Tracking audit
Do your numbers not add up, or are conversions missing in your ad platforms? With a quick scan or audit we find out where it goes wrong, what is causing it and what it costs you.
- ConsentMarketing tags fire before consent
- High
- AnalyticsEvery purchase counts twice in GA4
- High
- Google AdsEnhanced Conversions is off
- Medium
- MetaConversions API lacks customer data
- Medium
- AnalyticsReferral exclusions are missing
- Low
For each finding what we saw, the cause, the impact and the action points.
What goes wrong
Important decisions get made on your data. With everything that has changed in recent years, tracking setups have become complex, and several parties have often worked on them. Different implementations, quick fixes, the tag again, another filter: it piles up until nobody has an overview of the setup.
What we hear most often:
- The number of conversions in your ad platforms differs from what you find in your own system
- Since a release of your website or app something stopped measuring, or started counting twice
- Since the new cookie banner far less of it shows up in your numbers
- More and more traffic under direct or (not set), while you know where it came from
- An argument in the team about which number is the right one
What we do
We go through your whole setup systematically. After hundreds of setups we know better than anyone where to look, and we skip nothing because it looks fine at first glance. Even the best setup never measures part of your visitors. Telling that loss apart from a real fault is specialist work, and the knowledge or the time for it is often missing.
We go through your setup part by part, from the tags to the data that comes in.
Analytics
Whether your events and settings measure what you want to know, and whether the reports add up.
Conversion tracking
Whether conversions reach your ad platforms complete and with the right value.
Server-side tagging
Whether your server container does what it should, and what it sends to whom.
Consent
Whether your banner and Consent Mode measure what is allowed, and no less.
Data
Whether what comes in is correct, complete and not counted twice.
“After months of frustration with a persistent tracking problem – five different agencies couldn't solve it – we contacted Freek from New North Digital. He immediately took action and quickly resolved what others had deemed impossible. Clear communication, in-depth expertise, and above all: results. Highly recommended for anyone with complex tracking or analytics issues.”
Aydin GucHorecagemak01 / 04
What you get
You have a question, doubt or problem around one platform and want to know quickly where you stand.
- Scope
- One platform
- Delivery
- Findings in writing, in free form
- Personal walkthrough
- –
- Turnaround
- Within a week
Your question touches more than one platform, or you want to know where your whole setup stands.
- Scope
- Your full stack
- Delivery
- A report with all your findings, each with cause, impact and priority
- Personal walkthrough
- 1-on-1 online session of 30 minutes
- Turnaround
- 2 to 3 weeks
This is what a finding looks like in the report:
Every purchase counts twice in GA4
- What we saw
- Since a Google Tag Manager publish at the end of September, GA4 has counted two purchases per order. Half of them have no transaction ID.
- Cause
- A new ecommerce tag sends the purchase from the browser, while the shop already sends it to GA4 server-side. Without a transaction ID, GA4 cannot deduplicate the two.
- Impact
- Revenue and purchases in GA4 have been twice too high since that publish, and so has revenue per channel and per campaign.
- Action points
- Block the purchase in the new ecommerce tag
- Send the transaction ID with every ecommerce event
- Check that purchases match orders again
A real finding at a client, anonymised.
Want to know more?
Reply within one working day.
How it works
Start
We start from what you already know: your question, the history of your setup and anything out of the ordinary. For an audit we do that in a short conversation. Together we arrange the access we need, so we can get going quickly.
Research
We work through your setup and your data on our own and dig down to the cause of each finding. If we come across something we need to ask about, you hear from us straight away.
Findings
You get the cause, the impact and the priority of each finding, in the order we would tackle it. We go through them with you.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a quick scan and an audit?
A quick scan covers one platform: a problem, a doubt or a check after a change. An audit reviews your whole setup. Your own question tells you which one you need. If the problem sits in one place, a scan is enough. If you don't know where to start, an audit is the right choice.
Can I start with a quick scan and do an audit later?
Yes. If the quick scan shows there is more going on than that one platform, you can have an audit done afterwards.
Do you work for agencies too?
Yes, a good part of our work runs through agencies. Sometimes because tracking isn't the team's specialism, sometimes because there are no hours for it. We do the technical part and hand over the report; you stay the contact for your client. If you want to sit in when we walk through it, you're welcome.
What exactly do you check?
Whatever matters for your setup and your question. In a quick scan it stays with the platform your question is about. In an audit we go through the whole chain. Usually that covers your cookie banner and Consent Mode, the dataLayer, your Google Tag Manager containers, web and server, the settings and events in GA4 and the conversions in your ad platforms. If we have your own numbers to hold it against, we check what comes in too.
Do you fix the problems too?
Not within the scan or the audit, and that is on purpose. You find out what is wrong first, and only then decide what gets fixed and in what order. We can do that, but so can your own developer or agency: for each finding the report gives the cause and what needs to happen.
Is an audit worth it if my tracking seems fine?
Yes. There is almost always something going on, even when the numbers look reasonable. Tags fire, just not always and not everywhere, and you only see that by going through the setup itself.
Is this a GA4 audit?
That too. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is usually a large part of the audit, but we look at everything your measurement touches: Google Tag Manager, consent, server-side and your ad platforms.
Do you know what needs to happen?
Whatever comes out of the audit, we can build for you.