Marketers have many ways to reach an audience online, from newsletters and banner ads to social media feeds and video advertising, and so forth. The problem arises when all the channels a marketer is using keep reaching the same people repeatedly. After all, in most cases, even a great piece of advertising can only compel a person to take an action one time. Once a person has bought the product, signed up for the service, or joined the club, it’s a waste of time and ad spend for them to be served the same advertisement over and over again.
This is where advertisers turn to incremental reach, which is when ads reach an audience beyond the core viewers of a campaign, which can mean all the difference between success and failure in marketing.
What Is Incremental Reach?
“Incremental reach is essentially the number of new people you’re reaching with a campaign, people who wouldn’t have seen your content otherwise,” says Michelle Iapicco, founder and CEO of Simplified Media Agency.
In marketing, incremental reach refers to the additional unique audience to which a campaign delivers ad impressions beyond the initial target audience on a new channel. It’s essentially the “extra” audience that a new ad spend or tactic contributes to a campaign, helping to measure the effectiveness of new channels or strategies.
It’s not just launching a new ad campaign from scratch, which is a costly and time-consuming venture. Rather, incremental reach relies upon using the marketing materials you’ve already developed, in creative new ways.
Why Is Incremental Reach Important?
Paying attention to incremental reach is important because it helps advertisers understand the size and the makeup of the additional audience they’re reaching beyond their initial target. It can also help you optimize ad spend by identifying which channels are most effective, and reveal much about the efficacy of ad copy, design, and method of delivery.
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By measuring incremental reach, marketers can better understand campaign success, optimize media mixes, and reach audiences that might be missed by traditional methods.
Incremental reach can also help you keep your marketing budget in check, but you have to track the data. “It’s especially useful when you’re trying to scale strategically and avoid wasting budget,” says Iapicco. “I always tell clients: If you’re investing in multiple platforms but not tracking incremental reach, you’re flying blind.”
How Do You Calculate Incremental Reach?
To calculate incremental reach, you will need to identify the number of new, unique users reached by an ad campaign, excluding those who were already exposed to the ad during earlier rounds of advertising or through other channels. This will measure the additional audience gained through a new or extended marketing campaign.
First, establish the total reach of your marketing campaign, then subtract the number of people you know were already reached by the same ads, and calculate how many people were served the same ads more than once — perhaps both on social media and through ads delivered during a web search. After removing those numbers from the total, you have calculated the incremental reach.
Four Strategies to Increase Incremental Reach
1. Conduct Audience Segmentation and Targeting
Audience segmentation and targeting are marketing strategies that involve dividing a large customer base into smaller, more specific groups, and then tailoring marketing efforts toward those groups. Segmentation identifies subgroups within the target audience based on shared characteristics, such as age, gender, and geography, while targeting focuses on selecting which segments are most likely to be interested in a product or service, often based on search and purchase history.
2. Frequency Capping
Would-be customers can become never-will-be customers if they feel annoyed, inconvenienced, or hounded by ads delivered too many times. Frequency capping in marketing is the practice of limiting the number of times an advertisement is shown to a specific individual within a given timeframe, which can be a day, a week, or even a month.
This helps to prevent ad fatigue, enhances user experience, and optimizes ad budgets by ensuring ads aren’t overly repetitive and aren’t shared so often that they lose effect. It can also extend an ad campaign without increasing its budget. When ads are delivered just the right number of times, those impressions can leave a lasting awareness of the brand or product being shared.
3. Referral Programs
Incremental reach can be achieved with the help of loyal customers you already have. By creating a referral program that incentivizes them to compel others to try your products or services, you can potentially gain new audiences while also further cementing an established customer as even more devoted to your brand.
4. Try New Channels
Sometimes, incremental reach can be as simple as placing your ads in new places. If, for example, you’ve been focusing your ad spend on Instagram and YouTube, consider giving Facebook and TikTok a try. Just make sure to tweak the ads as needed so they will work in each channel properly. For example, while a longer video might perform well on YouTube, TikTok demands short clips.
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How to Measure Incremental Reach
As noted, to calculate incremental reach, you need to identify the number of new, unique users reached by your ad campaign, excluding those who were already exposed to the ad in previous time periods or through other channels. This is essentially measuring the additional audience gained through a new or extended marketing campaign.
Now, how one measures the value of incremental reach is another story. To do that, you need to calculate customer acquisition cost (CAC) and determine how many of the new people reached converted from lead to customer. Once you have calculated that information, you’ll see how effective your added efforts were.
Reach and Frequency Metrics
In marketing terms, reach refers to the number of unique people who are exposed to an ad at least once during a campaign. Frequency, on the other hand, measures the average number of times each person within that reach is exposed to the same ad. Both metrics are crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and understanding how well a message is reaching its intended audience.
