FAQ

Shopify's own analytics and each ad platform's dashboard are two different sources of truth, and they usually disagree with each other -- ad platforms report spend and conversions based on their own attribution model (which tends to over-count conversions the platform believes it influenced), while Shopify records what actually happened in your store.

Marginal reconciles the two: ad spend and campaign performance from each connected platform (Meta, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Pinterest Ads) against actual order data from Shopify, so the revenue, CAC, and ROAS figures you see are grounded in orders that really happened, not platform-reported conversions that may be over- or under-counted.

Blended figures combine spend and results across every ad platform you've connected into a single CAC (cost to acquire a customer) and ROAS (return on ad spend) number, rather than showing each platform's figures in isolation. This is only available on the Growth and Pro plans -- see “Plans and billing” below.

From Shopify: order totals, discounts, tax, shipping, line items, and the Shopify customer ID on each order (used only to tell first-time and repeat customers apart -- we never store customer names or email addresses). From connected ad platforms: ad account IDs and daily campaign-level spend, impressions, and clicks -- never any personal data about your customers.

Full details are in our Privacy Policy.

Connecting an ad account directly to a third-party app normally requires that app to complete each platform's own developer verification process (Meta Business Verification, Google's OAuth app review, and so on) before it's allowed to pull your account's data -- a process that can take weeks and is largely out of any single app's control.

For Google Ads, you add a short read-only script to your own Google Ads account. Google runs it once a day with your own access, and it sends your daily campaign spend, impressions and clicks to Marginal -- it can't change anything in your account, and no login or connector is involved.

For Meta Ads, TikTok Ads, and Pinterest Ads, Marginal connects through Windsor.ai, a data connector that already holds that verified access. When you click “Connect” for one of these, you authorize your ad account through Windsor's own hosted consent flow -- Marginal never sees or stores your ad platform login, only the resulting campaign performance data.

No -- we don't sell or share your data with third parties for their own marketing purposes. Data passes through the infrastructure providers needed to run Marginal itself (database hosting, application hosting, the Windsor.ai connector, and Anthropic for generating written explanations from aggregate figures) -- all listed as sub-processors in our Data Processing Agreement.

Every new subscription starts with a 14-day free trial -- no charge is made until the trial ends. Billing is handled entirely through Shopify's own subscription system, so it's billed and managed the same way as any other Shopify app charge.

Starter connects a single ad channel (Meta), with core revenue and spend reporting. Growth unlocks multi-channel blended CAC/ROAS across every platform you connect, Ask Analyst, and the Executive Summary report. Pro adds gross margin and profitability reporting on top of everything in Growth.

Plan changes take effect immediately and are billed at the new plan's rate going forward -- there's no separate downgrade waiting period. If you move to a plan with fewer features (for example, from Growth to Starter), the parts of the app tied to features your new plan doesn't include become unavailable until you upgrade again; your underlying data isn't deleted by a downgrade.

No -- you can cancel at any time, which stops future billing at the end of your current billing period, but we don't refund partial or unused periods. See our Terms of Service for the full billing terms.

Uninstalling Marginal from your Shopify admin, or clicking “Disconnect store” inside the app, permanently deletes your store's data -- orders, customers, line items, product costs, ad account connections, and synced metrics -- automatically, with no separate request needed. Encrypted backups age out within 14 days after that. Full details in our Privacy Policy.