Check that everything works
Whence never guesses whether it is installed: it checks what it actually received. A script that sits on your pages but is blocked by an ad blocker, a wrong key or a declined cookie banner proves nothing, so every check below looks at real visits and real answers.
Step 1: Check that visits arrive
Click Setup (1) in the menu: the Install screen opens. The banner at the top (2) shows one of three states.
| Banner | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Whence is recording | People are on your store right now. | Nothing. |
| Whence is installed | No one is on the store this minute, but visits arrived. | Nothing. |
| No visit recorded yet | Nothing has arrived. | Open your store, then click Check again. The banner turns green on its own once a visit arrives. |
You can also open Visits: your own visit shows up in the list, and the Live view shows visitors active in the last two minutes.
Step 2: On Shopify, check the four tracking lines
In the Whence app inside your Shopify admin, a warning Turn on Whence in your theme means the app embed is still off. Click Open theme editor, switch it on, save, then Check again.
Once visits arrive, one sentence sums up the tracking. Open Details (1) to see four lines (2): Visitor tracking, Cart tracking, Checkout tracking and Order tracking.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Running | Events of this kind arrived recently. The time of the last one is shown. |
| Waiting for first event | Nothing of this kind yet, for example no cart since you installed. |
| Off | This tracking is not on. |
| Unknown | Whence cannot tell yet. |
Check again in Details sets up the Whence web pixel again and asks Whence to reread your orders (Check started). Orders are read from Shopify every 15 minutes, so a test order can take that long to appear.
Step 3: Check first-party tracking
On a Shopify or WordPress store, scroll the Install screen to the First-party tracking block. It reads First-party tracking: on (1) only if at least one visit really came through your store’s own domain in the last 7 days, and shows the share of visits received through your domain and through the Whence domain.
First-party tracking: off does not mean visits are lost: they still arrive through the Whence domain. On other stores, the block does not appear. See First-party tracking.
Step 4: Send a test to an ad platform
Open Marketing > Conversions, click Details next to a connected platform, then in Send a test event (1) pick a Step and click Send test event (2).
Whence shows what the platform answered. You can also run step 4 of the setup guide, Send the tests, to test every platform at once. A platform without a test mode (Klaviyo, Taboola) is only checked, and nothing is sent.
Test mode sends everything as test events that do not count in your campaigns. Turn it off once the test passes, or no real sale is counted.
Step 5: Read the Conversions card on Home
On Home, the Conversions card sums up your ad platforms in one status (1), with See conversions (2) to open the full screen.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Sending | At least one platform receives your sales. |
| Test mode | A platform receives test events only: nothing counts in its campaigns. |
| Paused | Sending is paused. |
| Problem | An ad platform is refusing events. Open Conversions to see its last error. |
| Not set up | No platform is connected yet. |
In the Shopify app, each pixel also shows Last 7 days: with the number of events sent, failed and skipped, and Activity lists the recent events sent to that platform.
Events wait for your visitors’ marketing consent. On a store with a cookie banner, a test visit where you declined sends nothing to your ad platforms. That is expected.