Incrementality reporting helps you understand the true impact of your advertising — specifically, how many conversions were caused by your campaign, beyond what would have happened naturally. Traditional attribution can overstate performance by crediting conversions that may have occurred anyway. Incrementality adds a critical layer of insight by isolating net-new outcomes driven by your ads.
Incrementality reporting answers one simple, but powerful question: did your advertising actually make a difference?
Questions it helps answer
Did my campaign bring in new customers I wouldn't have gotten otherwise?
How much extra business did my advertising create?
What are my true results — for example real cost per sale or return on ad spend — once I set aside the customers who would have bought or signed-up regardless?
How it works
To measure this, we compare two groups of households:
Exposed group — People who saw your ad
Control group — A similar group that was intentionally kept from seeing your ad, for comparison
If the group that saw your ad took more action — for example more purchases, visits or sign-ups — that difference is the real impact your advertising made. We call that your Incremental Lift.
Why it matters
It's easy to count how many sales happened during a campaign. It's much more valuable to know how many of those sales your advertising actually drove. Incrementality reporting gives you that clearer picture, so you can feel confident your ad dollars are working, and make smarter decisions about where to invest next.
How to read the incrementality dashboard
Your incrementality report shows you the real difference your advertising made. It displays the overall incremental response (not specific to a particular metric or pixel).
1. Report overview
Test period — when the campaign ran
Campaign spend — how much was spent on the campaign
Total audience — number of people reached (including both exposed and control groups)
Statistical significance — understand whether observed differences between exposed and control groups reflect campaign impact rather than random results
The report outlines:
Statistically significant — the observed lift is not due to random variation
Not statistically significant — there isn't enough evidence yet to say for sure, or the observed lift is due to random variation
2. Incremental impact
Likelihood Multiplier
The Likelihood Multiplier tells you how much more likely people were to take action after seeing your ad, compared to those who were not exposed.
Example:
People who saw your ad: 4.2%
People who didn't: 2.8%
Likelihood Score: 1.5x
How to read it: Above 1.0x = your ad had a positive impact. 1.0x or below = your ad didn't add much. In this example, 1.5x means people who saw your ad were 50% more likely to take action.
Incremental Lift
Incremental Lift represents the increase in conversion rate driven by your advertising. It is expressed as a percentage and indicates how much performance improved due to viewers seeing your ad.
Example:
People who saw your ad: 4.2% made a purchase
People who didn't: 2.8% made a purchase
Lift: +1.4 points
That gap is the boost your ad created.
Exposure & Control Groups
The report compares two numbers side by side:
Exposure group % — How often people who saw your ad took action
Control group % — How often people who didn't see your ad took the same action
The gap between those two percentages is what your advertising actually added.
3. Conversion Rate & Daily Reach Over Time
This turns that lift into a real number: how many sales, visits or sign-ups happened because of your advertising — the ones you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. The blue line is the conversion rate for the exposed group for that given day, and the grey is the conversion rate for the control group.
A few things to keep in mind
Because a small slice of your audience is held back from seeing ads, your total reach may dip slightly.
Results show the impact of the whole campaign, not the performance of any single tactic or placement.
You'll need enough scale and time for the results to be meaningful.
What you'll need to access an incrementality report
Campaign minimums
Spend: at least $20,000 total campaign budget
Minimum Length: 4 weeks
Enough activity: the campaign needs to generate enough conversions to measure reliably
Setup steps
Conversion pixel must be installed, tested and working before launch. Each pixel receives its own incrementality report.
Set up your test at least 5 business days before the campaign starts
Run it on its own — avoid overlapping campaigns, which can muddy the results
To enable an incrementality report, please contact the DIRECTV Ads Manager team through the platform's chatbox in the bottom left-hand corner
Good to know when planning
Works best with broad audiences (like prospecting campaigns aimed at new customers)
Very small or narrow audiences may not produce enough data to be reliable
Why these requirements matter: incrementality works by comparing two large, similar groups. Enough scale and a clean setup are what make your results trustworthy, giving you a clear, accurate read on the true impact of your advertising.