Applied Epic → Criteo · Conversion tracking
Connecting Applied Epic to Criteo
Applied Epic runs insurance agencies, where the agency earns a commission on premium and the policy renews annually — so a new client is worth a stream, not a sale. Criteo is a retargeting and commerce media network built on product-level data, which means its feed matters as much as its conversion events. The join between them succeeds or fails on one thing: whether the Criteo user identifier and product IDs reaches the Applied Epic policy before the conversion happens, because Criteo can only match a conversion it can tie back to a click it recognizes.
✓ 30-minute call · No commitment · You leave with a written remediation plan even if we’re not the right fit.
Written guarantee
95%+ conversion accuracy on Applied Epic → Criteo
Measured against your own order records at handover. Miss it and we keep working at no cost until it’s met.
Built on — and certified for — the platforms that matter
Stape
Pro Partner
Meta
Tech Provider
Tag Manager
TikTok
Events API
Microsoft
UET Partner
CAPI Partner
CAPI Partner
Built on the same partner stack used by enterprise DTC brands.
By the numbers
No fake testimonials.Just the math.
70+
Platforms supported
Shopify · Woo · Magento · BigCommerce · 65 more
8+ / 10
Meta EMQ guaranteed
in writing — keep working free until hit
2–4d
Build to live
accurate data flowing within 7 days
$0
Monthly fees, ever
one-time fixed price · you own the stack
400d
Cookie lifetime
max RFC 6265bis allows · 57× Safari ITP
9
Ad channels covered
Meta · Google · TikTok · MS · LI · Pin · Snap · Reddit · X
95%+
Tracking accuracy
verified vs Stripe · GA4 · ad-platform reports
30 min
Free founder call
no SDR · no pitch deck · written remediation plan
Every figure above is either a commitment we put in writing or a countable fact. What your own setup is losing is not on this list, because we haven’t measured it yet — that happens on the call, against your own order records.
Real clients · real videos · real outcomes
Don’t take our word for it. Watch the receipts.
Founders, marketers, and agency owners describing the before-and-after of their Applied Epic → Criteo tracking rebuild — in their own words, on camera.
Why this join usually fails
The Criteo user identifier and product IDs never reaches Applied Epic
The single most common cause. Quotes are produced by staff and policies are bound days later, with the enquiry sometimes arriving by phone.
Premium reported instead of commission
A five-thousand-pound premium might earn the agency six hundred. Reporting the premium overstates return by roughly eight times and will justify spend that loses money.
Product IDs that do not match the feed
Criteo resolves conversions against your catalogue. If the IDs in your purchase events differ from the IDs in your feed — a common outcome when the feed is generated by a different system — the conversion resolves poorly and the reported value is wrong.
Nothing reconciles afterwards
An upload that succeeds is not an upload that matched. Criteo reports conversions on its own attribution windows, which include view-through. Reconcile against your own order records and be explicit that view-through credit is included — otherwise the comparison will never balance.
Architecture
How Applied Epic and Criteo actually connect
Two systems that know nothing about each other. Everything below exists to give them one shared reference.
Step 1
Applied Epic holds the truth
The agency does not earn the premium. It earns a percentage of it, annually, for as long as the policy renews — which makes both the value and its timing quite unlike a one-off sale.
Step 2
Criteo needs a click to match
Criteo needs the transaction with its product IDs, quantities and values, matched to your catalogue feed. Identity resolution is Criteo's side of the problem; feed consistency is yours.
Step 3
The identifier is the bridge
The Criteo user identifier and product IDs, captured at the visit and carried into the Applied Epic policy. Without it there is nothing to join on and no tool fixes that.
Step 4
The event source decides reliability
Send bound policies at first-year agency commission, with renewals reported as retention.
Step 5
Deduplication at the destination
Criteo deduplicates on the transaction identifier. Sending the same order from both a tag and a server integration without a shared ID counts it twice, and on a retargeting network that inflates the metric the whole channel is judged on.
Diagnose it honestly
Working vs. broken, side by side
Both states look identical from the Criteo dashboard, which is why this runs for months before anyone notices.
Normal — not a fault
The Criteo user identifier and product IDs present on the policy
Visible on the record itself in Applied Epic, not merely captured somewhere on the site.
Sent from the Applied Epic policy record
Server-side, so it does not depend on the customer's browser still being there.
