The Premium Incremental Sales Brands Are Missing

Note: CJ is delighted to have Affinity Global as a sponsor for CJU 2026. As part of their sponsorship, they have shared this post on strategies to drive incrementality.

For most performance marketers, the problem is not a lack of channels. It is that too many brands are competing in the same ones.

Search, content, coupon and other performance channels remain critical to driving commerce. At the same time, the customer journey is expanding across OEM and browser environments, CTV, in-app experiences, and emerging AI-led surfaces. These touchpoints create additional opportunities to reach consumers closer to moments of discovery and intent, often with signals owned directly at the source.

Today, Affinity drives over $4 billion in annual commerce sales across 3,000+ merchants. We focus on giving advertisers access to high-impact and emerging channels where they reach buyers with genuine intent.

How much of that opportunity sits outside your current media mix?

Incremental doesn't mean “one more channel”

“Incremental” is one of those words marketers hear constantly and cannot ignore. Here, it means reaching consumers through placements and environments that are not already covered by traditional channels.

Incrementality isn't the result of any one channel alone; it comes from how these surfaces combine to boost reach, intent, and measurable value alongside the rest of the media mix.

Content, coupons, email, search, browser start pages, OEM placements, mobile, and newer digital surfaces each enable a different way to engage consumers across the commerce journey, helping advertisers tap into newer audiences and rethink their plan for reaching existing ones.

Reach is nice. Revenue is better.

New inventory only matters if it performs.

Affinity gives advertisers access to more than 1 billion users globally, with campaigns delivering 5-10x ROAS across its ecosystem. The value is not just more reach. It is the ability to connect with consumers at different levels of intent and measure how those interactions contribute to conversion.

Formats such as quick-access icons enable direct links to brands across browser and device surfaces, while high-impact banner placements help campaigns stand out around launches, offers and key seasonal moments. Beyond these, Affinity also activates across mobile, content and other intent-rich environments.

That breadth and customer intelligence make it possible to build a performance plan around the consumer context instead of forcing every objective into the same placement.

As marketers add more surfaces, they need to know where their ads appear, what signal sits behind the placement and whether the resulting sales are genuinely incremental rather than duplicated reach. CJ-compatible full-funnel measurement technology helps make that distinction clearer across the path to purchase.

You may know us as VEVE and SitePlug

You already know parts of our story.

Affinity’s capabilities have evolved over more than a decade, from SitePlug’s early work within CJ to VEVE’s expansion across browsers, OEMs and mobile. The addition of CTV offerings is the latest step in our evolution, broadening the range of surfaces available to marketers.

Today, that experience comes together under Affinity, giving advertisers access to capabilities that took years of direct partnerships and technology development to build.

The performance proof is already here

This is not a future-looking thesis waiting for proof.

E-commerce brands are already using these environments, alongside advertisers in travel, finance, entertainment and other performance-driven categories. Across Affinity campaigns, these surfaces have delivered 3-5% conversion rates and 5-10x ROAS. Affinity has also achieved 95%+ client retention, reinforcing how these channels contribute measurable, repeatable value and help brands reach audiences that can be incremental to their existing media programs.

That performance is supported by more than reach alone. First-party signals owned at the source, multi-touch attribution and verified premium inventory help marketers understand where engagement is coming from and how it contributes to the eventual conversion.

The opportunity is also broadening. Affinity works across 20+ independent browsers, alongside OEMs, mobile environments, and content, while newer AI-led surfaces are creating additional moments where consumers discover, compare and decide.

CTV is entering the mix as well, extending the number of environments where brands can engage consumers throughout the commerce journey. Affinity continues to evolve around those changes, just as it has expanded from search and publisher monetization.

For marketers, the question is no longer whether there are incremental opportunities beyond the usual channels.

The opportunities are already here. Consumers are already here. Sales are already happening.

The only question left is: how much of yours is someone else capturing?