Tracking subscription orders in the Shopify checkout

How to track subscriptions in the Shopify checkout in GA4 (Google Analytics), Meta Ads, Google Ads and Segment.

Last reviewed: 27 August 2026

Littledata automatically tracks all major subscription apps on Shopify, making it easy to differentiate one-off purchases from recurring orders and first-time subscription purchases in destinations such as Google Analytics, Google Ads and Meta Ads. Benefits include:

• Marketing attribution for recurring orders

• Enable reporting on subscriber lifetime value (LTV) by channel

• Build lookalike audiences for high LTV subscribers

• Block or target current subscribers from marketing campaigns

• Optimize Meta Ads campaigns for new subscription customers by triggering a First Recurring Purchase conversion

• Checkout funnel tracking, including checkout extensibility

• Send the data back to Google Analytics (GA4), Google Ads, Meta Ads, Segment and more

Supported Shopify subscription apps

Littledata's automated server-side tracking works with all subscription apps in the Shopify checkout. We can support stores using the following apps to power subscriptions:

• Recharge

• Appstle Subscriptions

• Awtomic

• Bold Subscriptions

• Casa Subscriptions

• Loop Subscriptions

• Ordergroove

• PayWhirl

• Recurpay

• Skio (a Recharge company)

• Smartrr

• Stay AI

If your subscription app isn't listed, contact Littledata support — our tracking works with any app that uses the Shopify checkout, and we can confirm compatibility or add support for your app.

Which subscription events do you track?

For subscriptions in the Shopify checkout, Littledata tracks:

• The checkout funnel: how users and products progress through the Shopify checkout steps

• First-time subscription orders which are tagged by the checkout app *

• Recurring orders generated by the terms of the subscription contract

Our app stitches sessions together for unbiased marketing attribution, user path analysis, LTV analysis, CRO and conversion tracking in Google Analytics and other tools. Learn more about how Littledata works behind the scenes to ensure 100% accurate conversion tracking and robust marketing attribution without the need for Google Tag Manager (GTM).

For Recharge, we also track subscription lifecycle events including subscription skipped, charge failed and subscription updated.

* Littledata picks up these order tags added up to 20 seconds after the order is created

Where can I send the data?

Google Analytics

Littledata's GA4 connection sends browsing behavior, marketing, order, payment, refund and subscription data directly to Google Analytics. You can see complete subscription data directly in GA4 or Google BigQuery.

Google Ads

Littledata's robust Google Ads integration enables subscription audience building and retargeting across Google Ads networks, including with enhanced conversions.

You can also use the Event Editor to configure custom conversion actions by subscription type or value — for example, excluding subscription renewals from ad conversions so Google Ads optimizes only for new customers.

Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram)

Littledata's Meta Conversions API connection (Meta API) sends checkout steps, LTV, order and subscription data back to Meta for audience building and remarketing in Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads.

We send the recurring orders as a separate Recurring Purchase event, which can be used to retarget only subscription customers - or build lookalike audiences from them.

• One-time purchases will register as a Purchase

• Subscription First Orders will register as both a Purchase and a First Recurring Purchase — first subscription orders fire both events

• Subscription Recurring Orders will register as a Recurring Purchase

You can also use the Event Editor to configure custom conversion events by subscription type or value — for example, sending a new subscriber conversion event to Meta Ads.

Twilio Segment

Littledata's Segment connection sends complete subscription data back to your Segment workspace. From there you can connect to data destinations like Mixpanel and Amplitude, engagement platforms like Klaviyo and Braze, and data warehouses like Snowflake.

How can I see the orders in Google Analytics?

You can see the different order types in Google Analytics 4 by first creating the Affiliation custom dimension and then using it to create an Exploration report with Affiliation as the main dimension and any combination of metrics (Purchase revenue, Conversions or Sessions).

You can use this Affiliation dimension to create a segment of subscription customers. See our video guide

The main order types that are included in the Affiliation dimension are:

• Shopify - one time purchases

• Subscription First Order - the first order that starts a subscription

• Subscription Recurring Order - recurring orders

The affiliation dimension is a comma-seperated list of order tags passed from the Shopify order. For example, to create a filter for only first orders you would filter by Affiliation includes Subscription First Order.

Compatibility with subscription apps

We've tested with all of the apps above, and the tracking of recurring orders works for all apps using the Shopify checkout.

The affiliation dimension depends on order tags set by the checkout app:

• Subscription First Order - if an order tag contains the word First Order

• Subscription Recurring Order - if an order tag contains the word Recurring Order

We additionally pass through further tags set by the subscription app - see these app support docs for more order tags:

• Recharge order tags

• Skio order tags

• Loop subscription tags (you need to opt in to the tags)