Deduplicated correctly
Criteo deduplicates on the transaction identifier. Sending the same order from both a tag and a server integration without a shared ID counts it twice, and on a retargeting network that inflates the metric the whole channel is judged on.
Reconciles with the source
Criteo's count and Applied Epic's records agree within a few percent over a closed window.
Actually broken
The Criteo user identifier and product IDs missing on most records
Quotes are produced by staff and policies are bound days later, with the enquiry sometimes arriving by phone.
Sent from the browser
Anyone who closes the tab, blocks the script or converts without a page load is invisible. A five-thousand-pound premium might earn the agency six hundred. Reporting the premium overstates return by roughly eight times and will justify spend that loses money.
Counted twice, or not at all
Criteo resolves conversions against your catalogue. If the IDs in your purchase events differ from the IDs in your feed — a common outcome when the feed is generated by a different system — the conversion resolves poorly and the reported value is wrong.
Nobody has reconciled it
The dashboard shows a number and no one has compared it to Applied Epic. A wrong number that nobody checks is indistinguishable from a right one.
Diagnostic sequence
Diagnostic order
Each step rules out a class of cause. Run them in order and the last one usually has a single explanation standing.
- 1
Count policys carrying the Criteo user identifier and product IDs
The ceiling on everything else. Do this before debugging anything downstream.
- 2
Follow one real conversion end to end
From the ad click through Applied Epic and into Criteo.
- 3
Confirm the imported value is agency commission
The distinction is well understood inside the agency and routinely lost in the pipeline to the ad platform.
- 4
Compare product IDs in a real conversion against the catalogue feed
They must match exactly. This single check explains most Criteo value discrepancies.
- 5
Read the match rate, not the success message
Criteo reports conversions on its own attribution windows, which include view-through. Reconcile against your own order records and be explicit that view-through credit is included — otherwise the comparison will never balance.
Source-of-truth validation
How it gets proven
Against Applied Epic's own records, not against either platform's dashboard.
- The Criteo user identifier and product IDs confirmed present on a live policy.
- A real conversion followed from click through Applied Epic to Criteo.
- Product IDs in a live conversion confirmed to match the catalogue feed exactly.
- Bound policies reconciled at agency commission against imported conversions.
- Reconciled over a fully closed window, matched per record rather than on totals.
- Re-checked 30 days later.
Straight talk
When you don't need this
Worth reading before paying anyone, including us.
- If Criteo already reports conversions that reconcile against Applied Epic's records within a few percent, this join is working and there is nothing to buy.
- Measure identifier coverage yourself first — pull your last hundred policys and count how many carry the Criteo user identifier and product IDs. Ten minutes, free, and it tells you whether any of this is worth doing.
- If you cannot get commission into the pipeline, send a bound-policy count. A count is honest; premium is not.
- If you do not sell products with a catalogue, Criteo's model does not fit and the effort is misdirected.
Who this is for
Honest about who we’re a fit for.
We don’t take every project. Here’s how to tell if we’re right for you.
You’re a great fit if…
- You run Applied Epic → Criteo (or are migrating to it)
- You spend $5K+/month on paid ads (Meta, Google, TikTok, Microsoft, LinkedIn)
- Your reported ROAS doesn’t match what your bank account is saying
- You want to own your tracking stack — no monthly SaaS fees forever
- You have 2–4 days to do this once and never think about it again
Skip us if…
- You spend less than $500/month on paid ads (browser pixel is fine)
- You want a SaaS dashboard with monthly fees forever (Triple Whale, Hyros)
- You need attribution modeling — we fix the data foundation, not multi-touch reports
- You want a 6-month enterprise consulting engagement (we ship in 4 days)
- You expect us to manage your ad accounts (we don’t — that’s a different service)
If you’re still unsure,book the call anyway— we’ll tell you straight whether we can help.
What working looks like
The Criteo user identifier and product IDs on every policy
Server-sideCaptured before the conversion and stored where it survives.
Conversions arriving in Criteo
8+ EMQConversions appear in Criteo's reporting attributed to its own view- and click-through windows, which are worth understanding before comparing anything.
Reconciled against the source
DedupedApplied Epic's own records are the reference, not either dashboard.
What gets built
Identifier capture into Applied Epic
Store the identifier on the client record at enquiry so a policy bound later resolves to it.
Event source: the Applied Epic policy record
Send bound policies at first-year agency commission, with renewals reported as retention.
Dispatch to Criteo
Server-side transaction events with product IDs matching the catalogue feed, plus the feed itself kept in sync.
