Joseph Joseph De-Risks Meta Reach Campaigns through Incrementality Testing with Causal Lift
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About Joseph Joseph
Founded in 2003 by twin brothers and designer-makers, Joseph Joseph is internationally recognized for its innovative, problem-solving approach to contemporary housewares. Designed in London and built to last, the brand blends functionality with disruptive design across award-winning kitchenware, laundry, and recycling products. Now sold in over 100 countries, Joseph Joseph maintains strong visibility through strategic marketing and advertising efforts aimed at engaging its global audience.
Can Reach Campaigns Bring New Visitors?
Most of Joseph Joseph’s advertising had historically focused on conversion, search ads, shopping campaigns, and direct response channels. For the first time, Joseph Joseph wanted to test a top-of-funnel brand campaign, specifically using Meta’s Reach objective.
This campaign type is built for one thing only: maximum visibility. It doesn’t optimize for clicks or traffic. Instead, it aims to get short video or image ads in front of as many people as possible.
The thinking was simple. If more people saw the brand, some might visit the site later, even if they didn’t click right away.
But there was a challenge. Since the ads don’t drive clicks, there’s no way to tie them to traditional tools such as UTM links or conversion tracking. That meant Joseph Joseph would have no visibility into whether the campaign led to down-funnel outcomes.
With plans to spend more significantly if the campaign looked promising, the team didn’t want to guess. They needed a way to test the impact and have proof of impact before committing a serious budget.
How Causal Lift’s Incrementality Testing Reduces Risk
To accurately measure the impact of Meta Reach campaigns, Joseph Joseph decided to run a small-scale incrementality test with Causal Lift before committing to a larger investment:
They started with a simple hypothesis:
“Brand visibility through a Meta reach campaign will significantly increase traffic to our Shopify store.”
To make that idea measurable, the team worked with Polar Analytics to turn it into a specific success threshold:
“The Meta Reach campaign will increase traffic at a cost of less than £2 per incremental session.”
The accurate and measurable hypothesis established a benchmark against which the campaign could be evaluated. With the goal in mind, the Causal Lift team scoped the campaign’s size and budget with a six-week duration to confidently measure performance:
- Limited Exposure: They ran the campaign in just 15% of the UK market, which made the test low-risk and easy to manage.
- Advanced Measurement: Causal Lift doesn’t rely on platform attribution or UTM tracking. Instead, it uses statistical modeling to compare regions that saw the ads with those that didn’t, making it possible to measure whether the campaign truly drove additional traffic, including visits from organic and branded search.
Understanding the True Cost of Meta Reach Campaigns
The experiment produced clear insights, though the results were not what the Joseph Joseph team hoped for:
- Session performance: The campaign aimed to increase sessions by 25%, but the observed lift was only +2.3%. The confidence interval ranged from -10.8% to +15.2%, meaning that even in the best-case scenario, the increase in sessions would fall short of the success threshold.
- Cost per incremental session: Translating these results into cost per session, the observed incremental session cost was £43, more than 20x the success benchmark of £2. The best-case scenario was a cost of £6.75, well above the £2 success benchmark.
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Extrapolating the results further, the campaign’s incremental CAC was £577 per customer. With the best-case estimate still at £39, it was too high to justify.
Despite reaching a large number of people, most didn’t return to the site, and the campaign wasn’t cost-effective for scaling. This test confirmed that running reach campaigns in isolation, especially in a down-funnel goal like driving traffic or conversions, was currently ineffective for their business. Joseph Joseph also acknowledged that awareness strategies may be more effective with a multi-channel brand initiative in a full-funnel marketing mix.
Having avoided scaling an underperforming campaign, Joseph Joseph shifted focus to channels with clearer performance metrics, planning to experiment further to guide future budget decisions.
