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The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryMeasurement & AttributionMulti-Armed Bandit

Measurement & Attribution

Multi-Armed Bandit

An adaptive testing method that shifts traffic toward better-performing variants during a test, trading some statistical certainty for less wasted traffic.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

A multi-armed bandit is an adaptive testing method that shifts traffic toward better-performing variants while a test is still running. Rather than splitting traffic evenly until the end, it balances exploring options with exploiting the current leader. This reduces traffic wasted on weak variants, at the cost of some statistical certainty about the final result.