Triple Whale grew up around Meta-heavy Shopify brands, and a lot of its product shows it, from creative reporting to views-based attribution. Brands whose budget runs mostly through Google Search, Shopping and Performance Max have a different measurement problem. Their biggest question is usually not whether an unclicked video drove a sale. It is how much of their Google revenue would have happened anyway, because the buyer was already searching for the brand.
Triple Whale can report on Google, and its paid plans are priced by annual GMV on 12-month terms. If Google is most of your spend, these five are worth comparing before committing to a year.
1. Google Analytics 4
GA4 is free, links directly to Google Ads, and uses data-driven attribution by default. For a Google-heavy brand it is a stronger baseline than it is for a Meta-heavy one, since most of your paid traffic arrives through clicks it can see. Its weak spot is grading Google’s own work. It tends to be generous to Google channels, so use it alongside something independent rather than as the final word.
2. ThoughtMetric
ThoughtMetric is an e-commerce attribution tool for Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and custom stores. (Disclosure: ThoughtMetric sponsors this site.) It reports Google campaigns next to every other channel with each order credited once, splits results into new and returning customers, and can send conversion data back to Google and Meta. Switching between first touch, last touch and its multi-touch model on the same orders is a quick way to see how much brand search is closing sales other channels started. Pricing starts at $99 a month based on pageviews, billed monthly.
3. Northbeam
Northbeam takes a firm position on Google brand search. Its default Clicks-Only model, per its docs, excludes bottom-funnel touchpoints including branded search, direct, email and SMS from credit. That makes it useful for a Google-heavy brand that suspects brand campaigns are taking credit they did not earn. It also means you should read non-brand and Shopping separately from brand. Starter is listed at $1,500 a month, described as month-to-month for Shopify brands.
4. Polar Analytics
Polar Analytics lists Google Ads as a one-click connector and sells two things a Google-heavy brand may want. Advertising Signals sends conversion events to Google Ads through its conversion API, and incrementality testing can run lift tests on Google campaigns with a dedicated data scientist. A lift test on brand search answers the cannibalization question directly. Polar’s pricing is not listed on the website.
5. Wicked Reports
Wicked Reports credits the original first click however long ago it happened, which is a useful counterweight to Google’s tendency to collect last-click credit. If a customer first arrived from a non-brand search and came back through brand search three weeks later, Wicked gives the first visit its due. Under $2.5 million in annual revenue, Measure is $499 a month, Scale is $699 and Maximize is $999.
Reading Google spend honestly
Split brand from non-brand everywhere, including in Performance Max, which blends search, Shopping, YouTube and display unless you separate brand terms. A blended Google ROAS that includes brand search will look healthier than the channel is, because people who type your name were going to find you.
Then test brand search once. Pause or cut brand bids in a set of regions for a few weeks and watch total sales there. If revenue barely moves, much of that spend was paying for sales you would have had. It is one of the cheapest and most useful tests a Google-heavy brand can run. More in is Google Ads reported ROAS accurate, do attribution tools work with Performance Max and best tools to track the impact of Google Ads.
Picking one
- Need a free baseline wired straight into Google Ads? GA4.
- Want Google read next to every other channel, each order credited once? ThoughtMetric (our sponsor).
- Suspect brand search is taking undeserved credit? Northbeam’s default model excludes it.
- Want a lift test on Google campaigns? Polar Analytics’ incrementality product.
- Want first non-brand clicks to get credit? Wicked Reports.
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