Meta Ads FAQ

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Meta Ads FAQ

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1. How do I connect an extra account or remove an account?

Reference our step-by-step guide below:

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2. Will my Meta Ads be reset to the learning phase?

Yes, editing UTMs on active ads resets the ad to the learning phase, which may temporarily affect performance. Our recommendation:

• Update all your Meta Ads at once to minimize disruptions and start benefiting from Northbeam tracking immediately.
• Alternatively, you can wait for a low-traffic period or your next creative refresh to make changes. (Note: Ads without Northbeam UTMs won’t be fully tracked.)

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3. Can Northbeam ingest UTMs from other tracking platforms?

Yes! Northbeam can ingest UTMs from other tracking platforms, including Triple Whale, Hyros, Rockerbox, and Wicked Reports. If your ads already use UTMs from these platforms, you may not need to manually implement Northbeam’s UTMs, helping you avoid sending ads back into the learning phase. For details on supported UTM structures, check out our guide: 🔗 Using Legacy Meta UTMs with Northbeam

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4. Can you track conversions from Meta Shops?

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For Shopify

No action needed here! We’ve got you covered when it comes to tracking conversions from Meta Shops. By utilizing Shopify’s data, we meticulously identify and record all completed orders through Meta Shop.

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For All Other Platforms

It’s important for us to understand which order(s) were placed via Meta Shops. Step 1: Within the Orders API, please insert a unique Order Tag (“order_tags” in API Docs) and resend the orders. Step 2: Please notify our team and let us know the name of the tag associated with Meta Shops Step 3: Our team will notify you when we’re good to go!

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5. How can I see Meta Shops credit?

Your Attributed Revenue and Transactions will seamlessly incorporate this credit, whether you’re using the Clicks Only attribution model or the Clicks + Modeled Views attribution model.

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6. Why do I see a data discrepancy?

Discrepancies in Revenue and Orders are expected. Here’s why:

• Northbeam’s attribution: Divides credit across all touchpoints and channels, with an emphasis on upper-funnel contributions.
• Meta’s attribution: Typically relies on Last Click within a 7-Day Click/1-Day View window.

Northbeam’s Clicks-Only model divides credit across all touchpoints and tries to push credit to your upper funnel channels. Let’s say your in-platform model uses Last Click, which gives credit to the last touchpoint in the journey. This is going to cause a discrepancy. To take it one step further, let’s say both Northbeam and in-platform are using Last Click. Northbeam is unique in that we recognize all touchpoints from every single channel. Whereas most platforms only recognize touchpoints from that same platform. In addition, there’s often a difference in the attribution window. By default, Northbeam leverages a 1-Day window, which is different than many other platforms’ default. To get the most apples to apples comparison, be sure to compare data using same Attribution Model and Attribution Window. But keep in mind, it will never be exact.

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Attribution Models and Windows

Meta:

• Attribution Model: Last Click
• Attribution Window: 7-Day Click/1-Day View
  • Source: Meta Attribution Settings

Northbeam:

• Attribution Model: Varies (default is Clicks-Only)
• Attribution Window: 1-Day (default, can extend to an infinite lifetime value)

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For more details on discrepancies, review the articles below

Why are my metrics different in Northbeam than in-platform reporting?

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7. Why doesn’t Meta-reported Purchases in Northbeam match in-platform?

Northbeam pulls purchase conversion volume and value by individual attribution models directly from your Meta Ads Manager (via API):

• 1D Click
• 1D View
• 7D Click
• 7D Click + 1D View

The standard Purchase metric, in Meta Ad manager, reflects each ad set’s conversion total based on its own attribution setting. If you’re seeing a difference in value and/or volume, a few things could cause this:

• Mixed Attribution Settings - Meta’s default purchase total reflects each ad set’s individual attribution setting. If ad sets are on different windows, the total won’t match any single window.
• Incremental Model - If any ad sets are on Meta’s “Incremental” model (found under Attribution model in ad set settings), those conversions use a holdout-based methodology that Northbeam doesn’t ingest — we only pull standard click and view windows.
• Attribution window columns aren’t additive - The breakdown columns overlap — 7-day click is inclusive of 1-day click, so adding them double counts. Meta deduplicates in the default metric, which is why the parts don’t sum to the total.

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What to do

• Compare Northbeam to Meta’s purchases by attribution setting, not the default total — this ensures an apples-to-apples comparison.
• Check for ad sets on Meta’s Incremental model.

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8. I think there’s an issue with tracking. Please help!

Please reference our Troubleshooting Tracking Issues FAQ.

• Connection: Make sure your Ad Account is still connected. Go to Settings > Connections and check for any errors. Connections could break for a variety of reasons, but most commonly, the User losing access to the Ad Account.
• UTMs: Ensure all your ads contain Northbeam UTMs, as listed in the UTM step above.
• Northbeam Pixel: Ensure the Northbeam Pixel is firing on your landing page. Note that some site themes may not automatically transfer to landing pages on certain third-party apps, necessitating manual pixel placement.
• Purchase Pixel: Confirm that the Purchase Pixel is firing on your checkout page.
• A-Record Setup: Verify that the A-Record is correctly configured in your DNS Settings.