# Subscription-aware attribution

> How Ordinary handles Recharge subscription orders so recurring renewals don't inflate your new-customer acquisition numbers.

Source: https://help.tryordinary.com/concepts/subscription-attribution

---

> Subscription-aware attribution is available on **Starter and higher**.

If you run a subscription program through **Recharge**, your orders
fall into three categories that need different attribution handling:

1. **One-off orders** — customer bought without subscribing.
2. **First subscription order** — customer's initial subscription
   purchase. Pixel-tracked like a normal order.
3. **Recurring subscription reorder** — Recharge auto-bills the
   customer; no storefront click, no pixel session.

Lumping all three together distorts every attribution number. Ordinary
splits them out.

## How we detect subscription orders

Every order from Shopify carries a set of tags. Recharge adds specific
tags when it creates or renews subscriptions:

- **`Subscription First Order`** (or equivalent) on the customer's
  initial subscription purchase.
- **`Subscription Recurring Order`** (or equivalent) on every renewal.

Ordinary reads these tags and flags each line item as either a first
subscription order or a recurring renewal. Reports use that split to
sort orders into the three buckets above.

## What shows up where

### Funnel chart (Attribution report)

The Orders bar on the funnel has a **lighter-blue segment** for
subscription reorders (see below). Without splitting, your conversion
rate would include recurring renewals that never touched the funnel —
inflating the apparent store-wide conversion.


### Revenue numbers

- **Total revenue** includes everything.
- **Attributed revenue** (via UTM / channel) excludes recurring
  reorders because they have no session / no UTMs. Showing attribution
  on them would be a lie — Recharge renewed them, not your ad.

### First-order revenue

"First-subscription-order" revenue IS attributed normally — the
customer clicked through to subscribe, the pixel saw the session,
UTMs are present.

## Why this matters for ROAS

A Meta campaign that drove 100 orders last month, where 40 of those
orders were Recharge reorders:

- **Without subscription-aware attribution**: ROAS looks great. But
  if Meta didn't drive those reorders (Recharge did), you're
  over-crediting Meta.
- **With subscription-aware attribution**: the 40 reorders are
  excluded from Meta's attributed revenue. ROAS is lower but closer
  to the truth of what Meta actually drove.

This matters most for subscription-heavy brands — coffee, supplements,
beauty consumables. If <10% of your orders are subscription, the
effect is small.

ROAS is calculated on **net revenue** — refunds are subtracted from
their original-period revenue across both first-time and recurring
subscription orders. A $50 first-subscription order that's later
refunded $25 contributes $25 to its attributed channel.

## What if I use a different subscription tool?

Currently only **Recharge** tags are auto-detected. Other subscription
tools (Appstle, Bold, native Shopify subscriptions) tag differently
or don't tag at all. Subscription split won't fire for those orders.

Broader subscription-tool support is tracked as a post-launch enhancement.

## On Free

On Free, reorders are counted in the same bucket as regular orders.
No split is shown.

Upgrade to Starter to see the subscription segment on the funnel and
the split-out revenue numbers throughout the app.

## Related articles

- [Funnel — sessions to orders](https://help.tryordinary.com/features/funnel)
- [Attribution reports](https://help.tryordinary.com/features/attribution)