Reconcile the actual records
Worked example: why thirty events do not establish the accepted total
Consider a hypothetical campaign with USD 600 of media spend. Its raw event extract contains 30 purchase messages, representing 20 distinct orders. All 20 orders are matched to this campaign. Five are later cancelled, leaving 15 accepted orders. These invented figures illustrate reconciliation; they are not FroggyAds prices, customer results or a prediction.
The reporting-tool choice is a separate task covered by the existing Marketing Analytics Tools resource. Here, the immediate job is to reconcile the same campaign period. Keep the original spending total and all four outcome counts available so a reviewer can see how the final denominator was reached.
Using all 30 messages would suggest USD 20 per purchase message. Using 20 distinct orders gives USD 30 per order created. Using 15 accepted orders gives USD 40 per accepted order. Each division is arithmetically valid, but only its correctly labelled result answers the intended business question.
| Record stage | Count in this hypothetical example | What the next check establishes |
|---|
| Raw purchase messages | 30 messages | Inspect repeated messages; this is not yet a distinct-order count. |
| Distinct orders created | 20 orders | Ten excess messages are excluded from the distinct-order total. |
| Accepted business outcomes | 15 orders | Five cancellations are outside the accepted count; other business costs remain separate. |
| Supported source assignment | 12 assigned; 3 unassigned | Source-level conclusions retain the unresolved attribution gap. |
There is a separate joining trap. If the single USD 600 campaign-spend row is repeated beside all 20 order rows, summing that column produces USD 12,000. No additional media was bought. Preserve the USD 600 source total and combine the data at a compatible reporting level before using the result.
Suppose 12 accepted orders have a supported source reference and three do not. All 15 remain accepted business outcomes for this example, but a source comparison must disclose the three unmatched orders. Do not award them to the apparent winning source or erase them to make the totals align.
Use FroggyAds to act on the part of the finding you can support. Investigate missing references before claiming a source-level winner, and retain the USD 40 account-level accepted-order cost as a properly labelled observation. It does not establish profit or incremental sales. Create your free FroggyAds account