Why don't the sales in Meta Ads Manager match the sales in your Salla or Zid store?

The store counts orders, Meta counts attributed purchases

Your store's system records every completed order, whatever channel the customer came from. Ads Manager does not show all of your store's sales. It shows the purchases Meta credits to its ads.

Meta credits a purchase to an ad if it happens within a set period after a click or a view. The windows available in Ads Manager include 1-day, 7-day and 28-day click, 1-day engaged view and 1-day view (1).

This has two consequences:

• A purchase can be credited to an ad the customer saw and then bought after, even if they reached the store through another channel.
• A purchase that happens after the window closes is not credited to the ad, although the store records it as a normal order.

So a gap between the two numbers is expected and is not necessarily a sign that something is broken.

Changed attribution windows affect comparisons with old reports

Meta announced that from 12 January 2026 it would stop offering certain attribution windows in the Ads Insights API (2). The two windows removed are 7-day view and 28-day view (3).

As a result, the number of ad-attributed purchases in older reports may differ from newer ones (3). If you compare this month with an earlier one and see Meta purchases fall while store sales hold steady, check the attribution window used in each report before you judge campaign performance.

Time zone and currency in the ad account

When a merchant creates a Meta ad account, they set its own time zone and currency, which may differ from the store's settings (4).

If the time zones differ, an order can fall on one day in one report and on another day in the other. Daily or weekly figures then look mismatched even when the totals are close. If the currencies differ, sales value will not match even when the order count does.

Before comparing any two numbers, make sure both reports cover the same period in the same currency.

Purchases that never reach Meta

Meta purchases can be lower than store sales because some events never reach Meta. Reasons include:

• Apple requires apps, including Meta's apps on iOS, to ask permission before tracking users (5).
• The browser may block the Pixel. On Zid, the Conversions API sends the same events from Zid's servers, so they are still counted in that case (6).
• The Meta conversion API app on Zid is only available on the Growth, Professional and Enterprise plans, so a store on another plan may be running the Pixel alone (7).
• Zid's help centre says sales-tracking results are less accurate without the Pixel connected (8).

If your store is on Zid, start by checking your plan and confirming that the Pixel is active.

Purchases counted twice

Meta purchases can also be higher than store sales, for a completely different reason. One of the Conversions API setup steps Meta lists is checking that events arrive, are deduplicated and are matched correctly (9).

If the same purchase arrives from both the Pixel and the server without deduplication, it can be counted twice (9). This typically happens when more than one connection method runs at once, such as an automatic connection from the store platform alongside a manually installed Pixel.

If Ads Manager shows more purchases than your store recorded for the same period, check deduplication before anything else.

Does the Conversions API fix this?

The Conversions API sends an advertiser's data from their server or store platform to Meta's systems, to improve targeting, lower cost per result and measure outcomes (10). Meta treats the server events it receives this way like Meta Pixel events and uses them in measurement, reporting and optimisation (11).

The Conversions API helps events reach Meta that would otherwise be lost, but it does not change how attribution works. A purchase outside the attribution window will not be credited to the ad even if the event reaches Meta. So you can expect more complete data, not a number that matches your store's.

On the two platforms:

• On Salla, connecting a Meta account through Salla Ads sets up the Pixel, the Conversions API and the product catalogue automatically (12), and merchants do not need to install the Meta Pixel themselves (13).
• On Zid, the Meta Pixel must be activated first, because the Conversions API runs alongside it rather than replacing it (14).

Which number to trust for budget decisions

Your store's number is the record of what actually sold and what revenue came in. Use it for the most important question: is total ad spend producing profitable growth?

Use Meta's number for comparisons inside the platform, between campaigns, audiences and ads, as long as the attribution window stays the same across every comparison (1).

If you want a metric that ties all ad spend to the store's actual revenue rather than attributed purchases, read the difference between MER, ROAS, POAS and ROI.

Sources

1. (1) Meta for Developers · 2025-10-16
2. (2) Meta for Developers · 2025-10-16
3. (3) Meta for Developers · 2025-10-16
4. (4) Zid · 2026-10-26
5. (5) Apple Developer · 2026-09
6. (6) Zid · 2026-10-26
7. (7) Zid · 2026-10-26
8. (8) Zid · 2026-07-15
9. (9) Meta for Developers · 2026-02-25
10. (10) Meta for Developers · 2026-02-25
11. (11) Meta for Developers · 2026-02-25
12. (12) Salla · 2026-10-21
13. (13) Salla · 2026-10-21
14. (14) Zid · 2026-10-26

Read also

• Shopify, Salla or Zid: How to Choose a Store Platform in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
• Why your CAC on Meta is rising in Saudi Arabia, and how to bring it down