One of the biggest challenges that online retailers face is the difference in attribution between online channels that are used to promote their products. Where to spend the media budget when it is not clear what the value of the channel is?

When using Facebook to advertise your ecom activities, the platforms algorithm is used to optimize towards the best performing audience or ad, based on the amount of purchases that Facebook attributes to their system. Because digital eco systems don’t cooperate smoothly due to the ‘walled’ nature, often the amount of purchases in Facebook does not correspond to, for instance, the amount of purchases that Google Analytics (GA) attributes to social. Although the total amount of purchases is clear, the difference in attribution can create a conflict between data used for optimizing campaigns and data used to report on the progress towards business goals.