Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to questions that come up in conversations with prospects and customers and aren't covered on other pages. For plans and what's included, see Pricing.
Can I send my own conversion values, or do I have to use SegmentStream's ML models?
You can use your own. SegmentStream lets us create custom conversions for your project that can carry any value you compute — including the output of your own pricing or scoring engine. That value is then used everywhere: attribution reports, budget optimization, and conversion exports to ad platforms like Meta and Google.
Can I exclude certain orders from conversions — free samples, $0 products, test orders?
Yes. Your purchase conversion doesn't have to include every order blindly. We can define it to exclude orders by value, SKU, product type, or any other order parameter — so samples and test orders don't pollute conversion counts, CPA, conversion rate, or revenue. If useful, the excluded orders can still be tracked separately as their own conversion.
Can SegmentStream separate new-customer revenue from returning-customer revenue?
Yes. We can create a separate conversion for first-time customer purchases, based on your store or CRM customer data, and use it as the primary view for evaluating acquisition campaigns. A second conversion for all purchases keeps total revenue visible — and reports compare both at channel and campaign level: one view for acquisition quality, one for total business impact.
Is BigQuery a hard requirement? I don't have a data warehouse.
No. Using your own BigQuery is completely optional. There are two options: SegmentStream-hosted storage — a managed data warehouse we provision and run under the hood (isolated dataset, EU or US region, your data stays yours and is exportable at any time) — or self-hosted, where you bring your own BigQuery project. You don't need to add a warehouse on your side.
Meta restricts conversion tracking for my category (Health & Wellness, etc.). Can SegmentStream still optimize my Meta campaigns?
Yes. Meta doesn't allow advertisers in restricted categories to send lower-funnel conversion events like leads or purchases for campaign optimization, even server-side. SegmentStream works around this with behaviour-based Synthetic Conversion Events: instead of reporting the actual conversion, Visit Scoring evaluates on-site behaviour and generates policy-safe events with predicted values — no restricted terminology in event names, parameters, or URLs. These events are exported to Meta via the Conversions API and give Meta's bidding a value signal to optimize toward, without ever seeing a restricted event. Note: value-based optimization on custom events is a Meta beta — ask your Meta representative to activate it on your account.
Is SegmentStream HIPAA compliant? Do you sign a BAA?
SegmentStream is not a HIPAA business associate and does not sign BAAs. The platform is built for marketing measurement on public websites and ad platforms — it is not designed to receive or process protected health information, and you should not send PHI into it. Most marketing and referral businesses in health-adjacent verticals are not HIPAA covered entities; the rules that usually apply to them instead (the FTC Act, the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule, and state laws like Washington's My Health My Data Act) hinge on user consent for sharing data with ad platforms. SegmentStream supports consent-aware tracking and data minimization, but the consent setup on your site is yours to own — and for any regulated vertical, have your counsel review the configuration. We provide a DPA and full security documentation.
My sales cycle is long — lead values change as deals progress. Can conversion values be updated after the fact?
Yes, in two complementary ways. Conversions adjustment re-syncs conversion data from your CRM within a configurable window, so when a lead's status or value changes weeks later, SegmentStream's reports and optimization reflect it. And for staged funnels (lead → qualified → closed), each stage can be tracked as its own conversion that inherits attribution from the original lead — so revenue closing months after the first click is still credited to the channel that generated it, without needing a months-long attribution window. One caveat for ad-platform exports: Meta only accepts events up to 7 days old, so late value corrections update your measurement and budget decisions, not events already exported to Meta.
How can I verify that SegmentStream's numbers are right?
Everything is designed to be traceable and auditable. For tracked conversions, you can open any customer journey and see the actual touchpoints behind the attribution — which campaign introduced the user, what happened later, and why credit was assigned the way it was. Predictions are back-testable: the model forecasts how an immature cohort will mature, and you compare the forecast with reality once enough time has passed.
I already run server-side tracking — does that conflict with SegmentStream?
No. Server-side tracking is about how events reach your analytics platform and ad platforms. SegmentStream consumes the data downstream: events come from your analytics system, and spend and campaign data comes from ad-platform APIs — so everything works the same whether your events arrive client-side or server-side.
How long does implementation take?
Connecting website tracking and ad platforms usually takes no more than a day. Time to first meaningful numbers depends on historical data: if it's already available in your data warehouse, reports populate right away; if data collection starts from scratch, expect 7–14 days. CRM integration takes a few days at most when access is granted and a native connector exists, and up to a week for a custom integration.