Overview
Incrementality is the foundation of how MNTN proves impact. It helps you understand the difference between conversions, revenue, and net-new customer growth that happened because of your ads and those that would’ve happened without them.
Incrementality Reporting is available for Prospecting campaigns with an active MNTN Conversion Pixel on your site.
Why it matters
Why it matters
Incrementality shows you the true value your Performance TV campaigns bring by comparing outcomes between groups exposed to your ads and those who were not. This reveals the incremental impact your advertising has on conversions and revenue, guiding better investment decisions and optimizing campaign performance.
Incrementality is built around three core principles:
Industry Alignment — Matches methodologies used by other performance marketing channels for consistency across platforms.
Audience Consistency — Ensures holdout groups accurately reflect your targeted audience’s intent.
Minimized Performance Impact — Holding out just 10% of your audience minimizes the impact on overall performance.
📝 Note: Your 10% holdout group households are excluded from your audience proactively. Your scaling factor will be based on the actual households reached against your audience throughout the month, so your scaling ratio can be lower than 10:1.
How it works
How it works
We:
Create holdout groups: MNTN automatically holds back ads from 10% of your targeted audience to form a control group. Both exposed and holdout groups come from the same intent-based audience pools, ensuring accurate and unbiased comparisons.
Expose audiences: Your campaign serves ads to a targeted group (Exposed group).
Measure responses:
Exposed Group — Conversions and revenue generated from households that saw your ad.
Control Group — Conversions and revenue from households that didn't see your ad.
Scale the control group: At month's end, we scale the holdout group's results to match the exposed group's size, ensuring a fair and accurate comparison.
Calculate incremental results: Control group results are subtracted from exposed group results to calculate incremental conversions and revenue.
📝 Note: Data appears in Reporting the month after eligible Prospecting campaigns launch. Then, it's refreshed within the first 15 days of each month, reflecting the prior month’s performance.
See it visually
See it visually
To make incrementality easier to understand, we’ve built an interactive infographic that walks you through the story visually. Scroll or use the on-screen arrows to see how MNTN measures incremental lift through Control vs. Exposed testing. You’ll view real campaign data and a simple visual roadmap that shows exactly how Performance TV drives measurable incremental value.
When you view the Incrementality Dashboard for the first time, the slideshow will automatically appear.
📝 Note: Because IP addresses rotate daily, Total Audience Size may appear larger than your Total Available Audience in the audience builder. This reflects cumulative reach across days, not a fixed audience.
After the walkthrough:
You’ll see your full Incrementality Dashboard, where you can explore campaign results in more depth.
You can revisit it anytime using the Replay Infographic button on the dashboard’s banner.
Dashboard Metrics
Incremental Visitors | Visitors Performance TV drove above what you would have captured without TV. |
Incremental Conversions | Conversions generated beyond what your Control group achieved. |
Incremental Revenue | Revenue generated above Control results. |
Dashboard Sections
The Incrementality Dashboard includes Exposed, Results, and Control sections. Each compares performance across Households Reached, Conversions, Revenue, ROAS, and CPA.
Together, these sections reveal how much additional value your Performance TV campaign delivered.
Metrics | Exposed | Control | Results |
Households Reached | The total number of households that saw your ads | Exact number of households held out (10% of your targeted audience) | Total households reached, with how many were held out for control |
Conversions | Actual conversions from households that saw your ads | Estimated conversions your campaign might have generated without ads, scaled up from actual holdout results | Incremental conversions |
Revenue | Actual revenue from conversions from households that saw your ads | Estimated revenue your campaign might have earned without TV ads, scaled from actual holdout revenue | Incremental revenue |
ROAS | Actual return on ROAS from your campaign spend | Estimated ROAS based on the scaled control revenue | Incremental ROAS, calculated by dividing Incremental Revenue by your ad spend |
CPA | Actual CPA based on your campaign spend | Estimated CPA based on scaled control conversions | Your incremental CPA, calculated by dividing your ad spend by incremental conversions |
Quick Answers
How will my control group generate if I’m activating multiple campaigns?
How will my control group generate if I’m activating multiple campaigns?
Each campaign generates a unique control group based on its total available target audience. These are combined into a single prospecting-level control group, which is scaled monthly according to the total reach of your campaigns.
📘 Example: Say you’re targeting 5 million households across two campaigns. With a 10% holdout, 500 K households become your control group and the remaining audience becomes exposed.
If your campaigns ultimately reach 1.5 million households, MNTN scales the control group’s results by 3× to match the exposed size. This ensures a fair comparison and reveals the true incremental impact of your campaigns.
How are control groups selected?
How are control groups selected?
Marketers using MNTN Matched will have control groups that isolate 10% of their available audience, matching the same intent level being targeted.
For other audience types — like CRM lists or interest-based targeting — MNTN randomly samples 10% of the total audience to form the control group.
📘 Example: If you’re using MNTN Matched targeting high intent and medium intent audiences, then your control group will include high intent and medium households.
Will my control group always scale by 10 since my control group held out 10% of my audience?
Will my control group always scale by 10 since my control group held out 10% of my audience?
No. Your control group will scale at the end of the month based on your actual reached audience size (exposed group), not your total available audience size.
📘 Example:
If your total available audience is 5 million households and 10% are held out, your control group includes 500 K households.
If your campaigns reach 1.5 million households, MNTN scales control results by 3× to match the exposed audience — ensuring a fair comparison and revealing your campaign’s true incremental impact.
How often does my control group update?
How often does my control group update?
MNTN automatically sets up a control group when you first create your prospecting audience—before your campaign starts. This group is updated daily to make sure comparisons stay accurate. For example, if a household shows high intent one day but not the next, it’s removed and replaced with one that still shows high intent.
If I launch a new campaign or change my audience mid-month, how does this affect my control group?
If I launch a new campaign or change my audience mid-month, how does this affect my control group?
In this example, the control group changes mid-month. Anytime your audience changes, the control group adjusts accordingly. At the end of the month, the total number of unique households from both control groups is combined to calculate your scaling factor.
📘 Example: If your control group includes 100 K households in the first half of the month and 200 K in the second, that’s 300 K unique households total. If your exposed audience reached 900 K households, your scaling factor would be 3:1.
I’m using MNTN Matched for my audience, and it automatically excludes site visitors and converters from the past 30 days. Does that mean my control group has the same exclusions?
I’m using MNTN Matched for my audience, and it automatically excludes site visitors and converters from the past 30 days. Does that mean my control group has the same exclusions?
Yes. When opting into MM, your control group is pulled from the same total available audience. This would mean that your control group excludes site visitors and converters from the past 30 days