How to track social ads performance across platforms

Managing social media advertising campaigns across multiple platforms can feel like juggling dozens of balls at once. Each platform has its own dashboard, metrics, and reporting quirks. Facebook Ads Manager shows you one set of numbers, TikTok Ads another, and LinkedIn Campaign Manager yet another. Without a unified tracking system, you're left switching between tabs, exporting spreadsheets, and struggling to answer the most basic question: which platform is actually driving results for your e-commerce store?

The challenge isn't just about collecting data. It's about making sense of it all and using those insights to optimize your advertising budget. When you're spending money across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, you need a clear picture of what's working and what's wasting your budget. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to track social ads performance across platforms effectively.

📊 Set up UTM parameters for every campaign

UTM parameters are the foundation of cross-platform tracking. These small tags added to your URLs tell analytics tools exactly where your traffic is coming from. Without them, all your social traffic might just show up as generic referral traffic, making it impossible to distinguish between organic posts and paid campaigns.

Create a consistent UTM naming convention before launching any campaigns. Your structure should include utm_source (the platform like facebook or tiktok), utm_medium (always 'paid_social' or 'cpc'), utm_campaign (your campaign name), and optionally utm_content (for ad variations). For example: yourstore.com?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=paid_social&utm_campaign=summer_sale&utm_content=video_ad_v1. This consistency makes comparing performance across platforms dramatically easier.

🎯 Choose the right metrics to compare

Not all metrics are created equal, and each platform loves to highlight vanity metrics that look impressive but don't drive business results. Focus on metrics that directly impact your bottom line and can be compared apples-to-apples across platforms.

The essential e-commerce metrics you should track across all platforms include:

• Cost per click (CPC): How much you're paying to get someone to your website

• Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who see your ad and click on it

• Conversion rate: The percentage of clicks that turn into purchases

• Cost per acquisition (CPA): How much you spend to acquire one customer

• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Revenue generated divided by ad spend

• Average order value (AOV): How much customers spend per transaction from each platform

Track these metrics weekly at minimum. TikTok might deliver cheaper clicks but lower conversion rates, while LinkedIn could have higher CPCs but bring in customers with much higher order values. Understanding these nuances helps you allocate budget more effectively.

🔗 Connect all platforms to a central analytics hub

Jumping between five different ad dashboards wastes time and makes comparison difficult. Instead, connect all your platforms to a central analytics system. Google Analytics 4 is the most common choice for e-commerce stores, but dedicated e-commerce analytics platforms like Peasy can provide even more clarity by automatically organizing your data.

Make sure your Shopify or WooCommerce store is properly integrated with your analytics platform. Install the Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel, and LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website. These tracking pixels allow each platform to measure conversions while also feeding data back to your central analytics system. The combination of UTM parameters and platform pixels gives you both first-party and third-party tracking, creating a more complete picture even as privacy regulations evolve.

📈 Create a unified reporting dashboard

Raw data is useless without visualization. Build a dashboard that shows all your social ad platforms side-by-side. Your dashboard should answer questions at a glance: Which platform has the best ROAS this month? Where should I increase budget? Which campaigns are underperforming?

If you're using Google Analytics 4, create custom reports that segment traffic by source and medium. Set up key comparisons like revenue by platform, conversion rates by platform, and cost metrics from each ad dashboard manually compiled into a spreadsheet or Google Data Studio. Better yet, use a platform like Peasy that automatically pulls this data together and presents it in clear, actionable visualizations designed specifically for e-commerce.

⚠️ Watch out for attribution challenges

Here's where things get tricky: each platform wants to take credit for conversions. Facebook Ads Manager might say you got 50 conversions, but GA4 shows only 35 from Facebook. This discrepancy happens because of different attribution windows and tracking methods.

Platform self-reporting typically uses longer attribution windows and view-through conversions. GA4 uses last-click attribution by default. Neither is 100% accurate, especially with iOS privacy changes limiting pixel tracking. The solution? Use platform data to optimize within that platform (testing ad creative, audiences, and placements), but use GA4 or your e-commerce platform's data as your source of truth for budget allocation decisions.

🔄 Establish a regular review process

Tracking is pointless without action. Set up a weekly review process where you examine your cross-platform performance. Create a simple checklist:

• Which platform delivered the best ROAS this week?

• Are there any campaigns with CPA above your target threshold?

• Which platforms are trending up or down compared to last week?

Use these insights to make small, incremental changes. Shift budget from underperforming platforms to winners. Pause campaigns that haven't found their footing after reasonable testing. Test new creative on your best-performing platforms first. These small optimizations compound over time into significantly better results.

Cross-platform social ads tracking doesn't have to be overwhelming. With proper UTM tagging, the right metrics, a central analytics hub, and regular reviews, you can confidently answer which platforms deserve your advertising budget. The key is consistency in your tracking methodology and discipline in your review process. Want to simplify your social ads analytics across all platforms? Try Peasy for free at peasy.nu and get a unified view of your e-commerce performance.