Asking for a friend: What is incrementality?

With all the different spaces an advertising campaign goes through, figuring out which channel is most effective can be tough. That’s where incrementality comes in.

As Marianne Vita, senior VP, director of integrated strategy and marketing at the Video Advertising Bureau, describes it, incrementality comes down to layering together all the elements of a campaign to show the bigger picture.

“As you stack different elements of your video ad campaign together, you will get a different footprint or a different set of viewers,” Vita says. “That is the essence of what incrementality is.”

Incrementality can help both advertisers and publishers. Advertisers can figure out the parts of their campaign that are working the best, while publishers can show brands the effect their ads are having.

In the latest edition of Asking for a friend, Vita breaks down how this all leads to the journey through the marketing funnel.

“It’s all about that incremental reach and scale that helps bring people into the purchase process,” Vita says. “Then of course you can measure your impact as they move from that awareness part of the funnel, down through consideration, and ultimately into purchase.”