Analytics and tracking setup

Installed, then proven. Never assumed.

GA4, Search Console, Google Ads conversion tags and the Meta pixel, installed and then verified against live data. Plenty of sites have tags installed. Far fewer have tags that fire.

Get your free plan Three sizes

The standard size takes: Four weeks
You own: Every account, in your name, with a written map
Runs monthly: Only if you choose to pay monthly

No figure appears on this page. Your free plan comes back with the price of every size, and with what the whole job costs together.

What it is

GA4, Search Console, Google Ads conversion tags and the Meta pixel, installed and then verified against live data. Plenty of sites have tags installed. Far fewer have tags that fire.

Every other service on this site reports through this layer. Ads optimise against conversions, SEO proves itself through search data, email earns its keep in revenue per send. None of that works if the tags are wrong, and an untracked dollar teaches you nothing on its way out.

Installed is not the same as firing. I have audited accounts paying for clicks with no conversion tag firing at all. That is why every tier here ends the same way: a read-back test against live data, proving each tag fires on the live site before I call it done.

This is for you if

You spend on marketing but could not say which channel paid for itself
Google Analytics was installed once, by someone, probably
Ad clicks arrive and vanish: no tag records what they did
Decisions get made on gut feel because the numbers are not trusted

One of these is usually enough. If none of them is true, this is not the first thing I would build for you, and the plan will say so.

Why it comes where it does

Every other chapter in this book reports through this layer. Without it, ad budgets are spent blind and nobody can say what worked.

Nothing has to be built before this one, so it can be the first thing you do. Your free plan still puts it in order against everything else you are considering.

Three sizes, by scope

The sizes differ by how much is in them, not by how well it is done. Start at the size that matches the business today; moving up later is normal.

The Essentials

See your traffic properly.

GA4 property configured with the events that matter
Search Console verified and submitting
A read-back test proving the setup fires on the live site
A one-page map of what is measured and where

Two weeks

The usual choice

The Standard

Every channel accountable. Most businesses choose this.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Google Ads conversion tags with values attached
Meta pixel and server-side events wired
Form and call tracking where it fits

Four weeks

The Works

Measurement as an operating system.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Call tracking numbers with source attribution
Offline conversion imports, so closed deals feed the ads
A written measurement plan the whole team can follow

Eight weeks

The figure for each of the three sizes is not published here, because it depends on what else you are building at the same time. Build your free plan and the figure for each size comes back with it, along with what the whole job costs together.

How it is built

01
An audit of what is installed now, and what of it actually fires.
02
I agree with you what counts as a conversion, and what each one is worth.
03
The build: GA4, Search Console, ad conversion tags and the pixel, in accounts in your name.
04
Verification: a read-back against live traffic, proving each tag fires on the live site.
05
A one-page map of what is measured, where it lands and who can see it.
06
A check a month later, because tracking drifts when the site changes.

Before you decide

Three things people get wrong.

They sayThe tags are installed, so tracking is done.

Installed and firing are different things. I have audited accounts paying for clicks with no conversion tag firing at all, and the dashboard looked normal the whole time.

They sayAnalytics is a report we never read.

The reports are a by-product. The point is that your ad platforms need conversions fed back to them to work at all, and an ad account learning from bad data spends worse every week.

They sayOur developer set it up when the site launched.

Often true, and often years ago, before the forms changed and the store was added. Tracking drifts silently, which is why every tier here ends with a read-back against live data.

Your options

The alternatives, side by side.

Doing it yourself and hiring it out are both real answers. Here is how the three compare on the things that actually decide it.

Slide the table sideways to read every column.

Option	What it costs	What you own	Time	Outcome
Set it up yourself	An evening, and no way to tell whether it worked	The accounts, if you created them in your own name	A night	Tags installed, firing unproven
Leave it to the ads agency	Included in a retainer, so it is nobody's priority	Often accounts in the agency's name, which you lose when you leave	Whenever they get to it	Measurement marked by the people it marks
This build	One build, or a monthly fee	Every account, in your name, with a written map	Four weeks	Every tag proven to fire against live data

In practice

How I verify

Verification is done with API read-backs and raw traffic, never a dashboard alone. If the tag does not fire in the live data, it is not done.

Straight answers

Questions I get asked about this.

01We already have Google Analytics.

Good, that is the start. The job here is the part that usually is not done: conversion tags with values, the pixel and server-side events, and a verification pass that proves each one fires in live data rather than sitting installed and silent.

02Why does this come before ads?

Because paid clicks without conversion tracking are spend you cannot learn from. Fixing measurement first makes every later dollar accountable.

03Who owns the accounts?

You do. Everything is created in your name with you as the owner, and I hold access the way a contractor should, so nothing is held hostage if we stop working together.

04Is this legal with privacy rules?

Yes, and it is set up that way from the start: consent handled properly, and no personal detail sent anywhere it should not be. The map document says exactly what is collected.

Also in website and store

What sits next to this.

Website design and build

Custom designed and built for the AI era.

Online store build

A store you own, with no platform rent.

See all of website and store

The next move

Analytics and tracking setup, priced in context.

The free plan asks a few questions about the business, then comes back with this service at the size that fits, anything that has to come first, and the figure for each part and for the whole job. Nothing is charged and nothing is booked at the end of it.

Get your free plan stuart@sevenlens.co

Get your free plan