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Ad cannibalization

Cannibalization is the share of ad-attributed orders a channel takes credit for that would have happened without the ad.

Ad cannibalization

Cannibalization is the gap between attributed conversions and incremental conversions, expressed as a percentage. A campaign with 60% cannibalization gets credit for 60% of orders that other channels would have produced for free.

The usual suspects

Branded search, broad retargeting, and Performance Max routinely cannibalize organic, email, and SMS. The platforms have no mechanical reason to disclose this: their reporting counts every assisted touch.

How to measure it

A holdout experiment measures it directly. The exposed audience receives ads; the control does not. Cannibalization is the share of attributed orders the control produces anyway.

What to do about it

Cut, cap, or kill the cannibalizing campaign, depending on whether the holdout shows zero, partial, or fully redundant incrementality.

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