What’s Next for Joseph Joseph
Joseph Joseph plans to continue using Causal Lift testing to guide its paid marketing strategies, refining its approach based on what actually drives measurable outcomes. By combining performance-based tactics with ongoing experimentation, the brand is well-positioned to scale efficiently, allocate budget more confidently, and continue driving both brand visibility and growth.
What where your goals ?
What are your marketing challenges ?
Can Reach Campaigns Bring New Visitors?
Most of Joseph Joseph’s advertising had historically focused on conversion, search ads, shopping campaigns, and direct response channels. For the first time, Joseph Joseph wanted to test a top-of-funnel brand campaign, specifically using Meta’s Reach objective.
This campaign type is built for one thing only: maximum visibility. It doesn’t optimize for clicks or traffic. Instead, it aims to get short video or image ads in front of as many people as possible.
The thinking was simple. If more people saw the brand, some might visit the site later, even if they didn’t click right away.
But there was a challenge. Since the ads don’t drive clicks, there’s no way to tie them to traditional tools such as UTM links or conversion tracking. That meant Joseph Joseph would have no visibility into whether the campaign led to down-funnel outcomes.
With plans to spend more significantly if the campaign looked promising, the team didn’t want to guess. They needed a way to test the impact and have proof of impact before committing a serious budget.
How did you monitor growth before Polar Analytics ?
How Causal Lift’s Incrementality Testing Reduces Risk
To accurately measure the impact of Meta Reach campaigns, Joseph Joseph decided to run a small-scale incrementality test with Causal Lift before committing to a larger investment:
They started with a simple hypothesis:
“Brand visibility through a Meta reach campaign will significantly increase traffic to our Shopify store.”
To make that idea measurable, the team worked with Polar Analytics to turn it into a specific success threshold:
“The Meta Reach campaign will increase traffic at a cost of less than £2 per incremental session.”
The accurate and measurable hypothesis established a benchmark against which the campaign could be evaluated. With the goal in mind, the Causal Lift team scoped the campaign’s size and budget with a six-week duration to confidently measure performance:
- Limited Exposure: They ran the campaign in just 15% of the UK market, which made the test low-risk and easy to manage.
- Advanced Measurement: Causal Lift doesn’t rely on platform attribution or UTM tracking. Instead, it uses statistical modeling to compare regions that saw the ads with those that didn’t, making it possible to measure whether the campaign truly drove additional traffic, including visits from organic and branded search.
Understanding the True Cost of Meta Reach Campaigns
The experiment produced clear insights, though the results were not what the Joseph Joseph team hoped for:
- Session performance: The campaign aimed to increase sessions by 25%, but the observed lift was only +2.3%. The confidence interval ranged from -10.8% to +15.2%, meaning that even in the best-case scenario, the increase in sessions would fall short of the success threshold.
- Cost per incremental session: Translating these results into cost per session, the observed incremental session cost was £43, more than 20x the success benchmark of £2. The best-case scenario was a cost of £6.75, well above the £2 success benchmark.
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Extrapolating the results further, the campaign’s incremental CAC was £577 per customer. With the best-case estimate still at £39, it was too high to justify.
Despite reaching a large number of people, most didn’t return to the site, and the campaign wasn’t cost-effective for scaling. This test confirmed that running reach campaigns in isolation, especially in a down-funnel goal like driving traffic or conversions, was currently ineffective for their business. Joseph Joseph also acknowledged that awareness strategies may be more effective with a multi-channel brand initiative in a full-funnel marketing mix.
Having avoided scaling an underperforming campaign, Joseph Joseph shifted focus to channels with clearer performance metrics, planning to experiment further to guide future budget decisions.
What were your needs ?
What’s Next for Joseph Joseph
Joseph Joseph plans to continue using Causal Lift testing to guide its paid marketing strategies, refining its approach based on what actually drives measurable outcomes. By combining performance-based tactics with ongoing experimentation, the brand is well-positioned to scale efficiently, allocate budget more confidently, and continue driving both brand visibility and growth.