Not all sales that occur after a campaign are attributable to that campaign. Some customers were going to make a purchase anyway. Incremental revenue distinguishes those sales from the ones that were actually generated by the campaign, by comparing them to a control group that did not receive the message.

Why does it matter?

It's the most honest way to measure whether your marketing is working. Opens and clicks show interest, but they don't prove that you've sold more. Incremental revenue does.

It helps you decide where to invest: a campaign with a lot of attributed sales may generate little incremental revenue if it only reached customers who were going to come back anyway.

How is it calculated?

Formula: Incremental revenue = (revenue per customer in the group that received the promotion − revenue per customer in the control group) × number of customers who received the promotion.

For example: You send a campaign to 10,000 customers and leave 1,000 unsent. The group that received the message generates $5 per customer, and the control group generates $3. The incremental revenue is ($5 − $3) × 10,000 = $20,000.

Story mode

An online sports store sends a promotional offer to its frequent customers. The report shows a surge in sales, and the team celebrates. But when they compare the results to the control group, they discover that a significant portion of those customers would have made the same purchases anyway, even without the promotion. The next time, they target the campaign at at-risk customers, where the message does make a difference.

How to Use It with Data4Sales

• Revenue attribution to each campaign and channel.
• Measurement using a control group (holdout) to calculate actual incremental revenue—not clicks or opens.
• With Orbis Copilot, you can ask in natural language which campaigns generated the most incremental revenue.

Related terms

• Control group
• Attribution
• ROI
• Marketing action