Reversals where they exist
Cancelled policies reverse pro rata.
Pick the package that fits your ad spend
Fixed-fee, no surprises. If your ad spend is meaningful,server-side tracking is what we recommend— it’s the only setup that survives iOS, Safari ITP and ad blockers.
Browser-side starter
Wires the join and verifies it on a live conversion. Honest about its ceiling where the source can only be read from the browser.
- The join built and tested end to end
- Verified on a real conversion
- Reconciled against the source's own records
- Written handover
1st-party server-side
Save $18K–$120K over 5 years vs Triple Whale / Hyros
The join built server-side from the source's own records, so it does not depend on a browser being present when the conversion happens.
- Events sourced from the system of record, not the browser
- Identifier captured and persisted end to end
- Deduplicated at the destination
- Reversals wired where the source supports them
- 95%+ accuracy guaranteed in writing
Full 1st-party stack
Every destination fed from one place, plus monitoring so a broken join surfaces in days rather than at quarter end.
- Everything in 1st-party server-side
- All paid destinations from one container
- CRM and offline loop
- Refunds and cancellations reversed everywhere
- Monitoring per destination
Not sure which tier fits?Book a 30-min scoping call— we’ll tell you straight, no upsell pressure.
How it works
Built in 2–4 days. Accurate data within 7.
We deliver the entire 1st-party server-side stack in 2–4 business days. You start collecting accurate, deduped conversion data the moment it goes live — and within 7 days every signal is flowing cleanly to Meta, Google, TikTok and the rest.
Kickoff + audit
30-min call. We map your current pixels, GTM, dataLayer, consent setup, and ad-platform integrations. You get a written report of every leak.
Build the stack
Server-side GTM container deployed on your subdomain. Meta CAPI · Google EC · TikTok Events API · Microsoft UET wired. Identity match + dedup configured.
QA + go-live
Live-fire test purchases across every funnel step. Meta EMQ verified at 8+. Tag Assistant + Pixel Helper passes. Side-by-side report delivered.
Verify accuracy
Your data flows clean. Within 7 days every signal — Meta, Google, TikTok, Microsoft — is fully accurate. Notion runbook + Loom walkthrough handoff.
Got questions?
The honestanswers.
No buzzwords, no upsell. If we don’t know, we say so.
01Why aren't my Applied Epic conversions showing in Criteo?
Almost always because the Criteo user identifier and product IDs never reached the Applied Epic policy. Quotes are produced by staff and policies are bound days later, with the enquiry sometimes arriving by phone. Measure coverage before debugging the dispatch.
02What identifier does Criteo need?
Criteo matches through its own identity graph rather than a single click parameter you capture, and it depends heavily on product-level data — the product IDs in your events must match the IDs in your catalogue feed exactly. A conversion that arrives with product IDs Criteo cannot resolve is worth much less than one that resolves, and mismatched IDs between feed and events are the most common failure here.
03Where should the event come from?
The Applied Epic policy record. Send bound policies at first-year agency commission, with renewals reported as retention.
04How do I know it worked?
Criteo reports conversions on its own attribution windows, which include view-through. Reconcile against your own order records and be explicit that view-through credit is included — otherwise the comparison will never balance.
Still have questions?Book a 30-min call— bring them all.
The call
What happens on your free 30-min call
No pitch deck, no SDR, no upsell pressure. Founder-led. Bring your ad-platform screens and yourApplied Epic → Criteo setup — we’ll work through it together.
Min 1–5
We get the lay of your store
What you sell, what you spend on ads, who handles dev. Quick context-gathering — no questionnaire upfront.
Min 5–15
We audit your tracking live
Screen-share. We open your Meta Events Manager, GTM, and ad reports. You see exactly which conversions are leaking.
Min 15–25
We map a fix
What needs rebuilding, what stays. The exact Applied Epic → Criteo setup we'd ship and what it would recover for you.
Min 25–30
Decide. Or don’t.
If we're a fit, we send a 1-page proposal in writing. If not, you walk away with a free remediation plan you can hand to anyone.
Get Applied Epic and Criteo joined properly
Book a free 30-minute call. We measure your identifier coverage live on your own account, and you leave with a written plan — including the option that you don't need us.
Free · 30-min consultation · No commitment · Replies in under 2 hours · Available worldwide via WhatsApp
95% tracking accuracy guarantee
Free 30-min consultation · from $400 · 1st-party server-side
95% guarantee · from $400
