Trust your tracker or the network panel — reconciliation rules

Trust your tracker or the network panel — reconciliation rules

Numbers will disagree. Knowing which to trust for which decision prevents bad scaling calls.

Trust your tracker for:
— Click counts, traffic distribution, lander-to-offer CTR.
— Anything upstream of the offer click — the network can't see it.
— Real-time optimization signals.

Trust the network panel for:
— Final approved conversions and payout amounts.
— Reversals, holds, scrubs — they own this data.
— The number on your invoice.

Why gaps happen (log each cause):
— Postback dropped (timeout, click_id mismatch) → tracker under-counts.
— Network scrubs/holds → network shows fewer than your tracker's raw postbacks.
— Duplicate firing → tracker over-counts.

Reconciliation rule:
— Acceptable variance: under 5% on conversions.
— Over 5%: check click_id passthrough first, then postback logs, then dedupe.
— Always pay yourself on network-approved numbers, optimize on tracker numbers.

Save this SOP. Run this before every launch.