How the Triple Pixel Works

The Triple Pixel is our attribution solution in a post-iOS 14 world. Learn how we're revolutionizing media buying with the Triple Pixel.

Chaim Davies avatar
Written by Chaim Davies
Updated over a week ago

Triple Pixel: Goal and Method

The Triple Pixel provides transparency and accuracy for your ad performance so that you can optimize your media buying with confidence.

Our Pixel acts as a sophisticated camera system on your store, building a unique anonymous identity of each visitor while tracking their events on your store during each site session. The Pixel tracks each ad the customer clicked on that led to a page on your shop. So, when they eventually make a purchase, we can attribute credit back to those ads that played a part in the customers' journey.

UTM Tracking Parameters

A UTM Tracking Parameter is a snippet of code that you can add to the end of a URL to track the performance of campaigns and content. (wiki)

By using our recommended Tracking Parameters in your Ads Manager accounts and marketing content, each visitor will actually be informing our Pixel exactly which ad they just clicked on before arriving at your store. Each time they click on another ad, we will append that touchpoint to their customer journey. When the customer ultimately makes a purchase, you'll see that entire journey mapped out -- pretty incredible, right?

To get the most out of the Triple Pixel, you will need to ensure you are using the proper Tracking Parameters.

Note: Keep in mind that our Pixel only has visibility on customer behavior from the moment we installed it on your site, and customer journeys through your marketing channels will only be reliable once those UTMs are updated. In short, you should wait for the length of your average customer journey (from first ad click until purchase) before deriving actionable insight.

Attribution Models

There are different methods for assigning credit to ads for the role they played in causing a customer to make a purchase. Because Triple Pixel tracks every touchpoint across your customers' entire customer journey, we can report on each of these events while giving you the tools to decide which ad click deserves credit for the ultimate purchase.

Dig Into Your ROAS Data

Some of the most powerful data from the Triple Pixel can be derived from really digging down to the ad level and seeing your true ROAS. Let's take a closer look. Click on the campaign name to see your ad sets and ads.

The highlighted-blue column displays your Triple Pixel ROAS - meaning, what our Triple Pixel has determined to be your true Return on Ad Spend based on our tracking and attribution data.

Our goal isn't to be consistently higher than Facebook (although we hope that to be the case!). Our goal is to tell you the truth about your attribution, so you can make the most informed decisions.

Clicking on the Pixel ROAS for any given campaign, ad set or ad will pull up the list of orders and customers we were able to track back to that particular ad.

Then, clicking on the name of a customer will then pull up the customer's journey across your marketing channels and your store, culminating in their purchase and any post-purchase survey reply. Talk about transparency!

Other Columns

Any column with the floppy-disk 💾 image consists of first-party data tracked by the Triple Pixel. So much data to explore!

We're tracking a ton of data with the Triple Pixel: Orders, Conversion Value, CPA, AOV, New Customer Data, Add to Carts, and so much more! Click the Columns button to add, remove, or rearrange columns of data on the table.

Channel Overlap

Not every customer journey is a straight line from ad to purchase. Many customers engage with ads from multiple ad channels before making a purchase on your store.

The Channel Overlap view provides a visual display of the number of customers who had multiple touch-points in their journey.

You can toggle between overlapping different ad channels by clicking the channel names at the bottom.

Live Orders

You can watch your orders and their attribution happen in real-time! The Live Orders section updates every time a new order is placed in your store.

As long as the customer clicked through an ad at some time before making the purchase, the Triple Pixel will instantly attribute the sale to the correct ad channel/s.

Why Triple Whale Can Do What Facebook Cannot

Facebook is a third-party app, bound by the limitations of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which launched in 2020. Unless a Facebook user has opted-in to sharing their data with Facebook, the Facebook Pixel can no longer track a user's path from ad-click/view -> conversion with the accuracy it once had. These limitations prevent Facebook from performing 1:1 attribution on about 75% of users.

In contrast, installing the Triple Pixel on your site will bridge the gap that Apple’s privacy policy has created between your website and digital ad platforms. Using first-party data, we will now have the ability to more accurately attribute ad clicks (from places like Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Pinterest & TikTok), to real conversions. Since we partner directly with you, the store, we're simply keeping an eye on your visitors and their activities in the shop -- while using UTMs to connect those events to the ads the visitor clicked on to arrive at your shop.

Happy Media Buying! 🔮

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