Why OrcLink and your ad platforms differ

Every ad platform reports the conversions it believes it caused. OrcLink reports the outcomes your own systems recorded and which click each one came from. Expect them to differ; the Reconciliation tab (Conversions > Reconciliation) puts the two side by side. Statements about ad platforms describe common practice; each platform's settings decide the details.

Who owns the number

The source system owns the outcome: the store order, the CRM deal, the call. OrcLink's credited numbers are claims about which click brought each outcome. An ad platform's conversion count is that platform's claim.

Click versus view

• OrcLink credits clicks and visits it recorded.
• Ad platforms commonly also count view-through conversions: someone saw an ad, did not click, and converted later.
• OrcLink's impression layer (the "data-driven + impressions" model) moves a share of credit toward channels that showed ads, using the platforms' impression data. It is labelled Modelled and kept apart from the credited numbers.

Attribution windows and models

• Each platform uses its own window (for example a number of days after a click, and fewer after a view) and its own model.
• OrcLink looks back as far as your workspace keeps data (Settings > Privacy: 90 days, 12 or 24 months, or no time limit) and uses the model you pick.
• Two platforms can both claim the same sale. In OrcLink one outcome's credit is shared out once across channels, so the channels add up to the outcome.

Dates and time zones

• OrcLink reports an outcome on the day it reached the stage, in UTC days.
• Platforms often report a conversion on the day of the ad click, in the ad account's time zone.

Consent and modelled conversions

• Platforms may add modelled conversions for people they could not observe (consent refused, browser limits).
• OrcLink's observed numbers contain no modelled conversions. When a visitor refuses consent, the OrcLink script on your site records nothing for them. An OrcLink link (the redirect) does not wait for a consent banner; in strict consent mode it keeps the click with no visitor cookie and no fingerprint.

Duplicates and what is sent back

• OrcLink records one outcome per source record and lowers its value on a refund.
• What OrcLink sends to a platform (the stages you set to relay, through the approval gate) can be counted by that platform next to its own pixel; matching event ids let a platform count it once where it supports that.

Modelled numbers in OrcLink

Data-driven attribution (Markov chains) is labelled Modelled. It shares credit by how journeys look; it is not causal. The marketing mix model is a rough, directional estimate from weekly totals: read it next to attribution, not as a measured return.