Quickstart

You just finished the OAuth install. Pulse is open. Your dashboard probably shows mostly zeros, and you're wondering what to do for the next 10 minutes.

Here's a focused tour that gets you to "I understand what I'm looking at" before you close the tab.

Minute 1 — Confirm tracking is alive

Open your store in an incognito window and browse a product for ~30 seconds. Watch the Live Visitors counter in the top-right of Pulse. It should tick up.

If it does, the pixel is firing and orders will flow through. Move on.

If it doesn't, follow the diagnostic in Verify tracking is working before continuing — the rest of this tour assumes data is flowing.

Minute 2–3 — Tour Pulse

Pulse is divided into three areas, top to bottom:

1. KPI tiles — today's revenue, sessions, conversion rate, AOV. These update every few seconds.
2. Channel performance — table breaking down sessions, conversions, and revenue by channel. The model toggle (top-right) switches between first-touch / last-touch / linear.
3. Trend chart — revenue over time. Compare to a previous period using the date-range selector.

Don't try to interpret the numbers yet. You don't have enough data on day one. Just learn the layout.

Minute 4–5 — Open a Visitor Journey

Click Journeys in the left nav. You'll see a list of recent visitors. Click any one with multiple sessions if available, or just the first one in the list.

A journey shows:

• The visitor's identity — anonymous (just a visitor ID) or identified (linked to a Shopify customer)
• Every session — chronological list with channel, landing page, duration
• Every page view inside each session
• Any orders placed

Spend 2 minutes scrolling through one or two journeys. This is the level of detail FTS captures. It's the most valuable view in the product for understanding individual customer paths.

Minute 6 — Switch attribution models

Back in Pulse, find the model toggle in the channel performance table. Click through first-touch → last-touch → linear and watch the channel mix change.

Three things to notice:

• Same data, different stories
• A channel that looks dominant in one model may look weak in another
• On day one, the differences may be small (most journeys are still single-session)

If you want to understand exactly why the numbers shift, read How attribution works and Picking the right attribution model.

Minute 7 — Set your first filter

In Pulse's date-range selector (top-right), switch from "Today" to "Last 7 days." Then to "Last 30 days." Each switch refilters every panel. (Day-one users will see the same data since you only have minutes of history, but you've now learned the control.)

Minute 8 — Find the trial banner

Look for the trial countdown banner at the top of Pulse. It shows how many days remain in your free trial. The banner color shifts:

• Purple — normal
• Amber — 2 days or fewer remaining
• Red — trial expired (read-only mode until you start a paid subscription)

You won't be charged anything during the trial. Cancel before day 7 and nothing happens.

Minute 9 — Bookmark the right pages

Three pages worth bookmarking:

• Pulse (app.followthespend.com) — your daily home
• Journeys — the deep-dive view
• This KB (docs.followthespend.com/docs) — when you need to look something up

Minute 10 — Set expectations for week one

Day one of any analytics tool is sparse. Real value emerges as data accumulates. A rough guide:

Don't make budget changes based on day-one data. Use the trial week to confirm tracking works, learn the UI, and let the data densify.

Where to go next

• Pulse Dashboard overview — the full reference
• Why your data feels thin on day one — managing trial-week expectations
• Picking the right attribution model — when to switch lenses