Conversion Tracking
Paid social measurement
Compare ad delivery, useful actions and confirmed business outcomes while keeping attribution and order definitions clear.
Measure paid social through three records: the ad platform’s delivery and attributed results, site or enquiry activity, and the business’s confirmed outcomes. Decide which business outcome matters before launch. A platform conversion can show that an event was attributed under its settings; it is not, by itself, a confirmed sale or evidence that the ad caused one.
Define the decision and its evidence
For a retailer, the outcome might be confirmed orders from eligible customers. For a service business, it might be enquiries that meet a written service and contact rule. Identify the record that establishes that outcome and who will review it.
| Question | Record to inspect | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Was the ad delivered? | Spend, impressions and reach in the ad account | Exposure does not establish interest. |
| Did people reach the destination? | Destination clicks, loaded-page measures and site analytics | The systems have different definitions and counting rules. |
| Did they take a useful step? | Defined site actions or assessed enquiries | An action may be incomplete or unsuitable. |
| Did sales leave enough value? | Confirmed orders and relevant variable costs | Attribution does not establish additional sales. |
Steps to Validate a Confirmed Business Outcome
- Define the business outcomee.g., confirmed orders from eligible customers or service enquiries meeting contact and eligibility rules
- Identify the record that confirms the outcomee.g., Shopify sales report with paid status, or manually reviewed enquiry logs
- Determine who reviews and validates the outcomee.g., finance team for orders, customer service for enquiries
- Exclude incomplete or invalid actionse.g., pending, cancelled, refunded, or duplicate orders
Read delivery measures in context
Impressions count how many times ads were shown; reach counts unique users who saw an ad at least once. Frequency is the average number of times each user saw an ad over a given period. These measures describe delivery differently and are not interchangeable counts.
TikTok Ads Manager also reports average seven-day frequency: the average number of times an ad was seen by a unique user in the target audience over seven days. Keep the reporting period beside this measure, because a seven-day average and a frequency measure over another period describe different intervals.
Key Paid Social Delivery Measures (TikTok Ads Manager)
- Impressions
- Number of times ads were shown
- Reach
- Unique users who saw an ad at least once
- Frequency
- Average number of times each user saw the ad over a period
- 7-Day Average Frequency
- Average views per unique user over seven days
Write down what each measure means
Check the exact click column. TikTok distinguishes clicks anywhere on an ad from clicks leading to a destination. Its landing-page view requires a click and a successfully loaded website page or TikTok Instant Page. A Google Analytics session is a separate site measure; the two counts need not match.
Define a useful visit for the offer. Viewing eligibility information or completing an enquiry may matter to a service business; a relevant product action may matter to a retailer.
Record the platform’s conversion event and attribution settings. TikTok, for example, can attribute a conversion after an ad view without a click. Keep attributed purchases beside confirmed orders or accepted enquiries, and do not add attributed counts from several platforms as though they were distinct customers.
Interpret platform rates by their denominator
TikTok defines conversion rate as conversions divided by impressions, and also provides a click-based conversion rate using destination clicks as the denominator. Keep the rate name and denominator visible when reviewing results; the two rates answer different measurement questions and should not be compared as if calculated on the same base.
TikTok defines cost per conversion as average ad spend per conversion, and cost per 1,000 people reached as average cost to reach 1,000 unique users. These measures describe different efficiencies: one relates spend to the selected conversion, the other to unique reach. Neither changes what the business counts as a confirmed outcome.
TikTok also reports real-time conversions and real-time conversion rates. Keep these labelled separately from the standard conversion columns in a review so the reporting basis is clear.
Platform Conversion Metrics: Key Differences in Denominators
- Conversion Rate (Impressions)
- Conversions ÷ Impressions
- Conversion Rate (Clicks)
- Conversions ÷ Destination Clicks
- Cost per Conversion
- Average Ad Spend ÷ Conversions
- Cost per 1,000 People Reached
- Average Ad Spend ÷ Reach × 1,000
Keep a short measurement specification
Record the campaign and destination, reporting dates and time zones, spend currency, conversion event, attribution settings, and the business outcome rule. If Google Analytics uses campaign URL tags, apply consistent source, medium and campaign names so one campaign is not split across report rows.
For orders, decide how payment status, cancellations, refunds, duplicates and pending records affect the count and value. Check the underlying order records before calling a dashboard total ‘confirmed sales’. Shopify’s Gross sales metric, for example, includes pending, unpaid and cancelled orders.
At each review, show spend and counts beside rates. If figures diverge, check event definitions, order status, dates, currency and attribution settings before judging the campaign. A change in tracking or an open refund period should be recorded with the result.
When the decision requires evidence that ads produced additional sales, ordinary attribution and order reports are insufficient. For Australian organisations using third-party website pixels, include a privacy review of what is collected and shared.
Measurement Specification Checklist for Paid Social Campaigns
- Campaign and destination URLRecorded and consistent
- Reporting dates and time zonesConfirmed and aligned across platforms
- Spend currencyStandardised (AUD)
- Conversion event and attribution settingsDocumented and unchanged during campaign
- Business outcome ruleDefined (e.g., paid orders only)
- Privacy compliance checkThird-party pixels reviewed under ATO and OAIC guidelines
Treat the attribution window as part of the measure
A view-through conversion is one that occurs after someone sees a TikTok ad, does not click, and then converts within the attribution window. TikTok says the appropriate window depends on business needs and recommends a 24-hour, or one-day, view-through window to understand conversions within 24 hours of ad impressions.
When comparing attributed results, record the view-through window alongside the conversion event and other attribution settings. A change to that window changes which post-view conversions can be counted under the setting.
Pros and Cons of View-Through Attribution (TikTok)
- ProsCaptures conversions from non-clicking users; useful for brand awareness campaigns; aligns with 24-hour post-impression behaviour
- ConsMay overestimate impact if window is too long; difficult to isolate ad influence; requires clear documentation of window length
In this guide
- Comparing platform-reported results with first-party salesReconcile attributed purchases with confirmed orders by defining each population and checking event, date, value and order-status rules.
- Separating clicks, landing-page views and useful visitsSee what each paid social traffic measure establishes and where to investigate a gap between ad interaction, page load and useful action.
- Reading paid social performance alongside contribution marginCalculate what confirmed sales leave after relevant variable costs and allocated ad spend, with attribution limits visible.
