Bonus: How to Prove What’s Actually Working in Your Ad Spend — The Incrementality Mentality with Stella's Brenden Delarua
DTC Podcast · with Brenden Delarua · October 29, 2025 · 39 min
Summary
This episode cuts through the noise of vanity metrics, offering DTC brands a practical guide to measuring true ad spend efficacy. Brenden Delarua of Stella explains how to implement incrementality testing and media-mix modeling to shift from optimizing for ROAS to driving genuine P&L growth. Learn to confidently allocate budget to channels that deliver real business impact.
Key takeaways
Implement hold-out studies by picking distinct regions and measuring direct revenue lift, not just on-platform ROAS, to understand true incremental value.
Adopt an "Always On Incrementality" approach for daily causal analysis across campaigns, enabling continuous optimization based on real-time performance insights.
Utilize a three-word heuristic to assess creative diversity, ensuring your ad creatives are varied enough to drive sustained incremental lift rather than just reaching saturation.
Structure Meta campaigns with separate objectives for testing new creatives and scaling proven winners to optimize budget allocation and learning.
Be wary of branded search and retargeting as potential "traps" given their often low incrementality; focus instead on channels like CTV and YouTube that frequently demonstrate higher incremental lift.
Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupHello and welcome to the DTC Podcast. Today’s guest is Brenden Delarua, co‑founder of Stella, the measurement SaaS helping DTC brands convert media spend into real business growth through incrementality testing and media‑mix modelling (at a much lower price than a lot of other platforms).https://stellaheystella.comFollow Brenden on TikTok Why this matters for DTC marketers & media buyers:You’re under pressure to justify ad spend with profit, but your on‑platform ROAS doesn’t tell the full story.Brenden walks us through how to build and run incremental testing (hold‑out studies) + media‑mix models so you allocate budget to channels that drive real growth.We also dig into his view on channel incrementality: why CTV/YouTube often win, why branded search and retargeting may be traps, and how creative diversity and scaling methodology matter.Key moments in this episode:Why Brenden built Stella (the anxiety of hitting ROAS goals but not seeing P&L growth.)How to set up hold‑out incrementality studies: picking regions, measuring revenue lift, ignoring on‑platform vanity metrics.The “Always On Incrementality” concept: daily causal analysis across campaigns.Creative diversity review: three‑word heuristic to test if your ads are too similar.Campaign structure advice for Meta: testing vs scaling in two campaigns.Hot take on measurement: many brands over‑complicate it (and overpay) without actionable clarity.Future of media buying & AI: creative + measurement convergence.If you’re a DTC brand owner, media buyer or marketing leader t
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Implement hold-out studies by picking distinct regions and measuring direct revenue lift, not just on-platform ROAS, to understand true incremental value.
What does this episode say about analytics & attribution?
Adopt an "Always On Incrementality" approach for daily causal analysis across campaigns, enabling continuous optimization based on real-time performance insights.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Utilize a three-word heuristic to assess creative diversity, ensuring your ad creatives are varied enough to drive sustained incremental lift rather than just reaching saturation.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Structure Meta campaigns with separate objectives for testing new creatives and scaling proven winners to optimize budget allocation and learning.
What does this episode say about paid acquisition?
Be wary of branded search and retargeting as potential "traps" given their often low incrementality; focus instead on channels like CTV and YouTube that frequently demonstrate higher incremental lift.
