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Ads and acquisition

What is marketing attribution?

Marketing attribution is deciding which ads, emails and touchpoints get credit for a sale.

A real store example

Uproot Clean washing machine cleaner advertorial: over 150 Meta ads linked here.

Northbeam, an attribution tool, is detected on this page. A shopper might read the advertorial from a Meta ad, search the brand a week later and buy from an email; attribution decides which of those touches gets the credit.

Open the pageSee their ads

Getting marketing attribution right

  1. Pick one model and keep it

    Last click, first click and data-driven models give different answers. Comparing numbers across models misleads more than any one of them.

  2. Check platform claims against orders

    Add up what each ad platform claims and compare it with real orders. The gap shows how much is double-counted.

  3. Watch MER alongside

    Total revenue divided by total marketing spend doesn't depend on attribution, so it keeps everyone honest.

Ask Replo: "compare Meta's reported sales with Shopify orders by week".

Compare the numbers

Marketing attribution questions

What is last-click attribution?
Last-click attribution gives all the credit for a sale to the final touch before purchase, often a branded search or email. It's simple, but it undervalues the ads that introduced the shopper to the brand.
Why do ad platforms claim more sales than I made?
Each platform credits any sale inside its own attribution window, so one order can be claimed by Meta, Google and TikTok at once. Add their claims up and they'll often exceed your real revenue.
Do I need an attribution tool?
Not at first. UTM tags, your store's own reports and MER cover most decisions for a young store. Dedicated tools earn their cost once you spend across several channels.

Related terms

Browse the glossary

UTM parameters

UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL that tell your analytics which source, campaign and ad sent a visitor.

Meta Pixel

The Meta Pixel is a snippet of code on your site that reports visits and purchases back to Meta so it can measure and optimize your ads.

MER

MER (marketing efficiency ratio) is total store revenue divided by total marketing spend, across every channel.

ROAS

ROAS (return on ad spend) is the revenue an ad campaign brings in for every dollar spent on it: revenue from ads divided by ad spend.

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