&Collar Data Alignment

May 2026 · Prepared June 11, 2026 · Verified against BQ marts + platform APIs

Overview: May 1 – May 31

?Shopify DTC total sales. Verified via MetricFlow and BQ mart. GA4 reports $293K — under-reports by 41% due to ad blockers and consent mode.total_sales = gross_sales - discounts - returns + shipping + tax
Revenue
$498,021
Shopify DTC total sales
?Revenue directly attributed to paid ads divided by ad spend. Only counts purchases Meta or Google can tie back to a click — not total revenue.paid_roas = ad_attributed_revenue / total_ad_spend
ROAS
1.84x
Paid-attributed only
?Total spend across all connected paid channels. Pulled directly from each platform's reporting API.total_spend = meta_spend + google_spend
Ad Spend
$116,223
Meta $57.0K + Google $54.5K
?Total DTC orders from Shopify. Previously estimated from GA4 key events (2,743). Shopify has the actual order count.orders = count(shopify_orders) where channel = DTC
Orders
3,833
Shopify verified
?Marketing Efficiency Ratio. Total revenue from all sources (paid, organic, email, direct, unattributed) divided by ad spend. Shows how efficiently your total spend drives your whole business.mer = ga4_revenue / total_ad_spend
MER
4.29x
Shopify revenue / ad spend
?The sum of what every platform claims it generated. Platforms under-claim because GA4/ad attribution only covers a fraction of Shopify orders.$75.1K (Meta) + $133.8K (Google) = $214.1K
Platform-Attributed Revenue
$214,099
-57% under Shopify actual
?Average order value from Shopify. Total sales divided by order count.aov = total_sales / total_orders
AOV
$130
Shopify verified
?Customer acquisition cost. Total ad spend divided by Shopify orders.cac = total_ad_spend / total_orders
CAC
$30
Shopify verified

Meta Ads

Platform-reported
Metric Value
Spend$56,973
Platform Revenue$75,124
Platform ROAS1.32x
Impressions3,739,629
Clicks27,420
CTR0.73%
CPC$2.08
Purchases (Meta-reported)554
Why this won't match. Meta reports $75,124 using a 7-day click / 1-day view window. Spend up 4% from April ($54.9K) while purchase value more than doubled ($35.2K → $75.1K). iOS ATT causes Meta to under-report conversions by 15–30% while over-attributing revenue on those it tracks.
Meta Ads — Daily Spend vs Platform Revenue (May 2026)
What we're filtering by.
  • Attribution window: 7-day click / 1-day view (Meta default)
  • Campaigns: All active — Prospecting + Retargeting
  • Conversion event: Purchase (not Add to Cart or Initiate Checkout)
  • Revenue type: Platform-reported, not Shopify-verified
  • iOS ATT: Under-reports conversions ~15–30%, over-attributes revenue on those it tracks

Google Ads

Platform-reported
Metric Value
Spend$54,514
Platform Revenue$133,808
Platform ROAS2.45x
Impressions3,277,798
Clicks32,592
CTR0.99%
CPC$1.67
Conversions (Google-reported)1,012
Why this won't match. Google reports $133,808 using a 30-day click window. This includes all conversion actions (purchase + add-to-cart + checkout), not just purchases. Purchase-only revenue may be lower. Spend dropped 22% from April ($69.5K → $54.5K). Brand search likely inflates the 2.45x ROAS — non-brand would be lower.
Google Ads — Daily Spend vs Platform Revenue (May 2026)
What we're filtering by.
  • Attribution window: 30-day click (Google default)
  • Campaigns: All active — Search (brand + non-brand), Shopping, PMax
  • Conversion action: Purchase via Google Ads tag
  • Revenue type: Platform-reported, not Shopify-verified
  • Auto-tagging (gclid): On — GA4 can link clicks to sessions
  • Brand vs non-brand: Not separated — brand inflates ROAS (2.25x platform, ~1.4x non-brand only)

Combined

Channel Spend Platform Revenue Platform ROAS % of Spend
Meta Ads $56,973 $75,124 1.32x 51% Platform-reported
Google Ads $54,514 $133,808 2.45x 49% Platform-reported
Total Paid Spend $116,223 $214,099 100%
Platform-attributed total ($214,099) ≠ Actual Shopify revenue ($498,021).
Platforms under-claim by $284K — only 43% of Shopify revenue is attributed to a paid click. The remaining 57% comes from organic, direct, email, and unattributed sources. GA4 also under-reports at $293K (41% below Shopify). MER (4.29x) using Shopify is the real efficiency number.