The question is: I hired someone to set up Stape.io for my eCommerce website with Shopify. Once he finished the setup, he told me I had to disconnect the data flow from apps like Facebook, Google, TikTok, and Microsoft because he had implemented a custom setup using Google Tag Manager (GTM). He said that keeping these connections active would cause duplicate data issues.
However, after this setup, I noticed a massive drop in sales.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Is it necessary to disconnect the data flow from these apps when using a custom GTM setup?
Is it better to stick with Shopify’s default integration or go with a fully custom setup?
It’s a common concern when client move Shopify’s native tracking to server-side tracking setup.
I think the drop in sales might be a tracking Issue, not an actual drop.
If your sales dropped immediately after the setup change, it’s likely that conversions are not being tracked properly, rather than an actual decrease in sales.
You need to check if purchases are still being recorded in Facebook, Google, and other platforms you mentioned. If not, I believe there might be tracking issues in your new SST setup.
Should you disconnect the native Shopify tracking?
If SST is done properly then Yes. Custom setups replace Shopify’s native connections. So keeping both can cause duplicate tracking issues.
So please tell your tracking guy to debug the setup and make sure purchase event is firing correctly and respective platforms are receiving that event.
You can check Facebook and Google ads setup in Facebook events manager & Google Ads Debugging Tools.
Also tell your tracking guy to verify server-side setup to ensure correct event data is flowing to server and then the platforms. Tell him to audit the whole setup again.
Should You Stick with Shopify’s Default or Go Custom?
In my opinion if set up correctly then custom Server-Side tracking will give you more flexibility and control of your data and advanced tracking. I would definitely recommend it.
It seems odd that it was sales that immediately dropped, not the data in the platforms. Even if the tracking is not set up correctly, the drop will be gradual as the platforms will not receive the full amount of data, which negatively affects advertising campaigns.
In any case, if you have a suspicion you should check if the analytics and marketing platforms are getting all the data, compare it with the data in Shopify.
For example, compare the number of online purchases in Shopify and the number of server-side purchase events in Meta events manager, GA4 and other platforms.
In platforms that display only attributed events (Google ADS for example) it is difficult to compare with CMS data because attribution works very differently, but in any case the data should not differ by many times. If you have Shopify showing 20 purchases from Google ADS, but Google ADS shows 2 conversions - this could definitely signal a problem.