for Incremental Growth
Understanding which efforts are generating true incremental results allows marketers to allocate their ad budgets more effectively. By shifting resources toward the campaigns and channels that are proven to drive new growth, brands can maximize their return on investment.
Avoid Over-Attribution
Traditional attribution models often overestimate the influence of certain touchpoints, leading to misallocation of resources. Incremental attribution avoids this by ensuring you only give credit to the marketing actions that made a measurable difference, eliminating the noise caused by activities that would have led to the same results regardless of marketing.
Supports Unified Marketing Measurement
At Rockerbox, incremental attribution is part of a unified measurement framework. It complements other models like MTA and MMM, providing a comprehensive view of how your marketing strategy performs across multiple channels and touchpoints. This unified approach ensures that your marketing decisions are based on accurate, data-driven insights.

How Incremental Attribution Works

Incremental attribution requires setting up controlled tests that compare the performance of a group exposed to marketing efforts (the test group) with a group that is not (the control group). This comparison helps to identify the incremental lift generated by the marketing activity.

Here’s how Rockerbox helps brands implement incremental attribution:

Defining the Experiment
The first step in incremental attribution is designing the right experiment. Rockerbox works with you to define clear objectives, identify the marketing tactics or channels you want to test, and establish appropriate control groups. This might involve A/B testing, geo-lift testing, or other types of incrementality tests. Our professional services team ensures the experiment is set up to deliver accurate and actionable results.
Managing the Testing Process
Rockerbox manages the entire testing process, from test setup to execution. We ensure the test and control groups are chosen carefully, reducing any potential bias in the results. By using precise testing methodologies, we can accurately measure the incremental impact of each campaign or touchpoint.
Analyzing the Results
Once the test is complete, Rockerbox analyzes the data to calculate incremental lift and determine the specific contributions of different marketing actions. We look at key metrics such as incremental ROAS (iROAS) and incremental Cost Per Order (iCPO) to provide a comprehensive view of the impact of your campaigns.
Integrating with MMM and MTA
The results from incremental attribution are then integrated with MMM and MTA models, allowing Rockerbox to give you a unified view of your marketing performance. This integration provides a clearer understanding of both channel performance and the overall effectiveness of your marketing strategies.
Continuous Optimization with Expert Guidance
After analyzing the results, Rockerbox helps you take action. Our professional services team works closely with you to interpret the data and adjust your strategy. Whether it’s reallocating budget to high-performing channels or fine-tuning underperforming campaigns, we provide the expert guidance you need to drive continuous improvement.

Benefits of Incremental Attribution for Marketing Optimization

More Accurate Attribution
Incremental attribution ensures that credit is only given to the marketing actions that truly made a difference. This eliminates over-attribution, which can skew decision-making and lead to inefficient use of resources.
Improved Budget Allocation
With incremental attribution, marketers can focus their budgets on the strategies and channels that drive the most incremental lift. By understanding which campaigns are actually influencing customer behavior, you can reduce waste and improve overall marketing efficiency.
Channel-Specific Insights
Incremental attribution helps you evaluate the specific contributions of each channel, tactic, or ad format. This detailed analysis allows you to refine your channel strategy and allocate resources to the channels that deliver the most significant incremental impact.
Enhanced Campaign Testing
Incremental attribution is ideal for validating the effectiveness of A/B tests, geo-lift tests, and other forms of campaign experimentation. It helps ensure that the results of your tests reflect the true impact of your marketing activities, allowing for more confident and informed decision-making.

How Rockerbox Supports Incremental Attribution

Rockerbox provides a full suite of tools and services to help you measure and leverage incremental attribution. Here’s why brands choose Rockerbox:

Unified Measurement Approach
Incremental attribution is a key component of Rockerbox’s broader unified measurement solution, which includes MTA and MMM. This comprehensive approach ensures you’re seeing both the big picture and the granular details of your marketing performance.
Expert Guidance with Professional Services
Our professional services team works alongside your marketing team to design, execute, and analyze controlled experiments that measure incremental attribution. We help you every step of the way, ensuring that the tests are set up for success and that the results are actionable.
Actionable Insights for Continuous Optimization
Rockerbox doesn’t just provide data—we provide insights that drive results. Our analysis of incremental attribution helps you continuously optimize your campaigns, improve budget allocation, and refine your overall marketing strategy.
Ongoing Support for Long-Term Success
We offer comprehensive support throughout the entire incremental attribution process, from test setup to strategy refinement. Our goal is to help you maximize the effectiveness of your marketing in both the short and long term.

FAQs About Incremental Attribution

What is incremental attribution in marketing?
Incremental attribution is a method of measuring the additional impact of specific marketing actions or campaigns by isolating the contributions that drive new outcomes, such as sales or conversions. It ensures that only the marketing efforts that influence customer behavior are credited.

How does Rockerbox measure incremental attribution?
Rockerbox measures incremental attribution by setting up controlled tests that compare the performance of a test group exposed to marketing efforts with a control group that is not. We calculate the incremental lift generated by the marketing activity and integrate these insights into your MMM and MTA models for a unified view of performance.

Why is incremental attribution important for marketing optimization?
Incremental attribution is important because it allows marketers to identify the true drivers of growth and avoid over-attribution. It helps brands allocate budgets more effectively and optimize their marketing strategy based on the actual performance of campaigns and channels.