A leading personal care brand was keen on adding CTV ads through Universal Ads to their marketing mix. But as an omnichannel brand distributed across DTC, Amazon, Retail, and TikTok Shop, the team knew that DTC reporting alone could not reflect the full impact of CTV.
Before increasing spend, the brand partnered with WorkMagic to establish a causal baseline and measure the true incremental contribution of Universal Ads across their entire retail ecosystem. What the test revealed reframed how the team evaluated streaming TV performance — not just on Shopify, but across the business.
About the brand
A fast-growing natural wellness brand focused on immune support, energy, and brain health with over 18,000 retail locations in North America. Its portfolio includes functional supplements and remedies built around clean, high-quality ingredients sourced from nature.
As the brand has scaled, so has its retail footprint. While Shopify remains an important channel, a significant portion of revenue now occurs across Amazon, retail partners, and TikTok Shop. Marketing-driven demand frequently converts outside the brand’s owned storefront — making full-ecosystem measurement essential to understanding true performance.
Measuring the Full Cross-Platform Halo
With an increased appetite for video investment to drive top-of-funnel demand, the brand sought to rigorously evaluate Universal Ads as a scalable growth lever. The central question was clear:
Does Universal Ads drive true incremental lift across our entire business?
The complexity lay in the brand’s omnichannel structure — the brand's customers didn’t follow a linear path to purchase. They encountered it through CTV, considered across channels, and often converted on Amazon or at Target instead of Shopify. With other awareness channels like linear TV and podcast also driving demand, click-based attribution collapsed a multi-touch journey into one key interaction — which systematically underrepresented Universal Ads’ true impact.
Before allocating larger budgets to CTV, the team needed clarity on total incremental impact — particularly the halo effect occurring outside DTC.
A Geo Lift Test with Minimal Impact to Existing Campaigns
To establish a causal baseline, the brand ran a 21-day geo-based lift test with WorkMagic.
Universal Ads were withheld in a representative holdout group of markets while continuing to run in exposed regions. By comparing exposed and holdout DMAs, the test isolated Universal Ads’ incremental impact without disrupting ongoing campaigns.
Crucially, this measurement methodology allowed the brand to measure the impact of Universal Ads beyond just Shopify. Incremental orders and lift were calculated across Amazon, Target, TikTok Shop, and DTC, allowing the team to quantify the full cross-platform halo effect.
7.0× iROAS Confirmed Universal Ads as a Scalable Growth Channel
Within four weeks, they had their answer.
Universal Ads delivered a statistically significant 7.0% incremental lift while achieving a 7.0× incremental ROAS across the business.
The channel also drove meaningful acquisition impact, with 44.0% of incremental orders coming from new customers, demonstrating that Universal Ads was expanding demand rather than simply recapturing existing buyers.
How Incrementality Reframed Performance
When iROAS recalculated using incremental outcomes that included the halo effect outside of DTC, the brand recorded an iROAS of 7.0× — representing a 4.8× higher return than a DTC-only view suggested.
Similarly, incremental cost per acquisition declined by approximately 95% once halo sales were properly included.
In short, Universal Ads was not marginally undervalued — it was materially under-measured.
Where Incremental Orders Actually Occurred
As an omnichannel brand, a halo effect was expected — what the lift test revealed was its true magnitude.
95% of incremental orders occurred outside Shopify, with Amazon emerging as the largest beneficiary of Universal Ads, followed by Target and TikTok Shop.
Without a cross-platform lift test, the majority of Universal Ads’ impact would have remained invisible in DTC-only reporting.
What’s Next
The lift test validated Universal Ads and streaming TV as a scalable, high-efficiency growth channel. Most importantly, incrementality replaced assumptions with evidence. With a clear baseline established, the team gained the confidence to expand Universal Ads into an always-on strategy.