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Last Updated on febrero 25, 2026 by Sussan Porras
Incrementality
Performance marketers don’t generally wake up excited to argue about attribution models. We’re simply trying to figure out our revenue targets. Somehow, attribution is often the exact thing wreaking havoc on budgets from day one, especially when most of our preferred models are fundamentally misaligned with how customers actually buy.
As marketers, we might debate the issues on things like attribution, passive vs. active revenue streams, and “life in a cookie-less world”, but incrementally isn’t just a theoretical debate – it takes place and is grounded in real-world data for marketers, most alarmingly the loss of client revenue. Real lack of consideration for incrementally means real lack of results for our clients. In plain English, Incrementally has a cost, and our clients’ campaigns suffer for it.
Incrementality has been “having a moment” as of late, due to this very factor. And it’s also why certain agencies, such as Partnercentric, have leaned hard into incrementality as a core philosophy and an operating system for affiliate and partner programs.
Incrementally only matters from an operational standpoint. As in, if you can’t track it, it doesn’t exist. This is the framework many marketing agencies have been operating under for some time. Their tools don’t detect it, so it’s invisible.
Attribution models do not reward the proper behavior.
Most flawed attribution models share a common issue. They’re not optimizing for a “data true north”, but for a credit metric that doesn’t actually put the correct onus on what’s driving the business.
Last-click is the biggest offender here. It tends to over-reward partners who appear late in the funnel with methods that burn out the customer AND the business, using coupon fatigue. It’s possible these funnel leads are more likely to be present at the moment of conversion, and would have been purchased anyway. It’s unfair to any business to shell out commission on a sale that would have happened anyway, just because last touch is one of the most common performance tracking models.
Even multi-touch models can mess up when:
- The weighting is arbitrary, or even when based in linear customer activity,
- The data is incomplete or doesn’t consider privacy/cookie,
- The model doesn’t account for one partner “stealing” the conversion from another.
The result is exactly what you’d think it is. You end up paying the most to the partners best at appearing in tracking, not the ones actually driving the revenue.
Why Does Incrementality Matter?
Incrementality is about whether or not the conversion would have happened anyway, without the partner’s influence. Instead of asking who touches a customer, it asks who is most responsible for the end result.
An incremental partner will bring in a customer you may not acquire otherwise, and will increase your order value. They’ll accelerate the lifecycle of a first purchase, put you in new channels, and reduce your CPA.
PartnerCentric’s Advocacy for Incrementality
The largest woman-owned and founded independent performance marketing agency, PartnerCentric has turned the concept into an operating system through the advanced FUSE, which contains a set of tracking that includes incrementally measurement and management as a key metric. With FUSE, transactions are validated against actual dashboard metrics to determine lift and expose partner success at its root.
Where many agencies talk about incrementality only conceptually, PartnerCentric’s approach is typically more technology-forward. Partnercentric structures its program so that incremental value is rewarded and non-incremental losses are carefully controlled. Here’s how:
Partner segmentation is built around direct behavior
An incrementality-first approach groups partners by what they do best in the funnel.
Meaning:
- Demand creators (content, influencers, some niche publishers)
- Demand harvesters (coupon/loyalty that capture existing intent)
- Demand accelerators (email partners, on-site placements, retargeting-like partners)
Are all paced to their appropriate place in the funnel. Once you use this data to see partners clearly in one centralized dashboard, you can pay them differently, measure them differently, and set clear expectations about value/clearer goals.
Commission = Actual Partner Value
If your attribution is flawed, overpayment is essentially guaranteed.
Incrementality as a system pushes partner rewards like:
- Higher rates for newly acquired customers,
- Tiers based on the customer’s placement in the hierarchy of touch,
- Reduced payouts on coupon or discount assets that are prone to fatigue,
- Affiliate rewards are tied to lift and growth over time.
This isn’t about punishing partners who have traditionally converted better with discounts. It’s a standout method to help businesses attract more of the traffic and customers they want.
Tracking the “right” attribution point
Some of the most expensive attribution mistakes come from partners who insert themselves late, using methods such as toolbar popups, trademark and branded bidding, etc.
Clearly compliant incrementality methods include:
- Utilizing clear compliance policies so there’s no confusion,
- De-duping and clear cookie windows,
- Consistent monitoring of conversion paths by a human source to detect where incrementality is happening.
The first two are easy. The second requires an agency with an accurate dashboard that can monitor and detect incrementality where it happens, so affiliates aren’t duly rewarded credit for a sale that would have happened anyway.
Test, Test, Test
Incrementality is, at its core, about measurement. Agencies that care about incrementality test. The point is to validate whether the channel is creating lift, not just conversions. All businesses want to convert. If it had happened anyway, it’s tantamount to flushing cash.
Attribution is getting harder and more difficult due to privacy, changes in user behavior, and platform restrictions. When data is not neat and clean, no one wins.
Agencies like PartnerCentric advocate for incrementality because it forces the necessary work of distinguishing between actual revenue/impact/influence vs. discount vanity and the status quo.
If you’re serious about performance marketing, incrementality isn’t optional. It’s the corrective lens that stops you from paying for conversions you already own and starts pushing your spend toward the partners who actually move the needle.
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