Like spring, fall is another season notorious for doing some housekeeping/decluttering in all aspects of life. The various intent signals and conversions being tracked, or not being tracked, also deserves an audit from time to time.
Nicholas Kurtz, Paid Media Specialist at BlackTruck Media + Marketing (BTM), shares data tracking isn’t a “set it and forget it” type of thing, even if it may seem like it. At some point (hopefully) you’ve set up intent signals and conversion tracking, but how often should you be auditing Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM) to ensure everything is still working correctly?
The answer to that question is going to be different for everyone. If the website is fairly static and doesn’t undergo many updates or new page setups to accompany short-term campaigns, then you can likely go around 6 months before needing to audit your tracking. If you find that the website changes on a quarterly basis with new forms, webpages, etc. then you may want to complete a recurring audit quarterly.
What is the difference between Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM) and how do they work together?
Think about it as if Google Analytics 4 is a subway stop, Google Tag Manager is a subway system, and website data represents the morning commuters. Those commuters don’t just automatically teleport from one subway stop to another, they need to be directed through the subway system. GTM acts as the subway system between your website (the origin subway stop) and GA4 (the destination subway stop). In more literal terms, GTM directs where you want tracked data to be sent and written, while GA4 is a common storage hub where the website data and analytics you choose to track is written.
Much like an actual subway system has many different subway stops to depart and arrive at, Google Tag Manager can also send tracking information to and from other platforms like Meta, Google Ads, and more.
At BTM, we’ve found that many teams either lack the time or a dedicated in-house point of contact to perform regular cross-checks. Fortunately, because data analytics serves as the common thread connecting many of our digital marketing service areas, our team often steps in to conduct these audits—ensuring the most accurate and comprehensive view possible in monthly reporting.
Those audits become more and more streamlined if conducted regularly. You’ll gain better familiarity with what exactly you’re looking for when you dive into the Google Tag Manager container. But what about that initial audit? Where do you even start, and how do you avoid getting overwhelmed going into it?
Getting Started with your GA4 and Google Tag Manager Audit
The first step for any audit of Google Analytics (GA4) should be going through each page of the website and recording each of the conversion actions that should be currently tracking into a spreadsheet. While doing this, you can also record any intent signals that you’d like to track (or should already be tracking) as well.
What’s the difference between an intent signal and a conversion?
An intent signal measures engagement towards an action or behavior (indicating intent to potentially convert in the future). Whereas conversions are hard outcomes, or the end goal you want users to complete (like complete purchase, form fills (contact, request a quote), etc).
So if we were talking about Bombas, an online slipper shop:
Conversions that have immediate business value/sales could include:
- A customer purchases a pair of Bombas Gripper Slippers on Bombas.com.
- A shopper checks out with multiple Bombas products (e.g., socks + slippers).
- A user redeems a discount code and completes payment.
- A customer joins a paid subscription program, if Bombas offered one.
While intent signals proving interest and potential purchase intent could include:
- A user adds Bombas slippers to their cart but doesn’t check out.
- A shopper visits the “Slippers” product page multiple times.
- Someone signs up for Bombas’ email list after browsing the slippers collection.
- A person clicks on a Bombas retargeting ad about “cozy gifts for winter.”
- A customer reads reviews or uses the size guide on the slippers page.
- Someone searches “Bombas slippers sale” or “are Bombas slippers worth it” on Google.
After recording whats already present, compile the list of user actions you actually want to monitor. Then, systematically verify that each action is being captured and recorded by your Google Analytics setup as an appropriate event. For every action that is confirmed, note it as complete in your documentation along with the associated tracking element. For any actions that aren’t yet tracked or are misconfigured, flag them for follow-up so they can be corrected or added.
Testing and Debugging Changes in GTM & GA4
Testing and debugging changes is one of the most important parts of any analytics implementation. Here’s why:
- You can prevent data loss: Broken triggers or missing tags can cause valuable conversion or engagement data to be lost.
- Avoid duplicative counts: Misconfigured tags may fire multiple times, leading to inflated metrics such as purchases or sessions.
- Well rounded performance insights: Reliable data is essential for accurate reporting, marketing optimization, and budget allocation.
- Maintain privacy compliance: Verify that consent mode, data anonymization, and cookie handling are correctly implemented.
- Reduce production risks: Testing and debugging before publishing help avoid issues in the live environment and ensure accurate data collection.
Once the verification pass is finished, prioritize and address the flagged items—either by correcting existing configurations or implement missing tracking. Tackling this work in manageable steps, focusing first on the highest-impact actions, and keep thorough documentation of your tracking decisions and settings so future reviews are quicker and clearer. It also helps bookmark where you left off if your work is interrupted.
It’s always good to keep in mind that new additions to your tracking, will take approximately 24 hours to officially render inside of GA4. You can perform internal tests to ensure they’re “firing” and recording the data properly post that time window.
If you need help ensuring tracking is setup correctly and giving you the most valuable business intel possible, contact our team or learn more about our service support.
