With tighter budgets and rising performance expectations, marketers can’t afford to rely on metrics that tell only half the story. Proving the true value of investments is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a business imperative. Yet many advertisers still depend on attribution models that don’t reflect what truly drives action.
Traditional attribution methods, like last-click, tend to over-credit bottom funnel channels and under-credit the upper- and mid-funnel tactics that helped ignite discovery and drive consideration, leading to skewed insights and misdirected budgets.
That’s why incrementality is gaining traction. It moves beyond correlation to show the true causal impact of advertising. At Criteo, we’re evolving our measurement solutions to make incrementality easier to access, trust, and act on.
Built to flex: Our adaptable measurement model
Criteo’s approach is uniquely built to support the full shopper journey, tying ad spend to measurable outcomes, from awareness to conversion.
To meet the evolving needs of our marketers, we’ve expanded our Commerce Growth measurement offering to support a wide range of campaign setups, technical capabilities, and validation preferences:
- Criteo Incrementality Testing: A flexible testing framework that adapts to each campaign’s structure, using either user-split or geo-split methodology depending on client needs. Whether advertisers require audience-level holdouts or regional comparisons, our approach adjusts accordingly.
- Real-time Incrementality: A new, proprietary metric that provides directional, always-on insights into incremental ROAS (iROAS). By removing the logistical complexity of holdouts, iROAS enables marketers to optimize while campaigns are running. This solution is currently in pilot with select clients.
- Third-Party Validation: We partner with trusted measurement leaders like Haus to offer advertisers an unbiased, external view of incremental performance. This ensures an added layer of transparency and confidence with both internal stakeholders and external partners.
Whether marketers choose to rely on our in-house tools, bring in third-party validators, or use both, Criteo’s measurement model is designed to adapt—not force a one-size-fits-all approach.
What marketers can unlock with better incrementality measurement
When marketers gain easier access to incrementality insights, they can:
- Identify which channels, tactics, creatives, and products actually drive incremental results
- Optimize campaigns mid-flight, not just after the fact
- Prove the value of their investments with confidence, using Criteo’s tools or their own preferred partners
But measurement is just the beginning. To unlock real value, marketers must turn these insights into action—powering a feedback loop that improves performance while campaigns are still live.
That’s where the industry is headed, and where we’re focused next: expanding our partnerships, adding more flexibility, and unlocking new use cases to meet the evolving needs of today’s marketers.
Turn measurement into momentum
Smarter measurement for real business impact starts here. Incrementality won’t replace attribution overnight, but it’s becoming a core part of how modern marketers evaluate success. With flexible tools, real-time optimizations, and third-party transparency, Criteo is here to help marketers make smarter decisions and prove the true impact of every dollar they spend.
Want a refresher on incrementality measurement? Check out our 101-level blog post here.
