Incrementality versus multi-touch attribution is an important distinction when it comes to understanding the impact of marketing campaigns. Incrementality measures a campaign’s ability to drive incremental sales or revenue, while multi-touch attribution looks at how each touchpoint along the customer journey contributes to the overall outcome. Depending on the goals of a particular campaign, incrementality or multi-touch attribution may be more suitable for measurement and analysis.
Incrementality provides a way to measure the effectiveness of campaigns by attributing sales or revenue to specific marketing efforts. This type of analysis allows for a better understanding of how and when certain campaigns are driving the most value. Multi-touch attribution, on the other hand, looks at all touchpoints in the customer journey that may have contributed to a conversion. This helps marketers identify which channels are working best and where there is potential for improvement.
To measure incrementality, marketers must first set up a baseline or control group of customers who are not exposed to the campaign. This will serve as a comparison point when evaluating the impact of marketing efforts on sales or revenue. After that, measures such as lifts and incremental conversion rates can be used to assess how successful campaigns have been in driving growth. Additionally, A/B testing can provide further insight into why certain campaigns may have worked better than others.
Multi-touch attribution involves tracking the customer journey from start to finish so that all touchpoints along the way can be identified. Marketers should gather data on how consumers interact with different channels and what influences their decisions. This can then be used to determine which channels are providing the most value in terms of driving conversions. Additionally, various attribution models such as last click or time decay can help marketers better understand the impact of each channel on overall performance.
Figure 1. Attribution Analysis
Which model is more effective for my use case?
It depends on the goal of the campaign. Multi-touch attribution is often more beneficial when looking at how each touchpoint contributes to overall conversions, whereas incrementality is better suited for understanding which campaigns are driving the most value in terms of sales or revenue. Ultimately, it’s important to determine which approach best suits your needs and use that for measurement and analysis.
Figure 2. Multi-touch attribution (MTA) analysis
If treatment is truly effective, it’s causing the users to do something they otherwise wouldn’t, and that’s a good thing. It is hard to talk about incrementality without a holdout group. How do you judge the efficacy of the experiment without a holdout group?
Is it truly incremental?
Analytics Visionary
Summary
Measurement and analysis of marketing campaigns often come down to the choice between incrementality versus multi-touch attribution. Incrementality measures a campaign’s ability to drive incremental sales or revenue, while multi-touch attribution looks at how each touchpoint along the customer journey contributes to overall outcomes. Depending on the goal of a particular campaign, either approach can be used for measurement and analysis.