Google Analytics
audit
A Google Analytics audit answers a simple question before you make any budget decision: can these numbers be trusted? I check GA4, Tag Manager, ad conversions and pixels for duplicates, gaps and ownership problems, then tell you plainly whether to fix the setup or rebuild it cleanly.
Free: a 30-minute call, an action plan and a price range in writing.
Eight checks
that find most
problems
Who is the admin of GA4, Tag Manager, Google Ads and Meta Business. If it isn't you, that comes first.
GA4 installed twice, pixels fired by both a plugin and Tag Manager, leads counted two or three times.
Whether forms, calls, bookings and purchases are tracked, and whether junk events are marked as conversions.
What Google Ads and Meta optimize for, and whether those numbers match leads you actually received.
Self-referrals, payment gateways and missing UTM tags that hide where customers came from.
Time zone, currency, data retention, internal traffic filters and cross-domain tracking.
Whether tags actually follow what the cookie banner promises.
Emails, names or health details leaking into URLs or events, especially on healthcare sites.
From access
to a clear verdict
Access
Read access to GA4, Tag Manager, Google Ads and Meta. No passwords needed.
Review
Container, properties and conversions checked, plus test submissions on the live site.
Comparison
Reported conversions compared with the leads you actually got in the same period.
Verdict
A short written report and a call: what's wrong, what it costs you, and fix or rebuild.
Audit, rebuild
or a quick look
Prices in US dollars.
Depends on the number of sites, platforms and ad accounts.
- All eight checks
- Written findings
- Walkthrough call
When the old setup isn't worth saving: GA4, Tag Manager and pixels from scratch.
- New container, clean naming
- Key conversions tested
- Accounts in your name
A screen-share where we look at your analytics together.
- Live review
- Quick fixes you can make
- First 30 minutes free
Why a Google Analytics audit comes before budget decisions
Most marketing decisions rest on numbers in GA4, Google Ads and Meta. Which campaign to scale, which to pause, whether SEO is paying off, whether the new website converts better than the old one. If those numbers are wrong, every decision built on them is a guess dressed up as data.
A Google Analytics audit checks the foundation. It is usually quick, and it often changes the picture: a campaign that looked brilliant was counting page reloads as leads, or a channel that looked useless was simply never tracked.
The problems I find most often
After auditing many setups, a handful of issues come up again and again:
- Double counting. GA4 installed by a theme or plugin and again through Tag Manager. Every visit and conversion is counted twice.
- Thank-you page conversions. A conversion fires whenever someone loads the thank-you page, including bookmarks and refreshes.
- Calls not tracked at all. The business gets most leads by phone, but only forms are counted.
- Conflicting conversion sources. Google Ads counts both its own tag and an imported GA4 event for the same action.
- Self-referrals. Payment processors or booking widgets on another domain show up as traffic sources, wiping out the real source of the sale.
- Accounts in someone else's name. A former agency or freelancer is the only admin.
- Personal data in URLs. Form fields passed in the URL send emails or phone numbers into GA4 and ad platforms, which violates their policies and can create legal risk.
Any one of these can distort reports enough to move budget in the wrong direction.
How I compare reported and real results
The most revealing part of the audit is simple. I take a recent period and compare three numbers: conversions reported by the ad platforms, conversions in GA4, and leads you actually received, from your inbox, phone log or CRM. Some difference is normal, because platforms attribute differently. Large gaps point straight to the problem. This comparison is something you can repeat yourself every month afterward.
A realistic example
Picture a home remodeling company spending on Google Ads and Meta. Google Ads reports 60 conversions a month at a pleasing cost, Meta reports 45, and the owner counts about 35 real inquiries from all sources combined. The audit finds that Google Ads counts every click on the phone number, including taps by people already on a job with the crew, and that the Meta Pixel fires both from a plugin and from Tag Manager. Fix those two issues, and the cost per lead on each channel looks very different. So does the budget split.
This kind of finding isn't unusual. It is the normal state of tracking that has been touched by several people over several years.
Fix or rebuild?
The audit ends with a clear recommendation. If the setup is mostly sound, I list targeted fixes. If it's a tangle of old tags, unclear naming and duplicated conversions, a clean rebuild is often faster and cheaper than untangling it. The GA4 and Google Tag Manager setup costs $550 and replaces the old container with a documented one, while keeping your GA4 property and its history where possible.
Ownership first
Before any technical fix, I check who owns what. Your business should be the admin of GA4, Tag Manager, Google Ads, Meta Business Manager and any reporting tools, with specialists added as users. If that isn't the case, recovering access is step one. It's the kind of problem nobody notices until the day an agency relationship ends badly.
Related audits
An analytics audit pairs naturally with an SEO audit or a Google Ads audit, since both rely on accurate tracking to judge results. If you'd like a structured overview of everything in your marketing, the marketing audit checklist is a good place to start, and the full picture of tracking services is on the web analytics page.
After the audit
Analytics audit
questions
How do I know if I need an analytics audit?
Compare what Google Ads or Meta report as conversions last month with the leads you actually received. If the numbers are far apart, in either direction, something is off. Other signs: nobody knows who set up tracking, you see your own domain as a traffic source, or reports changed suddenly after a website update.
Why not just rebuild everything without an audit?
Sometimes that's the right call, and the audit often recommends it. But a quick review first protects things worth keeping: years of data history, conversion actions that bidding strategies depend on, audiences built over time. Rebuilding blindly can reset campaign learning you'd rather keep.
What if a former agency owns my accounts?
It happens often. Usually you can request admin access as the business owner, and Google and Meta have recovery processes. Where history can't be transferred, I set up new accounts in your name and run them in parallel during the switch.
How long does the audit take?
Usually a few business days after access is granted. Larger setups with several sites or stores take longer. The walkthrough call happens in your morning, US time, which is my afternoon in Europe.
Do you audit healthcare websites?
Yes, and I pay extra attention to what data reaches ad platforms from patient-facing pages, because pixels there can create HIPAA exposure. I report what I find; the legal assessment is for your compliance advisor.
Find out if your
numbers add up
Send your website and tell me which ad platforms you use. I'll reply within one business day, or we can look at it together on a free 30-minute call.