Observed Signal · Jun 1, 2026 · Measurement · Source: AdExchanger · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Martinelli’s Proves Retail Media Incrementality with iROAS
Martinelli’s used match-control incrementality testing on Albertsons Media Collective to evaluate retail media beyond standard ROAS. For a holiday display campaign run across Albertsons, the brand measured a 33% lift in sales, 65% new-to-brand buyers and reported an incremental return on ad spend (iROAS) of $7.45, attributing credit only to lift versus a control group. Albertsons has been promoting longer-term metrics such as lifetime value and is exploring iROAS; research it commissioned with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and measurement firm Ovative found that ROAS vs. iROAS can diverge by as much as 6.5x and sometimes flip sign depending on methodology. Martinelli’s plans to apply incrementality-focused measurement across more media partners to prioritize new-customer acquisition over attributed repeat purchases.
Provides a concrete brand case study showing retail-media incrementality and iROAS metrics—useful operational guidance for advertisers and measurement teams but not a platform-level or regulatory shift.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Martinelli’s ran a holiday retail media display campaign across Albertsons and measured results using a match-control incrementality methodology.
- The campaign produced a 33% lift in sales and 65% new-to-brand buyers, with an iROAS of $7.45 reported by Martinelli’s.
- Albertsons Media Collective is surfacing lifetime value (LTV) in reporting and exploring incremental ROAS (iROAS) as a metric.
- Research conducted by Albertsons with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Ovative found campaigns can vary up to 6.5x between ROAS and iROAS and may flip sign depending on methodology.
- Martinelli’s plans to ask other media partners more incrementality-focused questions and apply the same playbook across its marketing portfolio.
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Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Incrementality and Ghost Ads Tackle Retail Media Measurement
Retail media spend and networks are rapidly expanding, but measurement remains fragmented and often relies on attribution models that can over-credit ads for sales that would have occurred anyway. The article argues that incrementality — experiment-based measurement of causal lift — is the right approach to determine true advertising impact. Ghost ads, a method that preserves auction dynamics by serving neutral placeholders to control groups, are highlighted as an effective way to create valid controls in retail media. DoorDash is named as an early adopter of ghost ads in retail lift studies; the article reports a 92% reduction in experimentation dilution and a 35% improvement in ROAS confidence intervals after implementing ghost ads. Wider adoption of incrementality approaches could improve budget allocation, platform accountability, and trust across the retail media ecosystem.
Retail Media Must Prove Incrementality for Broader Budgets
Retail media is maturing beyond its role as a performance channel for capturing existing demand. At Ascendant Network's inaugural SHOWCASE upfront, the industry discussed the need for retail media to create demand, not just capture it. Key themes included the shift from closed-loop attribution to incrementality measurement, and the need for standardized metrics across commerce media networks to allow advertisers to compare performance. DoorDash Ads highlighted a partnership with Circana showing that 56% of its buyers were net-new customers for a major beverage brand. DoorDash also earned certification from the Alliance for Audited Media for its incrementality measurement, underscoring the push for independent validation and accountability to compete for broader marketing budgets.
Retail Media Networks Revive Multi-Touch Attribution
Within a week in September 2026, two major retailers announced new multi-touch attribution (MTA) capabilities for their retail media networks. Albertsons Media Collective launched an incrementality-based MTA built with LiveRamp and piloted by PepsiCo, while Best Buy Ads released its own in-house MTA within My Ads. The author, Kiri Masters, questions the revival given MTA's fall from favor, but analyzes retailer incentives: MTA may serve as a tool to unlock brand budgets, which are larger than performance budgets, by justifying higher CPMs and measuring full-funnel impact. Retailers see demand from shopper marketing teams, but brands and consultants express skepticism about MTA's accuracy, data access, and black-box nature. The article contrasts retailer-owned systems with independent tools like Clerdata, Incremental, Keen Decision Systems, and Circana, and discusses limitations of the Albertsons-LiveRamp partnership, which is grocery-exclusive and excludes Google Search and Amazon.
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