Meaning & use
incrementality
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
The quality of happening in small, additional steps rather than all at once.
Grammar: Used as a mass noun: the incrementality of the reforms.
Patterns
- the incrementality of something
Critics complained about the incrementality of the reform plan.
The team valued the incrementality of its software releases.
Slow incrementality can still add up to big change.
noununcountablebusiness
In marketing, the extra sales or results caused by an activity, beyond what would have happened without it.
Grammar: Often used when measuring ads: test for incrementality.
Patterns
- incrementality of something
The test measured the incrementality of the email campaign.
Without a control group, we cannot prove incrementality.
The ad budget was cut because of weak incrementality.
Common combinations
- measure incrementality
- The analysts will measure incrementality with a holdout group.
- test for incrementality
- We test for incrementality before expanding the budget.
- incrementality test
- The incrementality test showed little extra revenue.
- prove incrementality
- Marketers must prove incrementality to justify spending.
- gradual incrementality
- The plan relies on gradual incrementality rather than one big change.
Synonyms and how they differ
- gradualness
- Gradualness only describes slow speed, while incrementality stresses the discrete steps.
- lift
- Lift is the usual marketing word for the extra result, and incrementality is the broader concept.
- piecemeal
- Piecemeal often sounds critical, but incrementality is neutral or positive.
Opposites
Word family
- increment noun
- a small step or amount added
- incremental adjective
- happening in small steps
- incrementally adverb
- in small steps
- incrementalism noun
- a policy of gradual change
Commonly confused: incrementality or incrementalism?
incrementality vs incrementalism
Incrementalism is the approach of changing in small steps, while incrementality is the quality or measured effect.
Practice
A marketer finds that sales would have happened even without the advertising. What does this say about the ad's incrementality?
Choose one answer.
Incrementality measures extra results caused by the ad. If the sales would have happened anyway, little extra was caused, so it is low.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “incrementality”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.