Root Cause Analysis: Shopify + Meta Ads
Why did this number change? askotter reads Shopify and Meta Ads together and answers it for your business, by text.
How does root cause analysis with Shopify and Meta Ads work for a small business?
askotter reads Shopify and Meta Ads side by side so it can test each explanation against your connected accounts and find the cause. A ranked list of likely causes, each with the evidence behind it.
Read the full answerShow less
The owner asks follow-up questions by text.
- From Shopify
- Orders and revenue, Product performance, Customer profiles and segments.
- From Meta Ads
- Campaign and ad set performance, Creative performance, Audience targeting data.
- Status
- Both connect today.
- Not for
- Replacing Shopify or Meta Ads. Both keep working exactly as they do now.
Why did this number change?
Bookings dropped 23%. The ad, the website and the weather all get blamed. Without your accounts side by side, it stays a guess.
How askotter handles it
askotter reads Shopify and Meta Ads side by side, so it can test each explanation against your connected accounts and find the cause.
A person checks the result before it reaches you. This is part of our conversion rate optimization work.
How Shopify and Meta Ads records line up
Meta appends an fbclid parameter to ad clicks, and Shopify and Meta Ads can both keep it. A click in one tool can then be found again in the other.
Shopify and Meta Ads both store the customer's email address. askotter lowercases and trims it on both sides before matching, so the same person shows up as one customer across the two tools.
Shared between the two: the Meta click ID (fbclid), the customer email address and the UTM campaign tags.
What root cause analysis uses from each
Root cause analysis needs timestamps precise enough to put events in order.
From Shopify that means order timestamps, discount codes and refund dates. From Meta Ads it means creative changes and delivery status by ad.
What each tool sees on its ownShow less
Shopify on its own
Shopify sees the order and the landing page. It has no view of the ad impressions, emails or searches that came before that session.
Timing. Shopify writes each order the moment it is placed, including the landing page and referring site of the session that bought.
Access. Read-only access through the Shopify Admin API, approved from the store admin.
Meta Ads on its own
Meta sees who saw and clicked an ad. It cannot see a sale its pixel missed, and lead-form contacts stop being visible to it once they leave Facebook or Instagram.
Timing. Meta reports conversions under its own attribution setting, seven days after a click and one day after a view by default.
Access. The Meta Marketing API with read access to the ad account.
Related guides
- Which Integrations Are Worth Connecting. An integration earns its place when it changes a decision. Most of them just move data from one screen you ignore to another.
- How to Measure Marketing ROI When You're Not a Data Scientist. The right questions can do the work of a data team.
Services that use these connections
Other analyses: Shopify + Meta Ads
Questions about Shopify + Meta Ads
Do I need a developer to connect Shopify and Meta Ads?
How is askotter's Root Cause Analysis different from what Shopify shows on its own?
Connect Shopify + Meta Ads. Five minutes.
Plans are on the digital marketing pricing page.
Self-managed is $99/mo and scales with the compute you use. Our team runs it from $600/mo.