The Difference Between TripleWhale/Northbeam Data & What Meta is Reporting
Why It Matters
It's really important to understand the difference between the data you get from Meta and what third-party tools like TripleWhale or Northbeam provide. If you're not clear on which data to trust, you might end up making decisions based on conflicting information, which isn’t ideal for optimizing your campaigns.
Meta's data is becoming more accurate and is what their algorithm uses for optimization. On the other hand, third-party tools pull in click-based data from first-party sources like UTMs, which can tell a different story, especially when you consider things like view-through conversions and retargeting efforts.
Instead of just choosing one source of data blindly, the best approach is to find a common ground—a single source of truth—when making decisions. It's also wise to validate your performance using broader metrics, such as MER or aMER. This way, you're not just reacting to attribution noise but are actually optimizing based on real performance data.
The main thing to take away from this blog is this:
Third-party tracking software data and Meta in-platform data on a 7-day click basis is getting closer to equal, meaning Meta is getting more and more correct.
HOWEVER, it’s up to each brand to determine which platform to fully trust and make optimization decisions based off of, AND compare those always to another metric that is harder to be a gray area of data, like shop-wide MER or overall aMER.
Watch the recap video for a 9 minute highlight of straight GOLD data for you and your clients as it comes to reporting in 2023. Love what you’re seeing? The full video was a 55-minute webinar on Attribution Discrepancies that you could be a part of too! Check out the Foxwell Founders Membership here. Now for the more in-depth TL;DR:
Third-party tracking software data is based off of UTMs, which are first-party data. Also note that Meta uses modeled view-based (as opposed to TripleWhale or Northbeam click-based data only) conversions in addition to click-based.
Meta’s reported data is starting to become more reliable to look at as truth and optimize off of.
Retargeting and retention targeting can muddy the waters of data in either type of reporting landscape
It’s in everyone’s best interest for Meta’s in-platform reported data to be correct, as that’s the data Meta is self-optimizing (via AI and the algorithm) off of.