Ad Platform Accuracy Audit: How Reliable Are Your Numbers
Ad platforms often take more credit than they deserve. Our accuracy audit compares your ad platform data against your Shopify store data to reveal the true source of your conversions.
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By Joris van Huët, Founder & CEOUpdated 1 min read
Do You Trust Your Ad Platforms?
You shouldn't. Ad platforms are black boxes that are incentivized to overstate their own importance. They use self-serving attribution models that make it impossible to know what is actually driving your growth.
The Audit Process
Platform-Attributed Conversions: The number of conversions that each ad platform (e.g., Meta, Google) claims to have generated.
Shopify-Attributed Conversions: The number of conversions that your Shopify store attributes to each channel, based on UTM parameters.
Attribution Delta = (Platform-Attributed Conversions - Shopify-Attributed Conversions) / Shopify-Attributed Conversions
The Impact of Inaccuracy
By understanding the true accuracy of your ad platforms, you can start making smarter investment decisions. You can learn more about our pricing here.
Related Resources
Incremental Lift Calculator: Measure Your True Marketing Impact
Customer Lifetime Value Calculator for Shopify Stores
Quarterly Marketing Review Template for Growth Teams
Frequently asked questions
Why do these discrepancies exist?
There are many reasons, including differences in attribution windows, cross-device tracking issues, and the simple fact that ad platforms are incentivized to take as much credit as possible. You can learn more about this topic in our resources.What can I do about these inaccuracies?
The first step is to acknowledge that they exist.
Go deeper: Causal attribution, explained.
Sixty-second versions of these ideas: Causality Engine on YouTube Shorts.
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Terms in this article
- AttributionAttribution identifies user actions that contribute to a desired outcome and assigns value to each. It reveals which marketing touchpoints drive conversions.
- Causal AnalysisCausal Analysis identifies true cause-and-effect relationships in data, moving beyond correlation to show how marketing actions directly impact outcomes.
- ConversionConversion is a specific, desired action a user takes in response to a marketing message, such as a purchase or a sign-up.
- ShopifyShopify is an ecommerce platform for creating online stores and selling products. Attribution modeling shows which marketing channels drive traffic and conversions within Shopify.
- UTM ParametersUTM Parameters are URL tags marketers use to track campaign effectiveness across traffic sources. They provide data for accurate campaign tracking and attribution in analytics platforms.