Reach is typically calculated by dividing the number of unique users exposed to an ad by the total number of people in the target audience for the campaign. Frequency is calculated by dividing the total number of impressions by the number of unique users reached.
Attribution Modeling
Attribution modeling is a process that analyzes a marketing campaign and then assigns credit to different marketing touchpoints across the customer journey, allowing marketers to understand which efforts are most effective in driving conversions. It helps advertisers determine how much importance to give each interaction a customer has with a brand, ultimately enabling them to optimize marketing strategies and allocate budgets more efficiently.
Tools for Reach Measurement
Google Analytics
Google Analytics offers a comprehensive platform for tracking website traffic, user behavior, and campaign performance.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps you schedule posts and track performance across different platforms.
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a platform for social media management and analytics that provides insights into user engagement and reach across multiple social media channels.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo helps marketers identify popular content and track its performance, including reach and engagement.
Key Takeaways
“Incremental reach refers to the additional unique audience a campaign can reach beyond your existing or primary channels,” says Sasha Berson, co-founder and chief growth officer with Grow Law Firm. “It’s a critical metric when layering multiple media strategies, like pairing TV with digital or running social ads alongside display. The goal of tracking incremental reach is to measure the value of adding a new platform or placement.”
Users counted as incremental reach can be of extra value because their acquisition is relatively low cost; that’s because you’re not creating brand new marketing materials, but instead serving extant ads to new audiences in new places. “It’s most commonly used when evaluating paid media — like how many more people you’ll reach with YouTube ads that weren’t already seeing your brand through TV or social,” says Rodrigo Cesar, founder and CEO of SSInvent.
Monitoring incremental reach helps marketers understand the true impact of their efforts on reaching new audiences and can help them optimize their campaigns for better return on ad spend (ROAS).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is incremental reach vs. total reach?c
Incremental reach refers to the new and unique audience a new advertising channel or campaign reaches beyond what’s already reached by existing campaigns. Total reach, on the other hand, is the overall number of unique individuals who have seen an ad or campaign within a specific period, regardless of whether they’ve seen it before.
What is the difference between reach and frequency?
In marketing, reach refers to the number of unique individuals exposed to an ad, while frequency refers to the number of times those individuals see the message.
Why is frequency capping important for incremental reach?
Frequency capping is important for incremental reach because it prevents overexposure to the same audience, optimizing ad spend and improving budget efficiency. By limiting the number of times an ad is shown to a user, frequency capping ensures that ad budgets are not wasted on repetitive exposures, freeing up funds for reaching new audiences. It also helps prevent user fatigue.
How does incremental reach contribute to brand awareness?
Incremental reach contributes to brand awareness by exposing a brand to a unique audience that wouldn’t otherwise be reached. This expanded reach leads to increased brand visibility and recognition, ultimately driving greater awareness and potential conversion.
What are the best channels for achieving incremental reach?
To achieve incremental reach, marketers should leverage a combination of digital and analog channels, focusing on reaching audiences who haven’t been exposed to the brand before. This includes platforms like social media, email marketing, industry-specific blogs, and specialized forums, as well as TV advertising.
How does audience overlap affect incremental reach?
Audience overlap negatively impacts incremental reach, because with more overlap, fewer unique users are reached by a particular campaign. If multiple campaigns are targeting similar audiences, the overall reach may be less than if those campaigns were targeting distinct audiences, as some users may be exposed to multiple ads, reducing the number of truly new impressions.
What are the challenges of measuring incremental reach across channels?
Measuring incremental reach across channels presents several challenges, including data silos, lack of standardization, and privacy concerns. These obstacles hinder accurate attribution and optimization across different platforms and media types.
How does incremental reach impact advertising costs?
Incremental reach, the additional audience reached beyond a baseline target, can impact advertising costs by influencing how efficiently ad spend is allocated and how effective campaigns are. Generally, while incremental reach can drive higher return on investment (ROI) by reaching unique audiences, the cost per reach point may also increase, especially in more saturated channels.
What are some tools for measuring reach and frequency?
Several tools can be used to measure advertising reach and frequency, including social media platforms themselves, analytics tools like Hootsuite and Brand24, and Google Analytics. These tools provide data on impressions, engagement, and other metrics to assess campaign performance.
How does incremental reach relate to campaign ROI?
Incremental reach in marketing campaigns is directly related to ROI because it measures the additional impact a campaign has on a business’ bottom line. By identifying the incremental reach, marketers can accurately attribute the effectiveness of their campaigns to specific platforms or channels, helping them optimize spending and improve ROI.
