How revenue attribution works (and how to reconcile with Facebook, Google and TikTok)

If a sale shows up under a different channel in TrueMetriks than it does in Facebook or Google, nothing is broken. The two are answering different questions, and each is right about its own question. Once you see which question each one asks, the numbers stop looking like they disagree. This page covers the three attribution models, why the date range changes the answer, and how to compare TrueMetriks against an ad platform.

What are the three attribution models?Link copied

The Attribution dropdown on the Revenue page decides which channel gets credit for a sale. Pick a model and the whole table recalculates.

• First-touch gives the credit to the channel that first brought the person in. Use it to see what starts journeys.
• Last-touch gives the credit to the channel on the visit where the sale happened. This is the default. Use it to see what closes sales.
• Any-touch gives credit to every channel the person touched on the way to buying. If someone touched Facebook, then Google, then email before buying, all three get credit for that one sale.

Any-touch credits one sale to more than one channel, so the per-channel numbers can add up to more than your real sales count. That is normal. The channel columns can add up to more than the Total row, but the Total row still shows the true number of sales. No revenue is counted twice; one sale is just shown in every channel that helped. For a deeper look at the models and how to read one buyer's path, see Buyer journeys and attribution models.

Why does a sale show under a different channel than Facebook or Google?Link copied

The table only counts the touches inside the date range you picked. That is on purpose. It answers "in this range, which channels drove sales," not "across all time." Change the range and you change which touches are in view, which can change which channel gets the last-touch credit.

Here is the example that confuses people. Someone:

1. Clicks a Facebook ad on day 1.
2. Clicks a Google ad on day 2.
3. Opens an email and buys on day 3.

Look at day 3 on its own with last-touch and TrueMetriks credits Email, because email is the only touch in that one day and it is the visit where they bought. At the same time, Facebook still counts the sale, because it looks back several days from the ad click and sees its day-1 click. Google does the same thing with its own click on day 2. Every ad platform works this way: it looks back over its own window and claims any sale that followed one of its clicks. So the same sale can honestly show up in TrueMetriks under Email, in Facebook, and in Google all at once.

To see the full picture in TrueMetriks, widen the date range to cover day 1 through day 3 and switch to any-touch. Now Facebook, Google, and Email all show credit for that buyer, which matches what each ad platform tells you.

What is the difference between Purchases and Buyers?Link copied

These two columns count different things, and it is easy to mix them up.

• Purchases counts orders. One person who orders three times is three purchases.
• Buyers counts people. That same person is one buyer, no matter how many times they ordered.

Use Buyers when you want to know how many customers you won, and Purchases when you want to know how many orders came in. When you compare against an ad platform, use Purchases, because ad platforms count conversions (orders), not unique people.

How do I compare TrueMetriks with an ad platform?Link copied

To check TrueMetriks against Facebook, Google, or TikTok for a period:

1. Set the date range to the period you want to compare.
2. Switch Attribution to Any-touch. This credits every channel that helped, which is the closest match to how ad platforms count.
3. Filter the Channel to the exact platform, for example Facebook Paid, Google Paid, or TikTok Paid.

Pick the exact platform, not a broad group. Choosing Paid Social also pulls in Google and TikTok, so the number comes out too high to compare against a single ad manager. Facebook Paid shows only the traffic you can line up against Facebook, Google Paid against Google Ads, and TikTok Paid against TikTok. See the Facebook, Google Ads, and TikTok guides for how that data arrives.

Why won't the numbers match 100%?Link copied

Aim for about 95%, not a perfect match. A few honest gaps sit between any two tools, and it helps to know them so you do not chase a number that cannot exist.

• Sales from people who only saw the ad. Facebook and Google both count some sales from people who saw an ad but never clicked it. A tool that measures clicks cannot see a view that was never clicked, so the ad platform will always claim a few sales TrueMetriks gives to another channel.
• Clicks from before you installed the tracker. A new tracker only knows about clicks that happened after it went live. Sales from earlier clicks look unattributed until enough time passes.
• Blocked signals. Safari, ad blockers, and privacy settings hide a small share of clicks on every platform. This is a few percent, not most of your traffic.

None of these mean a tool is broken. They are why two correct tools land close to each other instead of exactly on top of each other. Use last-touch to see what closes sales, any-touch to see every channel that helped, and the steps above when you need to compare a period against Facebook, Google, or TikTok.