Analytics That
Actually Tell
You Something
Twenty years working across every form of tracking — web analytics, server logs, affiliate systems, tag managers, data layers, and custom reporting pipelines. We audit what you have, correct what's broken, build what's missing, and deliver reporting that the person reading it can actually act on.
"The difference between a reporting monkey and an analyst is insight. Anyone can schedule a PDF. Almost no one can tell you what it means, why it happened, and what to do about it next."
The Broken Analytics Problem
The Data Quality Crisis
Most analytics implementations we audit have significant data quality issues — stray goals from campaigns that ended years ago, duplicate tag fires, cross-domain attribution failures, UTM parameters stripped mid-funnel, or GA4 migrations that were started and never completed.
Decisions built on inaccurate data are worse than decisions made with no data, because they carry false confidence. A team that believes their conversion rate is 4.7% when the real number is 1.2% is investing strategically against a fiction.
The Reporting Monkey Problem
Most analytics services produce reports. Data exports. One-click PDFs stuffed with hundreds of rows no one requested and no one reads — delivered on the first of the month, glanced at, filed without action.
There is a meaningful difference between pulling data and analyzing it. The deliverable most agencies produce is thick. The insight is absent. We do not report to prove we worked. We analyze to tell you something useful — in a format the person receiving it can actually act on.
We build reporting around the decisions you actually need to make — not around a template someone set up three years ago.
The Compliance Gap
Analytics tracking is a legal and regulatory function as much as a marketing one. Collecting behavioral data without proper consent in GDPR, CCPA, or CPRA jurisdictions carries real liability. Healthcare analytics touching PHI creates HIPAA exposure. Financial services analytics may implicate GLBA.
10 Things Corrupting Your Data Right Now
Most of these problems are invisible in standard reports — the numbers look plausible, the dashboard looks full, and nobody has a reason to question it. Until they do.
Your Traffic Is 40–60% Non-Human
Industry research consistently shows that between 40% and 60% of all internet traffic originates from bots, crawlers, scrapers, uptime monitors, security scanners, and competing tools pulling your pages.
Your Own Team Is Skewing Your Data
Customer service checking product pages. Developers pushing deploys. Staff reviewing content. Without filtering, these inflate your session counts and dilute conversion rates.
Out of Area Traffic
For regional businesses, national traffic is noise. A piece of content ranking nationally for a topic you only serve locally looks like success but drives zero revenue.
Ghost Referral Spam
Fake sessions sent via Measurement Protocol. They inflate sessions, corrupt acquisition reports, and misrepresent referral sources.
Most organizations we audit have at least three. A surprising number have all ten.
The Analytics Audit
Whether your tracking is a genuine mess requiring a full rebuild, or a functioning system that deserves periodic verification to confirm it's still accurate — an analytics audit is among the highest-return investments in your marketing infrastructure.
Tag Audit & Verification
Every tag in GTM, every event in GA4, every pixel reviewed against expected behavior — tested in debug mode and production.
Data Layer & Attribution
Conversion paths traced end-to-end. Attribution credit verified. UTM parameter persistence confirmed.
Compliance Scan
Every tracking script reviewed against GDPR, CCPA, and applicable regulations. Consent implementation verified.
Report Structure Review
What reports exist, who receives them, whether they're read, and whether they're being acted on.
Full System Overhaul
For organizations whose analytics are in genuine disarray. We document everything, remove what's wrong, rebuild what's needed, and verify it end-to-end.
Ritual Verification
Analytics implementations degrade silently. Ritual verification — quarterly or after significant site changes — catches these degradations before they corrupt a full reporting cycle.
Platforms We Support
We are platform-agnostic but opinionated. We work with the industrial-standard tools that power the modern web, with a specific focus on the Google Marketing Platform stack and server-side tracking infrastructure.
Web Analytics
The system of record. We handle migration, configuration, and server-side implementation.
Tag Management
The control plane. We organize messy containers, implement consent logic, and standardize naming conventions.
Advertising & Behavioral
The revenue drivers. We implement conversion APIs (CAPI) and verify pixel fires against actual conversions.
Technical & Revenue
The source of truth for transactions and user experience.
Consent Management
Is Not Optional
Cookie banners are not enough. If your "Decline" button doesn't actually stop the tags from firing, you are non-compliant. We implement rigorous consent logic using industry-standard CMPs.
