What is incremental conversion?
Incremental conversions are purchases or desired actions (e.g., signup, add-to-cart) that occur directly due to marketing efforts, not conversions that would have happened organically. It shows you the true impact of your advertising and marketing campaigns.
Unlike total conversions, incremental ones filter out customers who would convert anyway to help you see if marketing spend is used effectively.
Example
A brand runs a paid ad campaign and generates 500 total conversions. However, an analysis reveals that 200 of those customers would have purchased without ads. This means the incrementality driven by paid ads is 300.
💡 Tracking & optimizing this metric helps businesses understand the real return on ad spend (ROAS) and avoid over-attributing organic sales to paid efforts.
👉 Related: Incremental Measurement
How to calculate cost per incremental conversion?
Formula
Cost per Incremental Conversion = Total Ad Spend Incremental Conversion
Example:
- Total ad spend: $10,000
- Total conversions: 500
- Incremental conversions: 300
Cost per Incremental Conversion = 10,000 / 300 = $33.33
💡 A low cost per incremental conversion shows that you are generating new customers efficiently through marketing.
What factors influence incremental conversion?
It is affected by several factors that determine how marketing campaigns truly influence consumer behavior.
- Market conditions: Economic trends, seasonality, and competitor activity can impact consumer demand.
- Target audience behavior: High-intent audiences (e.g., retargeting visitors) may have converted without ads, lowering incremental impact.
- Marketing channels used: Brand awareness campaigns often create more incremental lift than retargeting campaigns, which may capture conversions that would have happened organically.
FAQ
Q: How are incremental conversions different from total conversions?
A: Total conversions include all purchases or actions, whether influenced by marketing or not. Incremental conversions filter out customers who would have converted anyway, providing a clearer picture of how marketing truly drives results.
Q: How can businesses track incremental conversions?
A: Incremental conversions can be measured through:
- Attribution modeling to compare organic vs. paid conversions.
- Holdout tests (A/B testing with control groups).
- Geo-experiments (running ads in select locations).
