How to Demonstrate Marketing Incrementality to CFOs

CEO: "I just reviewed our attribution reports. We're hemorrhaging millions on YouTube, TikTok, and Meta ads. Their ROAS is abysmal. We need to axe these channels immediately!" CMO: "Hold that thought. What if I told you these 'money-losing' channels are actually our profit powerhouses?" CEO: "What? That's impossible. The numbers don't lie." CMO: "They're not lying, just telling an incomplete story. Let me introduce you to incrementality." CEO: "Incremen-what? Spare me the jargon and give it to me straight." CMO: "Picture this: We turn off all YouTube ads tomorrow. Suddenly, our Google Shopping and branded search tank. That's incrementality – measuring what would vanish if a channel didn't exist." CEO: "Interesting... but how can we measure something that doesn't happen?" CMO: "We run geo holdout tests using open-source software. It's like A/B testing entire regions." CEO: "And this differs from attribution how?" CMO: "Attribution often overvalues last-click channels. Incrementality shows the true impact across the entire funnel." CEO: "So channels with poor attribution might have high incrementality?" CMO: "Exactly. We use an 'incremental multiplier' to adjust our ROAS. A channel showing 2x ROAS in-platform might actually be driving 3x when we factor in incrementality." CEO: "Mind-blowing. We've been potentially undervaluing our best performers." CMO: "Precisely. Here's the game plan: Expand our geo holdout testing Create a dashboard showing attributed and incremental ROAS Optimize spend based on true business impact Leapfrog competitors still stuck in last-click land" CEO: "This could revolutionize our entire strategy. What's our timeline?" CMO: "60 days for initial results, 6 months for full implementation. But here's the kicker – while we're unlocking the truth of our marketing impact, our competitors are still reading fairy tales in last-click land." CEO: "Outstanding. You just turned a potential marketing bloodbath into our secret weapon." CMO: "That's the magic of incrementality. Sometimes, what looks like a loss on paper is actually your biggest win." Incrementality is the truth attribution is the projection.

I've seen this happen so many times. You report a win, but your CFO keeps asking you skeptical questions like “Was it really incremental?” If you can't defend it, your credibility is at risk. Here's how to back your strategy with solid data. You need to prove the impact of incrementality It's not just about the results but about the results that wouldn't have happened without that effort. Let me explain… We worked with a retail brand that was spending a lot of money on retargeting campaigns and was smashing their goals (They thought they were)! But when we dug deeper with incrementality testing using ghost ads, we discovered that only 30 % of those conversions were truly incremental. The rest would have happened anyway. This was about real business impact - not vanity metrics that just make the marketing team look good. ---------------------------------- Here’s how you could prove the impact of incrementality: 1/ Show the baseline - What happens if you don't run any marketing campaigns? - What would be your revenue? 2/ Measure the lift Next, show the actual lift for each of those tactics and channels. How much did these tactics improve or contribute over and above that baseline? 3/ Measure incremental revenue Calculate the incremental revenue that shows the lift into incremental dollars. 4/ Measure the ROI Finally, show the true ROI based on the incremental revenue and not just your total revenue. These insights help you to optimize your campaigns in real time. Besides, you can also prove to your CFO that every dollar is constantly being watched and also driving new business. Have you tried using incrementality tests? Let me know in the comments below.