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag() { dataLayer.push(arguments); }
// Default state: Denied
gtag('consent', 'default', {
'ad_storage': 'denied',
'analytics_storage': 'denied',
'functionality_storage': 'denied',
'personalization_storage': 'denied',
'wait_for_update': 500
});
// Region-specific overrides applied...
Reporting Built for the Reader
A report nobody reads accomplishes nothing. A report that highlights positive trends and quietly buries problems is actively harmful. We build reporting around the audience — what they need to know, what decision it supports, and what the data actually says — including when the data says something inconvenient.
Executive
High-level KPI surveillance. Revenue, ROAS, CPA, and year-over-year growth. "Are we winning?"
Marketing
Campaign performance, creative testing results, channel mix optimization. "What's working?"
Technical / CRO
Funnel leakage, form abandonment, site speed impact, device-specific bugs. "where are we breaking?"
Custom Dashboard Development
We build primarily in Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio), connecting directly to BigQuery or GA4. We own the connector logic so your data isn't trapped in a proprietary agency portal.
Segmentation & Audience Analysis
Averages lie. We segment your data by purchaser type, acquisition source, and behavioral cohort to reveal what high-value users actually do differently.
Privacy, Compliance & Jurisdictional Rules
Data collection is regulated. How you collect it, what you store, how long you keep it, where it travels, and whether you obtained consent before collecting it — all carry legal implications that vary by jurisdiction, industry, and data type. Most analytics implementations we audit were built without these requirements in mind.
GDPR & UK GDPR — European & British Visitors
Any site with EU/EEA or UK visitors must obtain explicit, freely-given consent before firing non-essential analytics or advertising cookies. Consent Mode v2 must be implemented correctly so Google's systems honor the signal — not just the banner display. Data processing agreements with analytics vendors are required. Analytics data routed to US servers constitutes a cross-border transfer that must be addressed under applicable transfer frameworks.
CCPA & CPRA — California
California residents have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information — including behavioral data passed to advertising platforms. The "Do Not Sell or Share" mechanism must be functional, and tag data flows must halt for opted-out users. We audit and implement these requirements across the full tag portfolio, including Meta CAPI and Google Enhanced Conversions.
Emerging State Laws — VCDPA, CPA, CTDPA & More
Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, and a growing number of states have comprehensive privacy laws with analytics implications. Requirements vary by state — some opt-in, some opt-out, different thresholds. Multi-state operations need a framework that handles the most restrictive applicable requirement across the full visitor population.
HIPAA — Healthcare Analytics
Healthcare websites and patient-facing portals must be treated with extreme care. Passing PHI — or information combinable to identify a patient — through GA4 or advertising pixels may constitute a HIPAA violation. The FTC has issued guidance, multiple hospital systems have faced enforcement, and the exposure is real. We audit healthcare analytics implementations for PHI exposure and configure compliant alternatives where needed.
GLBA & Financial Services Analytics
Financial institutions collecting customer behavioral data through analytics platforms are subject to GLBA's Safeguards Rule requirements. Third-party analytics vendors receiving customer data may constitute a service provider relationship requiring a vendor contract with specific data handling provisions. We review financial services analytics implementations against current regulatory guidance.
ADA & Analytics Accessibility
Analytics implementation has accessibility implications that are frequently overlooked. Cookie consent banners must be keyboard-navigable and screen-reader compatible. Scripts that degrade performance impact users on assistive technology disproportionately. We implement and verify analytics scripts against WCAG 2.1 AA standards and audit consent flows for accessibility compliance.
From the Lab
Technical deep-dives, implementation guides, and regulatory updates related to analytics, tracking, and data-driven marketing in regulated industries.
Compliant Marketing for Law Firms Checklist
Common Patient Portal Systems for Medical Practices
Credit Card Testing Attacks: Detection, Damage Control, and Defense for E-commerce Platforms
Building Accessible Web Animations: WCAG 2.1 Performance Guide
Common Questions
Our analytics seem to be working — why do we need an audit? +
We migrated from Universal Analytics to GA4. Isn't that handled? +
Our site only has US visitors. Do GDPR rules apply to us? +
What's the difference between your reporting and a Semrush or Ahrefs report? +
Can you work with our existing analytics platform, or will you want us to switch? +
Your data should
tell you the truth.
An analytics audit starts with a review of what you have, what it's actually measuring, and where it's wrong. Most clients find at least one significant data quality issue in the first session.