Sales Lift Measurement for CPG Brands

Why Retail Media Measurement Falls Short

Every retail media network measures success differently — setting its own rules for Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and using varied attribution windows to judge performance. Many traditional measurement approaches rely heavily on attribution models that credit conversions to ad exposure — without accounting for whether those purchases would have occurred regardless of the advertising. This can lead to inflated performance metrics and an incomplete picture of a network's actual contribution to business outcomes. Without a consistent framework for measuring true incremental impact, advertisers are left navigating fragmented reporting systems where the numbers look good on paper, but budget decisions get made on shaky ground.

Incrementality Measurement To Understand Causality

Advertisers need an accurate way to evaluate the impact of each retail media network and understand which networks are driving incremental business growth. Incrementality as a measurement standard provides a way to show causal impact of marketing in driving sales and ROI, and brands increasingly view it as the desired approach to understand a network’s performance - and its true value.

Incrementality allows brands to:

• Understand the genuine effect of commerce media

• Assess platform-level performance and optimize spend

• Accurately test new products and promotions

Experiment-based Approach is the Way Forward

The industry is increasingly adopting an experiment-based approach as the key methodology for measuring outcomes, with the IAB defining it as the gold standard for proving causal lift. In the experiment-based approach, the audience is split into 2 groups automatically, with people who are shown ads (treatment group) and people who aren’t shown ads (control group).  The difference in total sales between the two groups tells us the sales lift and then can be used to calculate incremental ROAS (iROAS). There are a few different methodologies for this experiment based approach such as holdout tests, random controlled tests or ghost ads— where ghost ads are considered industry-leading for experimentation.

Sales Lift Measurement on DoorDash

DoorDash has invested in building advanced measurement capabilities for CPG brands to ensure they can measure the outcomes that matter. Now with sales lift measurement, CPG brands are now able to understand the true causal impact of their investment on DoorDash ads, and make smarter media investment decisions. With campaign lift studies, advertisers can now measure sales lift and iROAS (incremental ROAS) and form the right strategies across their marketing spend. Further, we use system level incrementality to make sure our Ad platform delivers best in class performance across placements and is aligned with advertiser objectives.

This year, we further advanced our lift measurement methodology bringing ghost ads as the approach for lift measurement studies, ensuring more accuracy, tighter confidence intervals, and greater trust in ROI. Previously launched for incrementality measurement for Restaurant ads, now CPG brands are also able to gain measurement results that are backed by this gold standard that establishes a strong causal lift.

DoorDash Ads Incrementality in Numbers

Sponsored Product ads are highly performant showing a 30% lift in sales* with certain categories like Snacks showed even stronger results with 65% sales lift*. With these results, CPG brands have been able to prove how DoorDash has been driving incremental growth and reallocating budgets to our platform.

Success stories across brands of all sizes

Kellanova, now part of Mars Snacking

In recent lift measurement studies conducted by DoorDash in Q4 of 2025, heritage Kellanova -- now part of Mars Snacking, a global leader in snacking with iconic brands such as Pringles®, Cheez-It®, Pop-Tarts® -- saw an incremental ROAS ranging from 2.4X to 2.9X across three studies. The Cheez-It Sponsored Product ads  study saw standout results with nearly a 46% sales lift.

“DoorDash has been a strategic partner for heritage Kellanova, enabling total sales growth and delivering against our campaign objectives. Lift studies on Sponsored Products have helped us better understand the platform’s true incremental impact and strengthened our confidence in its ability to grow our brands. More importantly, the results provided actionable insights to optimize our campaigns to continue to deliver total sales growth.” 

-  Erik Joergens-Kokate, Sr. Manager, heritage Kellanova, now part of Mars Snacking

MALK Organics

MALK Organics, an organic plant-based milk and creamer company, who came to DoorDash to understand how much product they could move digitally at retail. Starting small, they quickly saw strong results and with lift studies they were able to clearly prove the ROI on their investment. MALK saw a 2.7X iROAS and a 48% sales lift in their Sponsored Product lift studies test that made their Sponsored Products investment into an always-on campaign strategy.

The Future of Incrementality Measurement in Retail Media

With the launch of Sales Lift Measurement, DoorDash continues to invest in tools and advanced incrementality testing capabilities that help brands measure what matters and drive meaningful growth. We believe incrementality will play an increasingly important role not only in performance reporting, but also in how retail media platforms improve their advertising products. As experimentation becomes more embedded in the ecosystem, lift measurement will help identify which ad formats, placements and experiences create meaningful value for both brands and consumers. This approach allows platforms to innovate with greater confidence while ensuring that new advertising solutions are designed to drive measurable, incremental growth.

Sales Lift Measurement is currently available for select advertisers via Managed Service for Sponsored Products campaigns. Lift measurement for additional ad products is expected later this year.

*Incremental sales are measured by comparing a brand's sales among ad-exposed customers versus a non-ad-exposed holdout group. Data sourced from DoorDash's 30 Sponsored Product Lift Measurement tests conducted in H1 2025; Snacks category based on data from 19 test campaigns.