Incrementality Testing
By the AdFlint research team · Last reviewed July 2026
Measures how many conversions the advertising actually caused by comparing an exposed group against a randomized control that saw nothing.
You withhold ads from a randomly chosen slice of the eligible audience or market, then read the difference in outcomes between exposed and held-out groups. It answers the question attribution cannot: how much of this would have happened anyway. Advertisers run it on brand search, retargeting, and any channel with suspiciously good reported returns. The mistake is running it too small or too briefly to detect a realistic lift.
Incrementality Testing compared with
The settings this gets confused with, and how to tell them apart.
- Incrementality Testing vs A/B Testing
- Incrementality Testing vs Conversion Lift Tests
- Incrementality Testing vs Brand Lift Tests
- Incrementality Testing vs Geo Testing
- Incrementality Testing vs Holdout Testing
- Incrementality Testing vs Marketing Mix Modeling
- Incrementality Testing vs Multi-Touch Attribution
You should not need to know this to advertise.
AdFlint handles the settings for you, inside the Google and Meta accounts you already own.
Try AdFlint free