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Good morning,
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC:
1️⃣ Are you interpreting Meta reporting correctly? Here’s how to check
2️⃣ How the George Foreman grill went from being a failing product to a phenomenon
3️⃣ Insights from 540+ DTC operators on planning and forecasting
You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: ORA Renewal, StabLabs, and Optimus Gear. 👋
🛑 Your Promo Code Isn't a Retention Strategy.
Discounts breed discount hunters. NOBULL built something else, a loyalty program that fuels community, drives repeat purchases, and grows AOV without training customers to wait for a deal.
The numbers:
A retention engine that compounds over time, built without a single race-to-the-bottom promo.
This Thursday, May 14, at 11 AM ET, join Okendo and Paul Koziol, Director of Digital Product at NOBULL, to learn exactly how they built it, plus a live Q&A to get your questions answered. ✅
Plus, join them live for a chance to score a pair of NOBULL shoes. 👟
If retention and community actually matter to your brand, this one's for you.
Can't make it live? Register anyway, Okendo will send you the recording.
* sponsored
💡 Handling Meta Attribution Discrepancies
"Ads Manager says we got 8 purchases. So why does Events Manager show 16?"
This is a common question from brands running Meta ads.
At first glance, it looks like a reporting error. In some cases, it isn't.
Both numbers can be accurate. They're simply measuring different things.
Understanding this distinction is essential for interpreting Meta reporting correctly, troubleshooting tracking issues, and avoiding poor optimization decisions.
The Two Dashboards Measure Different Things
Pilothouse explains Meta's platform contains multiple reporting surfaces, each serving a distinct purpose.
Ads Manager = Attributed Results
Ads Manager is focused on campaign performance.
It reports conversions that Meta has credited to your ads based on your account's attribution settings.
What this means: Purchases shown in Ads Manager are purchases Meta believes were influenced by an ad click or view within the selected attribution window.
If Ads Manager shows 8 purchases, it means Meta attributed 8 conversions to your campaigns (not that only 8 total purchases occurred on your site).
Events Manager = Raw Event Activity
Events Manager is focused on data collection, not campaign attribution.
It tracks raw events being sent to Meta from your website or app, such as page views, add-to-carts, initiated checkouts, and purchases.
What this means: This dashboard is designed to confirm whether tracking signals are reaching Meta, not whether those purchases should be credited to ads.
So if the Events Manager shows 16 purchase events, that does not automatically mean 16 unique customers made a purchase.
Why Purchase Events Often Appear Doubled
The most common reason purchase totals are higher in Events Manager is that Meta is receiving the same conversion through two separate sources:
If event deduplication is not configured properly, Meta may count both incoming signals as separate events.
Example:
This is the most common explanation for why Events Manager shows double the purchase count in Ads Manager.
Meta continues to encourage advertisers to adopt Conversions API alongside browser tracking to improve measurement resilience as privacy restrictions and browser limitations evolve.
Current Meta business documentation recommends using both Pixel and CAPI together with proper deduplication logic in place.
What Is Deduplication?
Deduplication is Meta's method of recognizing that two purchase events represent a single transaction. It is typically handled using a combination of event name, event ID, and matching timestamps.
When properly configured, Meta merges the browser and server events into one conversion for optimization and reporting purposes.
When deduplication is missing or inconsistently implemented, duplicate purchase events appear inside Events Manager.
The takeaway?
If Ads Manager shows 8 purchases and Events Manager shows 16, it typically means:
This is not necessarily an attribution error, but it is worth auditing.
The most effective advertisers don't just read numbers. They understand what each number actually represents.
Steal this 9 step audit checklist 👇
1️⃣ Deduplication is configured for both Pixel and CAPI
2️⃣ Event IDs are unique per transaction and consistent across browser and server
3️⃣ Events Manager shows no significant unexplained duplicate events
4️⃣ Meta Pixel fires only once on the purchase confirmation page
5️⃣ Pixel is not duplicated across tag managers or hardcoded scripts
6️⃣ CAPI is active and sending purchase events server-side
7️⃣ CAPI and Pixel are sending matching event names
8️⃣ Attribution window in Ads Manager matches your reporting expectations
9️⃣ Ads Manager purchase count has been compared against actual
backend orders for the same period.
Too Hot To Handle (The George Foreman Story)
The George Foreman Grill is one of the strangest success stories in consumer products.
A boxer selling indoor grills shouldn’t work.
But it did. At a massive scale.
This episode of Ad-venturous breaks down how a failing product (the “Fajita Express”) turned into a 100M+ unit phenomenon and why the real unlock wasn’t the product. It was the audience strategy.
We cover:
Revenue Is Lying to You: Planning, Execution, and What Actually Drives Growth with Three Ships and Keen's Brand Study
We’ve surveyed 540+ DTC operators on how they plan and forecast, and the results reveal some serious gaps.
In this episode, we break down the data with Laura Thompson, co-founder of Three Ships Beauty, and Mike Chiasson, Senior Solutions Engineer at Keen Decision Systems.
Together, they unpack what it actually takes to run an eight-figure brand without drifting into chaos, and put the Three Ships Beauty playbook head-to-head with the survey data.
👉 Grab your free copy of the report here.
In this episode:
The affiliate halo effect. 77% of interested TikTok shoppers search for more product info after seeing affiliate content. Read more →
DeepSeek’s $25B leap. The AI company is in talks to raise its first round of venture capital, bringing its valuation from $20B to $45B. Read more →
That’s hot. Paris Hilton and other TV reality icons star in Old Navy’s new backyard BBQ summer campaign. Read more →
📥 Got a B2B Biz?
Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.
Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.
Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.
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