Not All Incremental Reach is Born equal – How to Ensure You Get Effective Incremental Reach
Feb 28
2 min read
More and more of our clients understand that chasing incremental reach alone is not enough. The real challenge is ensuring you don’t waste money reaching an incremental audience that would never convert.
A question we hear often:
"How can I ensure I spend my budget on effective incremental reach?"
Here’s a proven approach to make sure your incremental reach is valuable, efficient, and drives results.
Measure Overall uplift Per Platform
Even though all platforms may reach both incremental and non-incremental audiences, tracking overall incrementality helps gauge potential effectiveness.
What to do:
Use uplift analysis to see how each platform contributes to your Return On Investment.
Measure More Than Just Incremental Reach—Track Outcomes Too
It’s not just about how much incremental reach you gain—but who you reach and whether they convert.
What to do:
Combine incremental reach measurement with outcome measurement - measure not only WHAT was your incremental reach but also WHO did you reach and how did they convert.
By understanding past behaviour you can predict which platform will bring more effective incremental reach in the future.
Segment Your Audience & Focus on High-Intent Users
Identify who is most likely to convert, then find where they spend time online.
What to do:
Find light TV viewers and see where they spend their time online
Use lookalike audiences – Once you identify high-intent users, expand with AI-driven lookalike models.
Don’t Just Compare Against TV - Compare Platforms Against Each Other
Many brands compare their digital incremental reach only against TV, but cross-channel overlap matters too.
What to do:
Use Single-Source data to find out if your YouTube incremental audience also saw your ad on Facebook or TikTok.
Optimise spend to avoid waste—if someone has seen your ad across multiple platforms, focus on new reach instead of excessive frequency.
Find the Optimal Frequency for Incremental Audiences
Not all audiences convert at the same exposure levels - some need more touchpoints before taking action.
What to do:
Separate the incremental audience into distinct groups based on their exposure frequency and check the conversion rate of each group – this would give a strong indication for the optimal frequency for each platform.
Optimise Creative for Each Incremental Audience
If you’re reaching different types of people on each platform, why serve them the same ad?
What to do:
Analyse who your incremental reach consists of on each platform (age, interests, behaviours).
Adapt messaging to align with their preferences—what works on TikTok is different from what works on YouTube or Meta.
The Key to Effective Incremental Reach? Smart Measurement & Optimization
🔹 More reach isn’t always better—it must be quality reach that converts.
🔹 Use single-source data to track the true effectiveness of your incremental reach.
🔹 Shift budget when response curves hit diminishing returns.
🔹 Test, measure, and adapt—not all platforms bring the same results!
Contact us to learn how single-source data can help you stop wasting budget on low-impact incremental reach.