Attribution Overlap

Attribution overlap occurs when multiple ad platforms claim credit for the same conversion. For example, a customer might click a Facebook ad, then later click a Google ad before purchasing. Both Facebook and Google would claim 100% credit for that conversion in their respective dashboards. This creates a major problem: if you add up the conversions reported by each platform, the total exceeds your actual conversions. Similarly, if you calculate ROAS for each platform and use those numbers for budget allocation, you're making decisions based on inflated metrics. Attribution overlap is especially common between prospecting channels (like Facebook) and retargeting or branded search (like Google). The solution is to use a unified attribution system that deduplicates conversions and assigns credit based on a consistent model. Alternatively, focus on incrementality testing to understand true causal impact rather than relying on platform-reported attribution.