One of the most common questions we get is: Why do the metrics on Meta (Google Ads, TikTok, etc.) differ from those in Billy Grace? Simply put, they’re designed to be different. Each platform uses its own unique tech stack, built with distinct goals in mind. At Billy Grace, we have a different philosophy on how to accurately attribute conversions to various marketing touchpoints.
Below, we will explain why in-platform conversion attribution is usually not telling you the full story, and why, because of this, data in Billy Grace will almost always be different.
Below, an example of a customer journey, in which a customer touches social organic, social paid, search organic, and a paid search touchpoint, after which this customer buys a product (€).
In the image, you see a journey and how the conversion of the journey is attributed to different platforms.
Organic Social - Meta touchpoint - Organic touchpoint - Paid search - Purchase
Billy Grace takes the whole journey into account, distributing the conversion and the conversion value across all touchpoints. The algorithm behind the attribution modelling weighs the value of each touchpoint. Read more about the different attribution models here.
Billy Grace models attribution on the whole customer journey
In this example, Google and Meta will only attribute sales to their own touchpoints, basically ignoring the rest of the customer journey.
Google Ads and Meta Ads will ignore non-paid touchpoints in their attribution modelling
As Billy Grace attributes conversions amongst all touchpoints (not just amongst paid channels), you will generally see that Billy Grace gives less value to paid channels when you compare data with in-platform analytics.
Attribution Paths & Journeys
In Billy Grace, you can see these attribution paths in three different reports:
Channel Performance
Paid Performance
Trends & Journeys
Now you understand why Billy Grace attribution data gives a far better view of which channel or campaign actually contributed to your conversions. This is why you want to evaluate marketing performance on Billy Grace data, as it gives you a full picture of the Customer Journey.
Why can Billy Grace sometimes report more conversions than source platforms?
Another question we get is why, in some cases, Billy Grace reports more conversions than source platforms. While this may feel counterintuitive, this difference does not come from attribution modelling, but from how conversions are recorded and validated across platforms.
How source platforms handle conversions
Source platforms apply their own rules to determine whether a conversion is valid. These rules can include:
deduplication of repeated events
validation checks
filtering of test or internal traffic
As a result, not every conversion event that is technically triggered will always be counted in-platform.
How Billy Grace handles conversions
Billy Grace takes a different approach. We record conversions based on the events we receive, without applying platform-specific validation rules. When an event is sent multiple times, or when it lacks a unique identifier, Billy Grace may count each occurrence as a conversion.
This can lead to situations where Billy Grace reports higher conversion volumes than the source platform.
Conversion intent matters
Some conversion events represent intermediate success moments rather than final business outcomes. These events may fire more than once during a single customer journey.
Source platforms often treat these events conservatively, while Billy Grace reflects what happens across the full journey.
What this means for your data
Because of these differences, Billy Grace may sometimes show higher conversion counts than source platforms. This does not indicate over-attribution, but a difference in how conversions are defined, validated, and deduplicated across systems.