Here's a promotion audit question worth asking. Who is actually using your disco
By Adam Weiler · November 11, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Here's a promotion audit question worth asking.
Who is actually using your discounts?
For most brands... the answer is uncomfortable.
Their loyal customers. The ones who were going to buy anyway.
Brand cart abandoners. Active subscribers. Recent purchasers.
These are people already deep in the funnel. You didn't acquire them with that promotion. You just gave them a discount they didn't need to convert.
That's not promotion spend. That's margin burning.
Here's the difference that matters.
Incremental promotions acquire NEW customers. People who had no relationship with your brand. High-potential buyers who needed a reason to try.
Non-incremental promotions reward existing customers. Feels like retention. Usually isn't.
And the metric that separates the two?
Promotional cost of acquiring customers. PCAP.
Not discount volume. Not redemption rate. How many genuinely new buyers did this promotion bring in?
A brand tailored promotion targeting cart abandoners might look efficient. But if those people were coming back anyway... your true new customer acquisition from that spend is close to zero.
Flip the same budget to a high-potential new customer segment?
Suddenly it's doing real work.
Here's the quick audit:
→ Pull your last three Brand Tailored Promotions.
→ Look at what customer segment each one targeted.
→ Ask: what percentage of those buyers were genuinely new to the brand?
That answer will tell you whether your promotion budget is growing the business... or just keeping existing customers slightly happier.
When did you last audit your Amazon promotions for actual new customer incrementality?