The Attribution Nightmare
In the post-iOS14 world, our client (a scaling E-commerce fashion retailer) was flying blind. Their Facebook Ads Manager claimed 500 sales, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) claimed 300, and their Shopify backend showed 650. The numbers didn't match.
This "Attribution Gap" meant the Marketing Director couldn't tell which channel was actually driving growth. They were spending $150k/month on ads but scaling the wrong campaigns because they were relying on siloed, inaccurate data.
Key Challenges
- Data Fragmentation: Ad spend data lived in Meta, TikTok, and Google Ads, while revenue lived in Shopify.
- GA4 Sampling: The standard GA4 interface was sampling data, hiding the behavior of high-value niche segments.
- Manual Reporting: The agency was sending static PDF reports every Monday, meaning the client was optimizing based on 7-day-old data.
The Solution: BigQuery + Looker Studio
We bypassed the standard connectors that often break or hit rate limits. Instead, we built an Enterprise-grade data pipeline.
1. The Data Warehouse Layer
We set up Google BigQuery as the central brain. Using APIs, we streamed cost data (Cost, Impressions, Clicks) from Facebook, TikTok, and Google Ads into a single table. Simultaneously, we streamed order data from Shopify.
2. Blended Logic & Keys
The magic happened in the transformation layer. We normalized the campaign naming conventions (e.g., matching "fb_prospecting_usa" to "tik_prospecting_usa") to create a unified view of "Prospecting" vs "Retargeting" spend across all platforms.
3. The Looker Studio Front-End
We built a fast, interactive dashboard in Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio). Unlike standard dashboards, this one included:
- Blended ROAS: A live calculation of (Total Shopify Revenue / Total Ad Spend) across all channels.
- Pacing Alerts: Visual indicators that turn red if a channel is overspending its daily budget.
- Creative Performance: A gallery view showing which ad creative visuals were driving the highest click-through rates (CTR).
Business Impact
Once the dashboard went live, the results were startling. The data revealed that TikTok Ads were actually driving 30% of "Direct" traffic that GA4 was misclassifying. Conversely, a major Retargeting campaign on Facebook was cannibalizing organic sales.
The Strategic Shift: The client paused the wasteful Facebook campaign and reallocated that budget to TikTok and Google Shopping.
Why Looker Studio?
For marketing teams already in the Google Ecosystem, Looker Studio is unmatched. It connects natively to Google Sheets and BigQuery, allows for pixel-perfect customization, and has zero licensing costs for viewers.