AxiaOS vs. Northbeam
The most sophisticated multi-touch attribution vendor in the DTC space, respected among advanced media buyers. Two accounting modes (accrual and cash), seven attribution models, configurable attribution windows.
The questions worth asking before you sign
Where does your data live?
In Northbeam's platform, reached through their product. They describe it as first-party tracking infrastructure. It runs on their systems, under their terms.
On new builds, in your own Google Cloud account, under your billing. You hold the keys, the schema and the history.
What happens if you cancel?
The number stops being produced. The models and logic that generated it stay on Northbeam's side, and whatever you can export is a copy of their output.
Nothing is lost. On new builds, the warehouse, the logic and the history sit in your account and stay there. Hosted accounts are kept in a transferable state.
Who measures the result?
With Apex, Northbeam feeds its own attribution to Meta to optimize against, and its published case studies report the lift in Northbeam's own numbers. The platform doing the optimizing also does the scoring.
Results get checked against your own orders in your own warehouse, with Meta's and Google's claims shown beside them, labeled as claims.
How does revenue attribution work?
Accrual mode fractionally splits your revenue across touchpoints. A single order becomes slivers of credit spread across days, allocated by their algorithm.
Never modeled. Every dollar traces to one real, dated event.
How are view-through conversions counted?
Their “Modeled Views” layer uses machine learning to infer view-through conversions. Their own documentation states it needs 25 to 30 days to “establish reliable patterns.”
No inference. If something can't be verified against a real event, it's labeled as a gap, never filled in with a guess.
Is the methodology auditable?
Their attribution methodology page doesn't publish identity-resolution detail or model math. “Unbiased” is stated, not demonstrated.
Nothing to take on faith. On new builds, every calculation runs inside your own environment.
Do the numbers stay stable over time?
Accrual credit accumulates as customer journeys complete, so a given week's reported ROAS can read differently once it's revisited the following week.
A number, once recorded, doesn't change retroactively.
How are returns handled?
In cash mode, revenue can run higher than Shopify because refunds aren't netted out.
Returns net against revenue the same way finance already closes the books.
How many versions of "the truth" exist?
Seven attribution models, times seven windows, times two accounting modes, is roughly 100 possible configurations. Different stakeholders can select the one that suits their narrative.
One number. Traceable to source, the same every time it runs.
Northbeam has genuine credibility with advanced media buyers, strong creative-level analytics, and the accrual concept itself is a real, useful lens on time-distributed value. One independent reviewer who compared five major attribution platforms called Northbeam's data “by far the most accurate and consistent” among them. Buyers' real complaints cluster on onboarding, support responsiveness, and cost, not on whether the numbers themselves are wrong. Public pricing starts around $1,500/mo and scales with data volume, positioned for accounts well above the $50K/mo range.
Doesn’t Northbeam already offer first-party tracking infrastructure?
By their own description, yes. The question is whether anyone checks the numbers it produces against your real orders. AxiaOS does that, and you can keep Northbeam on top of it if your media buyer likes the workflow.
Isn’t multi-touch attribution more accurate than first-touch?
It can be more sophisticated. Accuracy is a separate question, and a model that can't be independently checked is hard to validate either way. AxiaOS's position: a fully auditable first-touch record, shown alongside what each platform claims with the honest gaps labeled, is worth more than a model nobody outside the vendor can verify.
“extremely hard onboarding with very little empathy and understanding”
Trustpilot review
“We have tried all 5 of the biggest attribution platforms out there and Northbeam's data is by far the most accurate and consistent.”
Capterra review