Understanding and Troubleshooting Meta Ads Data Reporting

This article explains how Facebook Ads data reporting works when using SHOPLINE with Meta. It also shows you how to verify your reporting configuration, compare reported data in Meta Events Manager, understand reporting metrics, and troubleshoot common reporting discrepancies.

Setting Up Facebook Ads Data Reporting

SHOPLINE supports the following methods for reporting conversion data to Meta:

• Authorizing Meta Pixel and Conversions API with Meta Business Extension (MBE)
• Manually Adding Meta Pixel and Conversions API

We recommend using Meta Business Extension (MBE) whenever possible. MBE provides a guided setup experience that automatically connects your store with Meta and enables data reporting. This method is recommended if you have Full Control permission for your Meta business assets.

If your ad account is managed by an agency or you don't have Full Control permission, you can instead configure reporting manually by entering your Meta Pixel ID and Conversions API access token.

Verifying and Comparing Reported Data in Meta Events Manager

After completing the setup, you can use Meta Events Manager to verify that your events are being received by Meta and compare the reported data with your SHOPLINE store.

Viewing Reported Events

To view your event data:

1. In Meta Business Settings, go to Data Sources > Datasets & pixels, select the dataset connected to your SHOPLINE store, then click Events Manager.

   

2. On the Datasets page, locate the dataset (Pixel) connected to your SHOPLINE store.

3. Click the Pixel to view all reported events. 

   

    

Comparing Reported Data

When comparing data between Meta and SHOPLINE, make sure the following settings are aligned:

• Date range: Select the same date range when comparing data between Meta and SHOPLINE.
• Time zone: Ensure your Meta ad account and SHOPLINE store use the same time zone. Otherwise, the reported data may not match.

The event list at the bottom of the page displays the reported events and includes the following information:

• Events: The event names reported to Meta.
• Status: The current status of each event, such as Active.
• Used by: The source using the event, if applicable.
• Integration: The reporting method used for the event, such as Conversions API or Meta Pixel.
• Event match quality: Meta's score indicating the quality of customer information available for matching.
• Total events: The number of events Meta received during the selected date range.

Viewing Details for Individual Events

To view detailed information for a specific event:

1. Locate the event you want to review, then click the expand arrow to view its reporting trend.

   

2. Click View details to view more details.

   

3. On the event details page, you can use the left-hand menu to view different types of event information, including:

   

• Event overview: View the event trend, total server events received, event match quality, and data freshness.
• Event match quality: View the event match quality score and recommendations for improving event matching.
• Event parameters: View the parameters reported with the event.
• Data freshness: View whether the event data is being sent to Meta in a timely manner.
• Sampled activities: View sample event data, if available.
• Event source: View the event sources and related information.

Understanding Reporting Discrepancies

Differences between the data reported in Meta and SHOPLINE are normal and do not necessarily indicate a reporting issue. Because Meta and SHOPLINE use different reporting methods, attribution models, and calculation logic, some metrics may differ between the two platforms.

The following sections explain two common reporting discrepancies.

Conversion Reporting Differences Between Meta and SHOPLINE

Once the Conversions API is configured correctly, event data can be reported to Meta as expected. However, because Meta and SHOPLINE may use different attribution models and attribution windows, the number of conversions reported by each platform may not always match.

For example, suppose Meta uses both click-through and view-through attribution, while SHOPLINE uses click-through attribution, and the two platforms have different attribution windows:

• If a customer views a Meta ad and then makes a purchase without clicking the ad, the conversion may still be attributed by Meta through view-through attribution, but it won't be counted by SHOPLINE's click-through attribution.
• If a customer clicks an ad and makes a purchase sometime later, the conversion may still fall within SHOPLINE's attribution window but outside Meta's attribution window. In this case, the conversion may be attributed by SHOPLINE but not by Meta.

Therefore, even when conversion events are successfully reported to Meta, differences in attribution models and attribution windows may cause Meta and SHOPLINE to attribute those events differently, resulting in discrepancies between the conversion numbers reported by the two platforms.

Higher Add to Cart Counts in Meta

This is usually caused by a difference in how Meta and SHOPLINE calculate Add to Cart metrics, rather than a reporting error.

• SHOPLINE reports add-to-cart visitors, which is the number of unique shoppers who added at least one item to their cart.
• Meta reports AddToCart events, which is the total number of times the Add to Cart event was triggered. If the same shopper adds products to their cart multiple times, each action is counted as a separate event.

Example

If 37 unique shoppers add products to their cart, but some of them perform the action multiple times, SHOPLINE reports 37 add-to-cart visitors, while Meta may report 77 AddToCart events.

This difference is expected and does not indicate duplicate event reporting.

If you want to verify that events are not being duplicated:

1. Open Meta Events Manager.
2. Locate the AddToCart event.
3. Review the Event deduplication metric.

If the number of deduplicated events is low or zero, your Meta Pixel and Conversions API are working as expected.