I collaborated with Gripped, a digital marketing agency, to resolve critical conversion tracking issues for one of their key clients. The client was experiencing inflated lead numbers in Google Ads and Salesforce due to inaccurate form submission tracking, and issues with 'Thank You' page goal reporting. Additionally, existing file download conversions were erratically tracked, leading to skewed performance data.

Accurate lead tracking: Implemented a new Marketo form listener in GTM to accurately capture validated form submissions, eliminating inflated lead counts previously caused by unvalidated form_submit events. This ensured that only genuine leads were recorded in GA4 and Google Ads.

Granular conversion insights: Created separate GA4 and Google Ads conversion tags for each distinct lead type, allowing for precise performance measurement and optimisation based on specific product leads.

Reliable content download tracking: Developed a new custom download_content event in GTM for lead magnets and eBooks behind forms, ensuring accurate tracking of these upper-funnel leads, replacing an unreliable file_download extension event, which was previously used for optimisation in Google Ads.

Custom reporting: Built custom explorations for the Gripped team in GA4 to provide detailed insights into new lead events and content download submissions, broken down by source/medium, campaign, and page referrer.

Solved technical attribution issues: Identified and implemented solutions for issues like conflicting Google Ads tags, Content Security Policy (CSP) blocking, and incorrect GA4 configuration, paving the way for more reliable data collection and attribution.

Conducted an initial investigation using Tag Assistant to confirm issues, particularly the inflation of leads due to the form_submit event.

Identified that "Thank You" page goals were not consistently reporting, potentially due to interference from other events and issues with the GA4 conversion import and CSP issues.

Analysed file_download conversions, which were GA4 Enhanced Measurement events - unreliable for tracking qualified content downloads behind forms.

The core driver for this new implementation was the critical need to improve reliability and attribution of lead submissions. Previous methods, relying on the form_submit event (which fired regardless of validation) and "Thank You" page views (prone to misattribution and errors), resulted in inflated and inaccurate conversion data. By focusing on validated submission events, I aimed to capture only genuine conversions, providing a true picture of marketing performance.

Moved away from form_submit and "Thank You" page views as primary conversion triggers. Implemented a custom HTML tag for a Marketo Form Listener, configured to fire specifically on the marketo.success event, which is triggered upon a successful and validated form submission.

Created new GA4 event tags, generate_PRODUCT_lead for each product, and corresponding Google Ads conversion tags.

Developed a custom download_content event to specifically track lead magnets and eBooks accessed behind forms.

Created corresponding GA4 and Google Ads tags for this new event.

Natively added the new lead submission and content download events to Google Ads with conversion tags, setting them as primary for optimisation.

A significant issue identified was the Content Security Policy (CSP) blocking Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads conversion tags from firing correctly in certain areas of the site. It created a massive mis/non-attribution problem - and was a core reason for discrepancies.

The solution involved explicitly whitelisting the necessary domains in the CSP to ensure that all external scripts and resources were permitted to load and execute, allowing for proper data transmission to Google Ads and LinkedIn.

Organised all new tags, triggers, and variables with a 'Gripped_' prefix and placed them into logical folders within the GTM container for better management. Recommended a future measurement plan and cleaning up of the GTM container, including addressing old Universal Analytics tags and filtering out irrelevant traffic from their other websites.

Created custom GA4 explorations to monitor the performance of the new lead and content download events, providing breakdowns by various marketing dimensions.

Validated all conversions in Google Ads to confirm accuracy.

Provided comprehensive documentation on the changes that were made.