A retail media campaign drove sales. But how many of those sales actually happened because of the advertising?
It's an increasingly important question for brands investing in retail media. Attributed sales and return on ad spend (ROAS) can show what happened after someone was exposed to an ad, but brands also need to understand whether their investment created additional business outcomes.
That's where incrementality measurement comes in.
DoorDash Ads' measurement philosophy is simple: brands should be able to measure what actually matters. That means helping advertisers understand not only how their campaigns perform on DoorDash, but whether their media is reaching new shoppers, winning buyers from competitors, and generating incremental sales.
Why does incrementality measurement matter?
Incrementality helps advertisers distinguish between attributed performance and genuine business growth.
Consumers don't shop through a single channel. Someone can discover or engage with a brand in one environment and ultimately purchase it somewhere else. That means looking only at sales occurring directly on the platform where an ad ran may not tell the whole story.
For retail media advertisers, understanding the broader impact of media can provide a clearer picture of performance, including whether campaigns are generating incremental demand that extends beyond the platform itself.
How does DoorDash Ads measure incremental impact?
DoorDash Ads is investing in measurement solutions designed to help advertisers understand the business impact of their media with greater clarity and confidence. That includes both on-platform measurement capabilities and independent, third-party validation.
Through household-level lift measurement from Circana, eligible DoorDash Ads advertisers* can connect media exposure to actual purchase behavior across a broad retail footprint, providing an objective way to validate whether their DoorDash media investment is driving genuine incremental growth. Comparing outcomes between exposed and control households can help isolate the incremental effect associated with a campaign.
This gives advertisers another way to answer questions like:
Did advertising on DoorDash generate incremental sales?
Did the campaign reach households that weren't previously buying the brand?
Did it help attract buyers of competing brands?
Did exposed shoppers purchase more frequently?
And early measurement provides a compelling example of what that can look like in practice.
How DoorDash Ads drove $3.7M in incremental in-store sales for a major beverage advertiser
A major beverage advertiser wanted to understand whether its DoorDash Ads investment was creating new demand in the broader market, rather than simply shifting existing purchases from one channel to another.
The eight-week retail advertising campaign reached an estimated 6.2 million households.
Circana used household-level lift measurement to compare purchasing behavior between households exposed to the campaign and a control group.
The results
$0.59
¹incremental in-store sales per household
$3.7M
²in total incremental in-store sales
11.7%
³lift among competitive buyers
¹DoorDash Ads drove $0.59 in incremental in-store sales per exposed household, approximately 3x Circana's beverage benchmark of $0.19.
²Across the campaign, that translated into approximately $3.7 million in total incremental in-store sales and $1.51 in incremental ROAS.
³The impact wasn't limited to existing brand buyers. Among households that previously purchased competing brands but not the advertiser's studied brands, the campaign generated 11.7% lift, compared with 1.3% among existing brand buyers.
The campaign also increased household penetration and purchase frequency, providing further evidence that DoorDash Ads was helping the advertiser expand its buyer base while generating additional purchases.
How can incrementality measurement inform media decisions?
For advertisers, measuring incrementality can provide a clearer view of what their media investment is actually adding to the business, helping them make more informed decisions about:
Where to invest: Understand which media investments are generating incremental business outcomes rather than simply capturing existing demand.
Who to reach: Identify whether campaigns are bringing new households into the brand or influencing shoppers who previously purchased competitors.
How to inform future decisions: Understand how media impacts household penetration, purchase frequency, and incremental sales.
Go beyond attributed performance to understand the growth your advertising actually creates. With independent measurement from Circana, eligible DoorDash Ads advertisers can uncover the incremental sales and new buyer growth driven by their campaigns.
Talk to your DoorDash Ads representative to learn more about Circana Household Lift measurement.
*Currently available to select advertisers through for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands.
