Metric Discrepancies & Attribution
Why Google Ads, Meta, and your CRM show different numbers for the same campaign — and how to tell which one to trust.
Articles in this collection
14 articlesThe Cross-Channel Cannibalization Matrix
Brand search, retargeting and email often all claim the same order. Build an overlap matrix in SQL to spot stolen baseline demand.
Retargeting steals credit from prospecting (and how to prove it)
Retargeting reports 9x ROAS by harvesting demand prospecting created. The pause test that measures its true share and the weekly budget split.
View-through conversions: when to count them, when to ignore them
One toggle moves reported conversions 35% with zero business change. What a view-through really is and the three-column report that keeps it honest.
Same word, different maths
Meta and Google use the same metric names for different maths. How to reconcile conversions, windows, ROAS and frequency every Monday.
GA4 doesn’t match ads?
When GA4 and ad platforms show different numbers, run this 4-step sequence to diagnose tagging breaks, window mismatches, hidden slices, and definition gaps.
Why yesterday’s ROAS lies
Same-day conversions are provisional because buyers take time. A two-read rhythm so you never pause a winning ad on yesterday's partial ROAS.
The tiny URL code your attribution depends on
GCLID and FBCLID tie customer clicks to database orders. Here is where click IDs break, how to store them, and how server-side APIs recover lost attribution.
Teach Google what a real sale looks like
Pixels track lead forms; your CRM tracks revenue. How to feed verified offline sales back into Google and Meta so smart bidding chases real customers.
Why your iPhone numbers got worse
Removed device IDs halved dashboard ROAS while real sales held steady. How to measure iOS with SKAN and blended MER instead of broken pixels.
Shopify, GA4 and Meta disagree?
Three systems, one day, three revenue totals — and none of them is broken. Here is how to reconcile timezones, taxes, shipping, and refunds line by line.
What “How did you hear about us?” is really for
Post-purchase surveys never match tracking pixels because they measure memory, not clicks. How to use survey data to spot channels your pixels miss.
UTM names that survive three agencies
Most UTM taxonomies fall apart the moment a new agency onboards. Here is a convention, a weekly validator query, and a clean normalisation view.
Half your conversions are estimates.
Ad platforms model conversions to fill privacy blind spots. What Google, Meta and GA4 estimate, and how to report without misleading your team.
Why Google Ads ROAS never matches your database
Google Ads, Meta, and your database each attribute revenue differently. Here is why the numbers never match and how to reconcile them with a 3-tier framework.