The Challenge

GlowCo (name changed) is a DTC skincare brand doing $40M in annual revenue. They were spending $2M per month across Meta, Google, TikTok, and influencer partnerships—but had no idea which channels actually drove purchases.

Each platform claimed credit for every conversion. Meta said they drove 80% of sales. Google said 70%. The numbers didn't add up, and the marketing team was flying blind.

Key Problems

  • Platform over-reporting: Each ad platform claimed more conversions than actually occurred
  • No cross-device tracking: Mobile browsers and app installs weren't connected
  • iOS 14.5 blindness: 60% of traffic was from iOS with limited tracking
  • Last-click tunnel vision: GA4 only showed last-click, missing the full journey

The Solution

We built a first-party data infrastructure using Jitsu for event collection and ClickHouse for the attribution warehouse.

Architecture Overview

  • Jitsu: First-party event collection with server-side tracking
  • ClickHouse: Attribution data warehouse with custom multi-touch models
  • Conversion APIs: Server-side events to Meta, Google, and TikTok
  • Metabase: Marketing performance dashboards

Attribution Model

We implemented a position-based attribution model with time decay: 40% credit to first touch (awareness), 40% credit to last touch (conversion), 20% distributed across middle touches with time decay. This was compared against linear and data-driven models to validate findings.

Implementation Process

Week 1: Data Audit and Identity Resolution

We mapped all touchpoints and built an identity graph connecting email, device IDs, and first-party cookies. This recovered 40% of previously "unknown" users.

Week 2: Jitsu Setup and Conversion APIs

We deployed Jitsu for server-side event collection, bypassing browser limitations. We set up Conversion API integrations with Meta, Google, and TikTok for server-side attribution.

Week 3: ClickHouse Attribution Models

We built attribution models in ClickHouse, joining ad spend data with conversion events. We created customer journey analysis showing typical paths to purchase.

Week 4: Dashboards and Training

We built marketing dashboards showing attributed revenue by channel, campaign, and creative. We trained the team on interpreting multi-touch data.

Results

Within 90 days, GlowCo had actionable insights that transformed their marketing strategy:

  • 23% ROAS improvement: By understanding true channel performance
  • $500K reallocation: Shifted budget from over-credited to under-credited channels
  • TikTok discovery: Found TikTok was driving 3x more first-touch value than reported
  • Influencer clarity: Finally measured influencer impact on downstream conversions

Key Insight

The biggest surprise was branded search. Google Ads was claiming massive conversion volume, but multi-touch analysis showed most of those customers had already decided to buy—branded search was just the final click. Reallocating that budget to upper-funnel channels drove net new customers.

"We were basically throwing money at channels based on their own reporting. Now we have a source of truth that actually tells us where our customers come from. The Jitsu + ClickHouse stack paid for itself in the first month."
— CMO, GlowCo