Attribution

Attribution is the decision about which ad gets credit when a conversion happens.

A buyer rarely sees one ad and buys. They might watch a video Monday, click a different ad Wednesday, then purchase Friday. Attribution is the rule that decides which of those touches gets the sale on its scorecard, and it shapes which campaigns look like winners.

You will see the same order claimed in more than one place. Meta may count it, Google may count it, and your own analytics may count it, because each tool uses its own attribution rules and only sees its own slice. If you add up every platform's reported sales, you often get more sales than you actually made.

Attribution is an opinion, not a fact of nature. Change the rule and the same real sale moves from one campaign to another, so two honest reports can disagree without either being wrong.

Pick one source of truth, or you will pay twice for the same buyer.