• by Laurie Sullivan , Yesterday

Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media arm of Albertsons Companies, launched onsite incrementality measurement designed to help advertisers better understand the impact of performance and retail media investments.

The method describes how incrementality measurement relies on test-and-control frameworks to isolate the effect of media exposure to advertisers. It offers a clear view of incremental lift and enables more standardized metrics to compare across campaigns.

“Isolating the impact of media has become so important because we live in a world high accountability, and marketers need to know what drives incremental results and not just what’s expected,” Liz Roche, vice president of media and measurement at Albertsons Media Collective, told MediaPost.

ROAS is an important metric to examine efficiencies, Roche said, but it is better to know that the ads actually influence consumer behavior. This type of measurement gets much closer to causal impact.

Recent research from Albertsons Media Collective, Ovative and Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management found incremental return on ad spend (iROAS) can vary by 6.5x and flip results in 83% of campaigns based on methodology alone, underscoring the need for more transparent, consistent measurement.

S. Martinelli & Co. became an early tester of the new measurement capability in a campaign between November 2025 through January, Scott Lee, vice president of marketing at S. Martinelli & Co., told MediaPost in an interview.

“The frontend setup was easy, and we got the results about a month after the campaign completed,” Lee said. “Historically, we have been able to get some metrics out of a campaign like this like the number of people new to the brand when purchasing, a more of a traditional ad spend metric.”

He called out the ability to understand the true ROAS and impact of the ad investment.

“With more traditional ROAS metrics, you never really know how much of that subsidizes the base of consumers who already buy your product,” Lee said, adding that the company plans to spend ad dollars more with Albertsons this year because of the incrementality metric.

Lee has more confidence in the sales lift after being able to measure during the test campaign more than 33% sales lift, 65% new-to-brand buyers, and $7.45 in iROAS.

Martinelli recently launched a sparkling juice in a 8.4 oz. can, and plans to run a campaign across Albertsons retail media network.

Albertsons Media Collective’s new capability isolates the causal impact of media from purchases that may have occurred regardless, and enables advertisers to evaluate how campaigns influence business outcomes with greater precision.

Through transparent and actionable measurement, brands can optimize media spend, refine creative strategy and improve audience targeting based on a clearer understanding of performance.