How much revenue are your platforms claiming?
Enter what each ad platform reported for a period, and the revenue you actually recorded for the same period. The comparison takes thirty seconds and runs entirely in your browser.
The gap is structural — not deception.
Each platform credits itself with the same sale
A customer who clicks a Google ad, later sees a Meta remarketing ad, and then purchases will typically appear as a conversion in both platforms’ reporting. Add the platform numbers together and the total routinely exceeds the revenue the company actually recorded. Neither platform is lying; each is answering a different question.
Attribution settings flatter the reporter
Attribution windows — how long after an ad interaction a sale still counts — and view-through conversions, which credit ads that were merely displayed, are configured within each platform. Widen the window and reported performance improves with no change in the business.
Privacy changes made the numbers modelled
A meaningful share of conversions never reaches the platforms as observed events, and the platforms fill the gap with statistical modelling. Modelled figures can be reasonable estimates; they are not records, and they cannot be audited from the dashboard that displays them.
Whatever your ratio, it is a prompt for inquiry rather than proof of wrongdoing — and the inquiry has a standard shape: reconcile the platform reports against the revenue line, verify the definitions underneath them, and decide which number the business runs on. That reconciliation, done independently, is an independent marketing audit.
The methodology, and the four questions to ask next.
Asked before typing numbers in.
Is anything I enter stored or sent anywhere?
The calculation runs entirely in your browser and the revenue figures never leave the page. If you request the emailed report, the contact details on that form are transmitted — and, only if you tick the box, the single calculated percentage, so the guidance can be written to your result. Nothing else, ever.
Does a ratio above 100% mean a platform is lying?
No. The overlap is structural: each platform answers “what revenue did ads on my platform touch?”, and several platforms can truthfully touch the same sale. The ratio is a prompt for inquiry — it tells you the reports need reconciling, not that anyone fabricated them.
What does it mean if my platforms claim less than I recorded?
Usually under-tracking: conversion signal lost to privacy changes or tracking gaps, or revenue arriving through channels the platforms never see — organic, direct, referral, repeat customers. It is worth understanding either way, because budget decisions lean on these numbers.
Where should the “actual revenue” figure come from?
Your source of truth — the accounting system or the revenue line the board sees, for the same period as the platform figures. The comparison only means something when both sides cover identical dates.
Let’s talk about what’s next.
For executive advisory, fractional CMO, AI search strategy or speaking enquiries.
sam@sampark.com.au