What is incremental revenue?

By Harry Burman · Updated October 20, 2026

Incremental revenue is the extra dollar sales caused by a marketing activity: revenue with the ads minus revenue you would have had without them. It is the dollar form of incremental sales. Holdout tests estimate it; platform reports do not.

Incremental revenue is caused sales in dollars: revenue with the ads minus the revenue you would have had without them. Incremental sales usually means the same idea counted in orders or units; incremental revenue multiplies those orders by price or uses revenue totals from the start. Ad platforms report attributed revenue under click and view windows, which is not the same number. For a made-up Amazon brand, ads-on states might book $62,000 while matched holdout states book $50,000 over the same weeks, so incremental revenue is about $12,000. Divide that by Meta spend for incremental ROAS. Geo holdouts that pause Meta in matched US states and compare Amazon ship-to revenue are the usual design when sales happen on Amazon. Report a range around the estimate, because a few weeks of orders are noisy. The incremental ROAS calculator turns lift into dollars and profit after fees.

What incremental revenue means

Every campaign sits on top of revenue you would have made anyway. Incremental revenue isolates the dollars that moved because of the ads. In numbers:

incremental revenue = revenue with the ads − revenue without the ads
incremental ROAS    = incremental revenue ÷ ad spend

You never observe both revenue lines for the same people at the same time. Methods for measuring incrementality estimate the missing piece. See also marketing incrementality when the question is specifically about spend.

Incremental revenue vs. incremental sales

Incremental sales usually means extra orders (or units). Incremental revenue means those orders in dollars. Same cause, different unit.

Orders. Ads-on states sell 1,240 Amazon orders; the holdout sells 1,000. Incremental sales ≈ 240 orders.
Dollars. At a made-up $50 average order, that is about $12,000 of incremental revenue. Or compare revenue totals directly: $62,000 minus $50,000 ≈ $12,000.

Use orders when you care about volume and ranking. Use revenue when you compare to spend, fees and iROAS.

A worked example

Two groups of states usually sell in step. During a four-week test you pause Meta in the holdout. Ads-on regions book $62,000 of Amazon revenue; the holdout books $50,000. Meta spend in the ads-on regions is $5,000.

incremental revenue ≈ $62,000 − $50,000 = $12,000
iROAS                 ≈ $12,000 ÷ $5,000 = 2.4×

A real test also matches regions on history and reports a range. The incremental ROAS calculator and the holdout test calculator put those steps into numbers before you spend.

Not attributed revenue

Attributed revenue follows platform rules. Meta credits purchases it can see inside a window. Amazon Attribution credits tagged clicks within 14 days. Incremental revenue answers what changed because of the ads, not who got credit.

Gordon and others (2019) found that common non-experimental methods often misstated effects relative to large Facebook experiments. Treat dashboard revenue as a fast signal, not as caused dollars.

How to measure incremental revenue

Use a holdout group. For Meta → Amazon, a geo test that pauses ads in matched regions and compares Amazon revenue (or orders × price) by ship-to state is the usual approach. Pick regions with matched market testing, compare with difference-in-differences, and read how lift is calculated.

Where Spillmark fits

Spillmark runs geo holdout tests for brands that spend on Meta and sell on Amazon. It measures what your Meta ads cause on Amazon, takes off Amazon fees and your product costs to show you the real profit, and reports the range around the lift so incremental revenue is not a single fragile number.

Frequently asked questions

What is the incremental revenue formula?

Incremental revenue equals revenue with the ads minus revenue without the ads. You estimate the second number with a holdout group or a model checked by tests.

Is incremental revenue the same as incremental sales?

Same idea, different unit. Incremental sales usually means extra orders; incremental revenue means those sales in dollars.

How do you measure incremental revenue on Amazon?

Pause Meta ads in matched regions, keep them on elsewhere, and compare Amazon revenue (or orders by ship-to state) between groups. Report a range around the estimate.

Is incremental revenue the same as attributed revenue?

No. Attributed revenue follows platform credit rules. Incremental revenue is the dollars the ads caused.

How does incremental revenue relate to iROAS?

iROAS is incremental revenue divided by ad spend. Compare that ratio to break-even ROAS after product cost and fees.