Tracking and analytics. Know which channel brings enquiries and which just spends.
Plenty of businesses pay for ads, SEO and social media without knowing where last week's enquiry came from. We set up tracking so every call, form and order is tied to the channel that brought it. Once a month you get a report by channel: what went in and what came back.
What it looks like
A monthly report by channel.
The first page of the report is a table: where enquiries came from, what each channel cost and what one enquiry cost. Below it come the explanations and what we propose to change. The example is an illustration for a made-up language school, Copperbeck Languages in Denver.
- Forms, taps on the phone number and email links are each logged as a key event in GA4. A tap on the number is not yet a call.
- Ads, emails and posts carry UTM tags, so the report shows a channel instead of (not set).
- Organic search has no media cost, but SEO work does cost money, and the report says so.
| Channel | Enquiries | Cost | Cost per enquiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ads | 46 | $736 | $16.00 |
| Instagram ads | 21 | $462 | $22.00 |
| Organic search | 38 | SEO, per contract | - |
| 12 | Tool, $36 | $3.00 | |
| Paid channels total | 79 | $1,234 | $15.62 |
- End of processing in standard UA
- 1 July 2023
- UK analytics cookie exemption since
- 5 Feb 2026
- Free GA4 keeps detailed data for
- 2 or 14 months
- Facts checked
- 7 Nov 2026
What you get
What we set up and what you get.
Setup is a one-off job, while reporting and upkeep run monthly. We quote after the first call, once we have seen your site, your channels and what is tracked today.
Setup
Every tag runs through Google Tag Manager, so it can change later without touching the site's code.
- A GA4 property in your company's name
- Google Tag Manager with every tag in one place
- Key events: form, call, email, booking, order
- GA4 linked to Google Ads and Search Console
- Meta Pixel and Conversions API for social ads
Consent
Analytics and ad tags follow the visitor's choice and the rules of each market you sell in.
- A cookie banner that offers a real choice
- Tags that wait for the visitor's answer
- Consent mode for Google tags
- Global Privacy Control respected for California visitors
- A check that saying no really switches tracking off
Channels and UTMs
Every link in an ad, email or post carries a channel tag, so enquiries do not vanish into direct traffic.
- Campaign naming rules for the whole team
- UTM tags for emails, posts and partnerships
- Enquiries imported from your CRM into Google Ads
- Enquiries linked to sales where possible
- Your own office traffic filtered out
Report
The report opens with a table by channel, not with fifty charts.
- Enquiries, cost and cost per enquiry by channel
- Pages that win enquiries and pages that lose them
- Comparison with last month and last year
- What changed and why
- Where we suggest the money goes next month
Comparison
What each tool shows.
Every platform measures itself and tends to credit itself with the enquiry. That is why Google Ads, Meta and GA4 give different numbers for the same month. We put them in one table and explain the gap.
| What we compare | Google Ads or Meta | GA4 | Your CRM or spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it sees | Only its own ads | Site visits, where consent allows | Enquiries and sales |
| Who gets the credit | Itself, after a click or an ad view | A channel, by the attribution model | Whatever source you record |
| Phone calls | If call tracking is set up | A tap on the number, not the call | If your team logs them |
| Sales | Site orders via tags, other sales if imported | Orders placed on the site | Yes, with the value |
| Whose account | Yours, we have access | Yours, we have access | Yours |
| What it is for | Running the ads | Behaviour on the site and channels | Real revenue by channel |
Swipe to see all columns →
How it runs
The first month, step by step.
-
Week 1
Audit
We check what is tracked today and how accurately, comparing the enquiries in your inbox with what GA4 and the ad platforms report. You get a list of the gaps.
-
Week 2
Setup
We install Tag Manager, key events, cookie consent and the links to your ad accounts. Everything is checked with a test enquiry, not an assumption.
-
Week 3
Channels
We write the UTM rules and hand them to everyone who publishes links. If you use a CRM, we connect enquiries to sales.
-
End of month
First report
The first report by channel arrives by the 5th of the following month, with a list of what still cannot be measured and why.
Who this is for
Who it works for, and who it does not.
It makes sense if:
- You spend on at least two channels, say ads and SEO, and cannot tell which is worth more
- Google Ads, Meta and GA4 report different numbers, so you trust none of them
- Enquiries arrive in several places: forms, phone, email, chat
- You want a report you can read in five minutes
It does not make sense if:
- You run one channel and get a handful of enquiries a month: the free version of GA4, set up yourself, will do
- You want full tracking without giving EEA or UK visitors any choice: the rules do not allow it
- You want a report that shows only good numbers: we report what is not working too
The GA4 property, Tag Manager and every account stay in your company's name, and we only have access. The consent rules and Google settings on this page were checked on 7 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Tracking and analytics questions.
Why do Google Ads and GA4 never agree?
Each tool counts its own way. Google Ads can credit an ad even when someone only watched a video, while GA4 splits credit across channels by its attribution model. When a visitor declines cookies, some enquiries disappear from both. That is why the report also shows how many enquiries actually arrived.
Do we need a cookie banner?
For visitors in the EEA, yes. Google's EU user consent policy covers the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and EEA traffic has to pass consent signals to Google, through consent mode or a consent banner built on IAB Europe's TCF. In the UK, since 5 February 2026, cookies used only to collect statistics on how a site is used, so it can be improved, can run without consent, as long as the data is not shared with anyone except to help improve the site, and visitors get clear information and a simple, free way to object. If the data also feeds advertising, for example through a link to Google Ads, that exception no longer fits, and advertising cookies always need consent.
What about visitors in the US?
Rules differ by state. In California, businesses covered by the CCPA must treat a Global Privacy Control signal as a valid request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and sharing there means cross-context behavioural advertising. We set the tags up so that signal is respected.
What is a key event?
An action on your site that matters to the business, such as a submitted form or an order. It is what GA4 now calls what used to be a conversion. A conversion is now a key event shared with Google Ads, so campaigns can learn from it.
How long does GA4 keep data?
In the free version, detailed data for explorations and funnel reports is kept for two or 14 months, depending on the setting. Standard aggregated reports are not affected. On new properties we choose 14 months straight away, so a month can be compared with the same month last year.
We still have the old Google Analytics. What now?
Standard Universal Analytics properties stopped processing data on 1 July 2023. If your site still carries only the old code, nothing reaches Universal Analytics any more. From March 2023 Google created GA4 properties automatically for some accounts, reusing the existing tag where possible, so we first check whether one exists and what it records. Old reports could no longer be opened from 1 July 2024, so if there is no GA4 property, tracking starts from the day we set one up.
Can you link an enquiry to a sale?
Yes, if enquiries are logged somewhere: in a CRM or a spreadsheet with the date and source. Without that, the report stops at the number of enquiries. We can also import sales into Google Ads, so the ads learn from paying customers, not just from form fills. For that import, each enquiry also needs the click ID (GCLID) or the email address or phone number the customer left in the form.
Who owns the data?
You do. The GA4 property, Tag Manager and the ad accounts are in your company's name, and we get user access. When we stop working together, with 30 days' written notice, you remove our access and everything stays as it was.