Oct 31, 2025
The ultimate guide to picking the right incrementality platform (plus an RFP checklist you can actually use)
Pranav Piyush
,
Co-founder, CEO
Connect with Pranav
What is incrementality, really?
Incrementality is the truth serum of marketing. It doesn’t care about clicks or credit. It asks a single, brave question:
What truly changed because of what I did?
We’re talking about the sales, leads, or conversions that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Incrementality is about isolating your marketing’s true contribution.
Incrementality is the way that modern marketers move from guesswork to grounded proof. The most powerful incrementality approach finds a balance between Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and testing.
Incrementality testing typically involves splitting your audience (or geographies, or time periods) into test vs. control groups, then comparing outcomes. The difference in performance beyond what’s already expected = your incremental lift.
Think of MMM as the source for your testing hypotheses. Use it as a smart estimate of incrementality, and then test to get actual evidence.
MMM is the map; incrementality testing is walking the path to confirm it.
In short: incrementality gives you confidence. It helps you separate real impact from noise, and it lets you invest with conviction.
The 6 things to look for in an incrementality platform
Look for these six traits in your next measurement partner, and pocket these questions to ask along the way.
Valid experiments designed for truth
If we don’t run sound experiments, we can’t determine cause and effect. Look for true randomization or controlled holdouts, clean control groups without spillover and isolated media exposure. Anything less is correlation disguised as science. Have the vendor walk you through their test design process.
What to look for:
True randomized splits, or geographically-controlled holdouts
Clean control groups without contamination
Ability to isolate media exposure (i.e. keeping the test and control groups separate)
Questions to ask the vendor:
“How do you randomize test vs. control groups? Can you walk me through an example?”
“How do you make sure the group that’s not supposed to see the ads truly doesn’t see them?”
Statistical rigor and bias handling
No model is “perfect.” But there are models that respect reality. The best platforms help you make sense of uncertainty, not hide behind it. There are a lot of open-source and evolving MMM solutions on the market. The most sophisticated tools take multiple methods into account, customized for your use case. Go deeper on each vendor’s approach, and make sure they can explain it to you in easy-to-understand business terms.
What to look for:
Models that understand selection bias, interference, confounders, synthetic controls
Confidence intervals and uncertainty estimates
Methods for controlling external influences (seasonality, promo events, non-media variables)
Questions to ask:
“How do you account for external shocks or seasonality in your modeling?”
“What statistical techniques do you use to estimate uncertainty or guard against bias?”
“How do you explain your model’s accuracy to a CEO, CMO, or CFO?”
Radical transparency (No black boxes)
You should get a simple breakdown or plain explanation of the vendor’s model. No secrets. Have them talk you through their model logic and its error rates, as well as the kind of outputs you can expect. This also includes clear insight into the model’s assumptions.
What to look for:
Visibility into model logic (not a locked algorithm)
Access to intermediate outputs, diagnostics, error rates
Clear documentation about assumptions
Questions to ask:
“Can I see the model logic, or can you explain how your system calculates lift in plain English?”
“What assumptions does your model make, and how often do they get validated?”
“What kind of behind-the-scenes data or proof can I see to understand how you got the results?
Built to scale and flex
Your marketing mix won’t sit still; your measurement shouldn’t either. Turning on new channels, regions or metrics shouldn’t rock the boat. The right vendor will be able to handle new use cases and customize them for any type of business (SaaS, retail, eCommerce) in any part of the world. That also means handling multiple tests at a time and overlapping audiences.
What to look for:
Ability to test many channels or geos concurrently
Ease of adding new media types or metrics
Handling volume and complexity (e.g. many campaigns, overlapping audiences)
Questions to ask:
“How many concurrent experiments can your system run without conflict?”
“Can I plug in new channels or KPIs later without hurting the setup?”
“If my marketing mix or data changes — say, I add new channels, markets, or metrics — how easily can your system adapt without rebuilding everything from scratch?”
Speed and iteration time
Incrementality testing shouldn’t slow you down. While some tests need time to mature, you should always know what’s realistic and what’s fast. Speed will also be determined by your access to a vendor’s experts and advisors.
What to look for:
Reasonable turnaround from launch to actionable insights
Option for shorter “quick tests” vs. longer full experiments
Ability to ensure sound design before full launching the test
Questions to ask:
“From test launch to result delivery, what’s the typical timeline?”
“How do you ensure the results will be conclusive?”
Expert guidance, not just software
Interpreting results is nuanced. Most marketers spend weeks debating what data means before deciding what to do. An experienced growth advisor closes that loop. They help you see what you might not see yourself. It’s a sanity check.
You should also get the opportunity to learn. A great partner doesn’t just tell you what to do — they teach your team to think like scientists. They should also help you translate outputs to C-suite level readouts.
What to look for:
Direct, personalized access to analysts or advisors who help interpret results – weekly, bi-weekly, whatever you need
Quick turnaround from insight → action
Help learning and designing experiments
Translating outputs to business decisions; An external expert brings objective validation for board conversations, budget planning, and CFO discussions
Questions to ask:
“What’s the role of your support/advisory team in our engagement?”
“How hands-on is the guidance you provide — beyond giving reports?”
Incrementality platform red flags 🚩
Pause, press deeper or walk away if you hear any of these:
They claim one method fits all use cases, or they dismiss the value of either MMM or testing.
They say “just trust us,” but they hide their methodology.
They drown you in jargon to avoid plain answers.
You can’t get consistent expert access, or their accounts team has high turnover.
They promise exact precision (“Your lift is exactly 12.3%”) instead of confidence ranges.
They promise daily lift updates or flawless future predictions.
If it sounds too neat, it’s probably not true. Real measurement embraces uncertainty, and that’s where real clarity lives.
What not to expect from an incrementality platform
Real marketers deal in uncertainty. It isn’t perfection that matters but rather proof you can stand behind in a boardroom.
Daily incrementality: Expecting a tool to reliably report lift every single day is unrealistic. One additional day doesn’t give you good enough data to make a difference. The math doesn’t work that way.
Perfect future predictions: No platform can flawlessly forecast what lift you will get tomorrow, next week, or at scale. If it did, we’d all be retired and sipping piña coladas on the beach.
These both fall under the trap of overprecision. In real-world measurement, we deal with uncertainty. Marketing is way too dynamic to predict.
The goal of incrementality isn’t perfection. But it’s as close as we can get in order to be actionable and confident about our spending.
The RFP Checklist you can print & use
We created a practical, vendor-agnostic checklist you and your team can use when evaluating incrementality platforms. You can print it, share it or use it during vendor calls.
Instructions: Score each vendor side by side (e.g. 1–5) across these dimensions. Use your internal priorities (speed, flexibility, transparency) as weights.
Technical capability is a bare minimum. But it takes more than tech to feel confident about the vendor you’ll actually work well with.
A final invitation from us at Paramark
We’re here for you.
If your team ever wants a second opinion on any vendor’s answers to these questions, or if you just need help translating platform outputs into practical marketing action, we’re here for it.
We’re open with our process, our pricing and our people, including Paramark’s Growth Advisory team.
Let’s go beyond your reports. Let’s talk about it — together.
Reach out anytime. Pranav, Oliver, Andrew, Cole, Nicole, Marco and Nicholas are here to help.
