- Compare last month’s platform conversions with real orders or real enquiries.
- Platforms reporting more sales than your store had is a red flag.
- Sudden jumps or drops with no change in the business usually mean a tag changed.
- Check which conversion actions are set as primary goals: those are what bidding optimises for.
Step 1: Get your real numbers
Pick last calendar month. Write down:
- Online stores: number of orders and revenue excluding GST, from Shopify or your store platform.
- Lead and booking businesses: the number of genuine enquiries or bookings, from your CRM, inbox or booking system. Leave out spam and duplicates.
Step 2: Get the platform numbers
- Google Ads: go to Goals, then Conversions. Note conversions and value for the same month for your main action. Add the “by conv. time” columns so dates line up with your records.
- Meta: in Ads Manager, note purchases or leads and their value for the same month, at account level.
Step 3: Compare
| What you see | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Google or Meta reports more orders than your store had | Duplicate tags, or one platform counting the same order twice |
| Google plus Meta together are well above store orders | Normal overlap between platforms, which you shouldn’t budget on |
| Platforms report far fewer conversions than expected | Missing or broken tags, often after a site or checkout change |
| Conversion values don’t match order values | GST, shipping or currency handled differently |
| Leads in Google or Meta far exceed real enquiries | Counting clicks, page views or spam as conversions |
Step 4: Look for warning signs
- Conversions jumped or dropped overnight, with no change in sales or spend.
- The same order ID appears twice in a conversion export.
- Conversion values include refunds that were later reversed.
- A newly installed app or plugin coincides with a change in reported conversions.
- Button clicks, phone-number taps or page views are set as primary conversions.
Step 5: Check what bidding is learning from
In Google Ads, open your conversion actions and see which are marked as primary. Automated bidding optimises toward all primary actions in a goal. If “add to cart” or “page view” is primary alongside purchases, Google will chase cheap, low-value actions. In Meta, check which event each campaign optimises for.
What should you do if something looks wrong?
- Note the date the numbers changed and what changed on the site around then.
- Remove duplicate tags so each platform has one purchase or lead tag.
- Set only real purchases or real enquiries as primary conversions.
- Re-run this check next month, and after every site, checkout or app change.
Our free Growth Diagnostic asks about the most common tracking problems and flags where your budget is most likely leaking.
Platform settings and defaults change often. This guide reflects Google Ads, Meta and Shopify as at 14 November 2026. For the short version, see the related FAQ answer.
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