How to verify tracking is working correctly
A 3-minute checklist to confirm Follow The Spend is firing on your store.
The fastest way to trust the numbers is to generate one yourself, then watch it appear. Three minutes, no tooling, just an incognito window.
The 3-minute test
Open your store in an incognito window
Any private/incognito window works. Why incognito? Your normal browser already has a Follow The Spend visitor ID from previous browsing. Incognito is a clean slate — a true "new visitor" simulation.
Browse like a customer
Land on your homepage. Click into a product. Add it to cart. Don't check out — just browse for ~30 seconds.
The pixel fires on every page view. By the time you've done this, you've sent us 3–4 events.
Open Pulse in your normal browser
Look at Live Visitors in the top-right of Pulse. You should see your incognito visit counted. Click into Visitor Journeys — your incognito session should show up at the top of the list within 30–60 seconds.
If it does, tracking is working.
What you should see
Inside the journey for your test visit:
- Source: "Direct" (since you typed the URL yourself)
- Device: matches your laptop/phone
- Pages visited: homepage → product → cart, in order
- Session duration: ~30 seconds (or however long you took)
- Status: Anonymous (since you didn't log in or check out)
If you see nothing
Three causes account for nearly every "no data" report. Walk down the list.
1. Your store has zero traffic right now
Sounds obvious, but it's the #1 cause. The pixel needs visitors to see. If no one — including you — has visited your store since install, Pulse will show zero.
Fix: run the incognito test above to generate one yourself.
2. The Script Tag didn't install
Rare, but possible if your Shopify connection had a hiccup during install. To check:
- Open your store in any browser
- Right-click → View Source (or
Cmd+U/Ctrl+U) - Search for
intentiq.js
If the script tag is in your page source, the pixel is live. If it's missing, head to your Follow The Spend dashboard → Account → Reconnect Shopify.
3. An ad-blocker is hiding the pixel from your test browser
Some aggressive ad-blockers (uBlock Origin with custom rules, Brave shields on max) will block the pixel. They won't affect real customers in any meaningful share, but they can hide the pixel from your test.
Fix: disable the ad-blocker for your store domain, or test from a different browser.
If you see partial data
A handful of edge cases produce gaps that look like bugs but are actually expected behaviour.
Express checkout (Buy It Now / Shop Pay)
If your test visitor converts via Buy It Now or Shop Pay, the conversion will land but may show as "direct" rather than your real marketing source. This is a known v1.0 limitation — see Why Buy It Now / Shop Pay conversions show as direct.
Custom checkout subdomain
If your checkout runs on a custom subdomain (checkout.yourstore.com) rather than the default *.myshopify.com, contact us — we'll add the subdomain to your tracking config.
Apps that override your theme
Some heavy theme apps wrap or replace your storefront in ways that can prevent script tags from loading. If you're seeing intermittent tracking, mention which apps you have installed when you reach out — we can usually identify the culprit quickly.
Server-side tracking (coming soon)
Once server-side tracking ships, the pixel becomes a backup, not the primary path. Your data will survive ad-blockers, ITP, and every privacy browser update — automatically. Watch the Server-Side Tracking page for the launch.
Until then, the client pixel is what's running, and the test above is how to confirm it's alive.
What you'll see in your first hour of data
A walkthrough of exactly what's happening — and what's not — in the first 60 minutes after you install Follow The Spend.
Why your data feels thin on day one
Attribution data needs context — sessions, returns, multi-touch journeys. Here's why day one looks sparse and when it fills in.