Attribution
Attribution vs incrementality: what's the difference?
Attribution assigns credit. Incrementality estimates what advertising caused. That one distinction explains why two marketers can look at the same campaign and reach different conclusions.
Attribution example
A customer clicks Meta, later clicks Google and purchases. Depending on the model, Meta, Google or both may receive credit.
Incrementality example
Now ask: without either ad, would the customer still have purchased? If yes, some attributed revenue was not incremental. If no, the advertising created the sale.
Why attribution is easier
You can observe clicks, impressions and purchases. You cannot directly observe the alternate universe where the person did not see the ad. Incrementality therefore requires experiments or modelling. Those approaches are covered in what is incrementality in ecommerce advertising.
Why both matter
Attribution is practical for campaign optimization and customer-journey analysis. Incrementality is valuable for budget allocation and understanding channel lift.
A retargeting campaign can have high attributed ROAS and low incremental lift. A discovery campaign can have modest last-click attribution and meaningful incremental value.
Do not force one metric to answer the other's question.
Separate attribution from the incrementality question
If your team is debating which channel "really caused" sales, contact us. We can separate attribution reporting from the deeper incrementality question.