campaigns/periodic returns ~13% fewer conversions than the UI for the same day (spend/clicks match exactly)

[Ray Pasco]

We ingest Amplify reporting into a data warehouse and are seeing a consistent
gap between conversions returned by the API and conversions shown in the
Outbrain UI for the same marketer and same day. Spend, clicks and impressions
match exactly, so it appears isolated to conversion metrics.

Endpoint:
GET /amplify/v0.1/reports/marketers/{marketerId}/campaigns/periodic
    ?from=YYYY-MM-DD&to=YYYY-MM-DD&breakdown=daily&includeConversionDetails=true

For a single day roughly four weeks in the past:

  spend           API and UI identical
  impressions     API and UI identical
  clicks          API and UI identical
  conversions     API ~13% BELOW the UI
  viewConversions API ~15% BELOW the UI

The size of the gap tracks how long each conversion action takes to fire.
Outbrain's auto-tracked on-page actions are nearly exact, while our custom
conversion actions (which involve a real user journey after the click) are
substantially short:

  Auto_MouseClick           -0.6%
  Auto_ScrollDepth_30pct    -2.3%
  Auto_TimeOnPage_30sec     -3.5%
  custom action A           -8.1%
  custom action B           -9.6%
  custom action C          -13.3%
  custom action D          -18.5%

The UI figure is also still moving while the API's is not. Pulling the same
past day on two consecutive days, the UI total rose slightly each day while
the API returned a byte-identical value both times. Our conversion attribution
window is set to 30 days, and this behaviour is visible well inside that window.

Things we've already ruled out on our side:

- Wrong metric. We're comparing the API's `conversions` / `totalConversions`
  against the equivalent UI columns, and we've confirmed the UI's rollup rule
  (sum of all conversion actions except the three Auto_* ones) matches what the
  API's top-level `conversions` field returns.
- Missing conversion actions. includeConversionDetails=true returns every
  action configured on the account, and we receive all of the ones with data.
- Date/timezone boundary shift. Spend, clicks and impressions match to the unit
  on every day compared.
- Ingestion lag. Our warehouse copy matches the API to within 0.2% across 33
  days, so the discrepancy originates upstream of our pipeline.

Questions:

1. Do the Amplify API report endpoints and the Amplify UI use the same
   attribution window and attribution model for conversions? If they differ,
   is that documented anywhere?
2. Is the conversion figure returned by campaigns/periodic finalised at or near
   day close, while the UI continues attributing across the full window?
3. If so, is there a parameter or a different endpoint that returns the
   fully-attributed figure the UI displays?

Happy to share the marketer ID, exact figures and raw API responses privately
with anyone from Outbrain who wants to reproduce it — I've also submitted this
through the Contact Us form.

Thanks!

[Bryn Whitcomb]

Hey Ray, 

Thanks for reaching out!

This discrepancy is likely caused by a mismatch in attribution timing between the two sources. By default, the Amplify dashboard attributes conversions based on click date, while the API attributes conversions based on conversion date.

To align the two, you have two options:

• Switch the dashboard's attribution model to conversion date via the Columns Organizer (located next to the Filter button in the top-right corner of the Campaigns tab):

• OR Add the parameter conversionsByClickDate=true to your API reporting call to have it return conversions attributed by click date instead.

Let me know if you have any further issues getting the data to match!

Best, 

Bryn

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