Incrementality
Incrementality measures how many conversions a marketing channel or partner truly caused that would not have happened otherwise, separating genuinely driven sales from those that would have occurred anyway.
Attribution asks who to credit for a conversion; incrementality asks whether that conversion was actually additional. It is usually tested with holdout or geo experiments that compare groups exposed to a channel against those that were not.
In affiliate marketing, incrementality is central to evaluating coupon, loyalty, and cashback partners: if a customer was already going to buy and simply searched for a code at checkout, that sale may not be incremental. Understanding incrementality helps merchants pay for genuinely new revenue rather than skimmed existing sales.
See also
- Attribution
Attribution is the process of determining which affiliate or marketing touchpoint should receive credit — and the commission — for a conversion.
- Multi-Touch Attribution
Multi-touch attribution distributes credit for a conversion across the several marketing touchpoints a customer interacted with, rather than giving all credit to the first or last click, aiming for a fairer view of each partner's contribution.
- Last-Click Attribution
Last-click attribution credits the entire commission to the final affiliate or link the customer clicked before converting.
- CPA (Cost Per Action)
CPA, or cost per action (also cost per acquisition), is a pricing model where the advertiser pays only when a specific action — a sale, signup, or lead — is completed, aligning cost directly with results.
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