Login
Login

Why Smart Media Buyers Stop Trusting Triple Whale — and Switch to Wicked Reports

Undeline

 

When your attribution model is wrong, every optimization decision is wrong. Tier 11’s John Moran shows how third-party tools like Triple Whale can misreport up to 30% of revenue — and how brands fix it with Wicked Reports.

 
See the Proof
See the Full Case Study
Triple Hero
Shopify
Meta
Google Ads
Klaviyo
2,000+ Brands Analyzed

Bad Attribution Doesn’t Just Confuse You — It Costs You Money

Hero Vector

Most brands assume attribution tools are “directionally correct.”
John Moran’s analysis shows that assumption is dangerous.

 

When an attribution platform relies on:
Cookies that disappear
Short lookback windows
Last-touch or near-conversion credit
...it systematically over-credits retargeting and under-credits prospecting.
That means brands:
Scale the wrong campaigns
Kill ads that actually create customers
Stall new customer growth
Lose money while thinking they’re optimizing
That's not a reporting problem. It's a growth problem.

Where Triple Whale’s Attribution Model Breaks Down

Line-1

Card 1

 

Cookie-Dependent Tracking

 

Triple Whale relies on third-party, cookie-based data — exactly the signals most affected by iOS, browser privacy updates, and session loss.

Card 2

 

Short Lookback Windows

 

If a customer takes weeks to decide, Triple Whale credits what it can still “see,” not what actually created demand.

Card 3

 

Bottom-Funnel Bias

 

Retargeting, email, and branded traffic get over-credited. Prospecting looks inefficient — even when it’s working.

John Moran shows this leads to revenue misreporting of up to ~30%, causing media buyers to optimize in the wrong direction.

The Attribution Time Machine: See What Actually Created the Customer

Vector 13-2

 

MOST TOOLS ASK:
“What happened right before the purchase?”
 
WICKED REPORTS ASKS:
“What turned this person into a customer in the first place?”
 
WITH THE ATTRIBUTION TIME MACHINE, YOU CAN:
Check
Use infinite lookback windows
Check
Attribute based on first meaningful engagement
Check
Measure cold traffic honestly
Check
Separate customer creation from revenue harvesting
Attribution Time Machine
 
Attribution Time Machine

Validated by Tier 11’s John Moran

Vector 12-2

John Moran doesn’t sell attribution software. He fixes broken ad accounts.
After questioning third-party attribution data and switching to Wicked Reports:
Revenue reporting aligned with reality
Prospecting campaigns made sense again
Media buying decisions improved immediately
John Moran
Tier Eleven Chief Strategist
 
See the Full Case Study

Compare Capability

Vector 17-1

Capability
Wicked Reports
Triple Whale
 
Data source
Yes
First-party only
Third-party
Third-party
 
Cookies required
No
No
Yes
Yes
 
Lookback window
Infinite
Infinite
Limited
Limited
 
Prospecting accuracy
High
High
Under-credited
Under-credited
 
Retargeting bias
None
None
Inflated
Inflated
 
Revenue accuracy risk
Minimal
Minimal
Up to ~30%
Up to ~30%
 
Built for
Scaling new customers profitably
Directional reporting

Important Feature Distinctions That Change Performance — Not Just Reporting

Line-1

Advanced Signal
Advanced Signal
Training Meta for New Customers (Not Just Purchases)
Wicked Reports includes Advanced Signal, a proprietary Meta Conversion API integration designed specifically for new customer acquisition.
Unlike standard CAPI setups, Advanced Signal:
Sends new-customer-only conversion events to Meta
Groups signals by SKU and product category
Separates customer creation from revenue harvesting
Actively reduces Meta’s built-in retargeting bias
This allows Meta to optimize toward net-new buyers, not people who were already going to purchase.
5 Forces AI
5 Forces AI
Built on a Decision System, Not Noisy Data
Triple Whale has a lot of AI features.
The problem isn’t the AI — it’s the data feeding it.
Because Triple Whale relies on:
Third-party attribution
Short lookback windows
Cookie-degraded inputs
its AI often amplifies biased or incomplete signals.
Wicked Reports’ AI is different by design.

Advanced Signal

Vector 13-2

 

No other attribution platform — including Triple Whale — sends SKU-grouped, new-customer conversion signals to Meta.

That’s why Wicked Reports customers see:

  • Higher quality prospecting traffic
  • Lower new customer CAC
  • Better scaling efficiency over time

Triple Whale can report on performance — Advanced Signal changes performance.

Advanced Signal full

The 5 Forces AI system

Vector 13-2

 

  • Runs on deterministic, first-party data
  • Evaluates performance through Scale / Chill / Kill lenses
  • Separates signal from noise
  • Saves teams 10+ hours per week on analysis

This isn’t “AI suggestions.”

It’s AI-assisted decision execution, grounded in reality.

The 5 Forces AI system

Already Using Triple Whale?
Here’s What Switching Actually Looks Like

Dark line

 

No. Wicked Reports runs alongside your existing tools.

Most brands:

  • Keep Triple Whale live during the transition

  • Compare data side-by-side

  • Let Wicked Reports reveal what the other model is missing

There’s no downtime, no forced cutover, and no risk to active campaigns.
Translation for the buyer: You’re not jumping off a cliff — you’re testing reality.

It’s different — not harder.

Wicked Reports uses:

  • First-party data

  • No cookies

  • Your brand’s domain to load tracking scripts

That means fewer things break over time and less dependency on browser behavior.

Most customers are live in days, not weeks — with hands-on guidance from attribution experts, not generic support.

That’s actually the point.

If Wicked Reports shows:

  • Higher CAC

  • Lower ROAS

  • Fewer “winning” campaigns

…it means your previous model was over-crediting the bottom of the funnel.

Brands don’t switch because the numbers look prettier.
They switch because the numbers finally make decision-making sense.

No.

Wicked Reports is designed to reconstruct customer journeys going forward using first-party data and infinite lookback logic.

You’re not losing history — you’re gaining clarity about what actually creates customers from this point on.

Most brands realize quickly that accurate forward-looking data matters more than flawed historical comfort.

Triple Whale can be fine if:

  • You only need high-level directional reporting

  • You’re not actively scaling prospecting

  • You’re not making six-figure monthly budget decisions

  • You’re comfortable with short lookback windows and cookie loss

Wicked Reports is built for brands who:

  • Care deeply about new customer acquisition

  • Need confidence to scale

  • Can’t afford to optimize based on biased data

Almost always after one moment:

“Oh… that’s why this campaign never made sense.”

Once teams see:

  • Prospecting credited correctly

  • Retargeting normalized

  • Customer creation separated from revenue harvesting

They stop arguing about attribution models and start making better decisions.

At that point, the switch becomes obvious.

Stop Optimizing Based on Bad Data

Line-1

 

If your attribution model is wrong, your growth strategy is wrong — no matter how good your ads are.
Wicked Reports is built for brands who want truth, not comfort.

 
All Interactive Demos
Talk to a Tracking Expert