Why is There a Discrepancy in the Data?

How to Troubleshoot Data Discrepancies

Because there are so many different systems looking at their data in different ways, there are times when the information in SegMetrics might not display the same as the information in one of your source systems. This is especially true for Pixel-Based systems like Facebook, Google or VWO.

One of the core benefits of SegMetrics is being able to view every piece of data that we collect on contacts, to help understand why you might be seeing different data in different systems.

The 3 Most common Solutions to Data Discrepancies 

1. Check the time data in SegMetrics last synced, shown at the bottom of the UI.Sometimes the latest data (especially today's data) might not have finished importing yet. The sync frequency depends on your plan, see here for more info.
2. Make sure your data is filtered in the same way in both interfaces.The filters are the key data level you can change to pin-point your audience segments. Make sure that you're looking at the same data in both systems. This includes date ranges, cohorts you're including, data types you're excluding etc, in either SegMetrics or the source's UI.
3. Confirm the metrics are calculated the same between sources.Different systems calculate their metrics in different ways. For example, the revenue in Facebook's UI will be limited to a first purchase while SegMetrics shows lifetime revenue. If you have a question on how SegMetrics calculates a metric, you can hover over the [i] icon for each metric.

If none of the above solutions are consistent with the data discrepancies you’re experiencing, please continue reading.

Resolving Contact Data Discrepancies

Your contacts are the glue that connects everything together in SegMetrics. Without your contacts, we’re unable to report on revenue and other important information such as ads attribution. That’s why it’s crucial to make sure that all of your contacts are flowing into SegMetrics. When you connect your CRM to SegMetrics, we pull all of the historical data from that platform, including the most important piece of the puzzle, your contact email addresses. 

Seeing some discrepancies? Check out the most common reasons below why you’re contacts might not be landing in SegMetrics:

1. Make sure the missing contacts are in the CRM you’ve connected to SegMetrics if you’re using an ecommerce solution that’s different from your email marketing system, communication issues may prevent a contact from being added to your marketing after they make a purchase. To stay PII and GDPR compliant SegMetrics won’t report on contacts who are not in your email marketing system.
2. If the contacts are in your CRM, some CRMs require the contact to be on at least one list, otherwise that data will not be sent through. Here are those following CRMs which require the contact to be on at least one list:

• ActiveCampaign
• MailChimp

Resolving Revenue Discrepancies

Revenue is by far one of the most looked at metrics. It’s important to have confidence in the revenue numbers you’re looking at. 

Seeing some revenue discrepancies? Check out the most common reasons be seeing revenue discrepancies in SegMetrics:

Missing Customers

If you’re using an ecommerce solution that’s different from your email marketing system, communication issues may prevent a contact from being added to your marketing after they make a purchase. To stay PII and GDPR compliant SegMetrics won’t report on contacts who are not in your email marketing system.

Doubled Revenue

When it comes to pulling revenue into SegMetrics, it’s always recommended to connect only to the single source of truth.

The “single source of truth” is the payment processor or CRM that holds all of your transaction data. For example, if you’re using a third party shopping cart such as SamCart, those transactions are usually managed via Stripe and PayPal. SamCart also holds that revenue data. If you connect to all three of those platforms, your revenue will likely double up because SegMetrics will import revenue data from SamCart, as well as PayPal and Stripe.

In that case, the single source of truth would be to connect only SamCart and you’ll accurately pull in all of your revenue data.

Failed Invoices

Another common reason you might be seeing revenue discrepancies is due to failed invoices. Unpaid and failed invoices generally cause metrics to over report revenue numbers. 

You can disable failed invoices from your account settings:

1. Head to your Account Settings
2. Toggle on the Exclude failed invoices from revenue collections

Resolving Ads Discrepancies

Another common place you may run into discrepancies is in your ads reporting. The most common reason you may run into ads discrepancies is by not implementing the required ad_id parameter to the url parameters of your ads. 

Each ads platform is a bit different in the ad_id parameter make up. To better understand how to integrate and configure your ads properly, take a look at this article about how to integrate and configure your ads platforms for SegMetrics tracking.

Resolving Web Tracking Discrepancies

If you believe that you’re seeing discrepancies in the data SegMetrics is tracking, the most common reason is that your SegMetrics tracking pixel has not been installed on one of your landing pages. This is crucial in order not to miss any tracking in your funnel.

If you’re noticing that there are certain landing pages not being tracked, you’ll want to double check that your SegMetrics tracking pixel is installed on every page of your website and landing page you’d like to track web activity.

Still need to install your tracking pixel on your website and landing pages? Grab your tracking pixel in the Site Setup area of your account.

If you're still not sure about why the data is different:

If you believe there is an issue with your SegMetrics data then please email help@segmetrics.io.

Please include screenshots from both SegMetrics and the corresponding platform along with any relevant details, and we'll help you find how to accurately show that data.