Verify revenue attribution after install

Admaxxer is a DTC analytics platform with built-in Meta + Google ad ops. After any install — fresh pixel, GTM, Shopify webhook, Meta connection, or Google Ads connection — you should run a short end-to-end smoke test rather than trust dashboards the next morning. TL;DR: fire a real purchase through a tagged UTM link, confirm the event lands in Admaxxer within 60 seconds, confirm the UTM is attached, and confirm blended MER recalculates with your ad spend.

Symptoms

Run this guide when:

• You just completed a fresh Admaxxer install.
• You changed the pixel, GTM, webhook, or ad-platform connection.
• You redeployed the site and want to confirm nothing regressed.
• A stakeholder asks "is attribution actually working?" and you need evidence.

Root cause

Attribution has five moving parts: pixel load, pageview capture, UTM ingestion, purchase event, and ad-spend join. Breaking any one of them breaks attribution in a different way. This is the shortest check that exercises all five.

Fix

Step 1: Build a tagged smoke-test URL

Append ?utm_source=smoketest&utm_medium=verify&utm_campaign=install_$(date) to your landing page. Use a unique utm_campaign so you can filter this smoke event out of real data later.

Step 2: Open the URL in a guest window

Fresh incognito session, no extensions blocking scripts. Open DevTools -> Console and confirm window.admaxxer is defined. Open Network and filter for the Admaxxer ingest domain — you should see a pageview beacon.

Step 3: Place a real-money or sandbox test order

Complete checkout end to end. For Shopify, use a real card or Shopify Bogus Gateway; for custom checkouts, fire the purchase event with a known order_id, value, and currency. The key is that admaxxer.track('purchase', { order_id, value, currency }) runs with non-null values.

Step 4: Confirm the event in Admaxxer realtime

Admaxxer -> Analytics -> Realtime. The purchase should appear within about 60 seconds. Click it — the side panel should show the utm_source = smoketest you set in Step 1.

Step 5: Confirm server-side revenue

If Shopify is connected, the orders/paid webhook fires a second confirmation. Admaxxer deduplicates based on order_id, so you should see one purchase — not two. If you see two, see the duplicate-events guide.

Step 6: Confirm blended MER

Admaxxer -> Dashboard. After a minute or two, the MER tile should update to reflect the new revenue divided by the current ad spend. If MER stays flat, ad-spend ingestion is likely the culprit, not revenue — check Meta and Google connection cards for sync errors.

Step 7: Confirm cohort LTV and attribution windows

Open the attribution view and filter to utm_campaign = install_<date>. You should see a single session with a purchase. Cohort LTV at 7/30/90 day windows will back-fill over time, but the session presence is the load-bearing check today. If the session is missing, the pixel did not identify the visitor before the purchase fired.

Verify the fix

• Realtime shows the purchase event with source = smoketest.
• The purchase has a non-null value and a matching order_id.
• Blended MER nudges up (or down if ad spend increased more than revenue).
• Meta and Google Ads connections both show green with recent sync timestamps.
• No CSP violations in the browser console.
• The attribution breakdown resolves to the utm_source you set, not "direct / none".

Prevent it next time

• Script the smoke test so any teammate can re-run it in one click.
• Run it on every deploy that touches pixel code or Shopify webhooks.
• Alert on stale data. Admaxxer can notify when zero purchases land in a normally-busy hour.
• Keep the smoke-test UTM known. Add utm_campaign LIKE 'install_%' as an exclusion filter on dashboards so test traffic does not pollute analysis.

Related guides

• Shopify orders webhook not firing
• Duplicate payment events
• Post-install checklist

FAQs

Q: Do I need to use a real credit card for the test? A: No. Shopify Bogus Gateway or a dev checkout is fine as long as the order transitions to "paid" status, because that is what fires the orders/paid webhook.

Q: How long should I wait for the event to show up? A: Under a minute end-to-end in healthy conditions. If nothing shows up in 2 minutes, start debugging — usually the pixel never loaded or the webhook never fired.

Q: Will the smoke-test order skew my historical data? A: A few dollars of test revenue barely moves the needle, but filter it out with an exclusion rule to keep dashboards honest.