What you receive
- A findings report covering your GTM container, GA4 property and Google Ads conversion actions.
- For each finding, the expected behavior, what we observed, a severity rating, a suggested owner and the steps to reproduce it.
- A fix plan in priority order, split into changes we can make and changes that need your developer or another vendor.
- A retest record for every fix that gets implemented.
An audit is a diagnosis. Implementing the fixes can be added to the same project. Ongoing monitoring is a separate option, covered below.
When the numbers stop making sense
Most audits start with a number someone doesn't believe. Two common causes show up again and again.
A form submission that counts twice
The quote form fires a lead event when the button is clicked and another when the thank-you page loads. GA4 shows twice as many leads as the CRM. Google Ads bids toward a conversion rate that doesn't exist, and the budget follows it.
A button click counted as a lead
A tag fires on any click of "Get a quote", including clicks that never submit the form. The lead count rises, cost per lead looks healthy and the sales team wonders where the leads went.
Both look like good news in a report. Both lead to spending decisions based on actions that didn't happen.
What we check and how we reproduce it
We work through the same path a real visitor takes and record every step.
GTM container
Published container version and recent changes, tags with no clear owner, duplicate or overlapping triggers, paused tags still referenced elsewhere, and variables that no longer find what they look for.
Event definitions
Which events GA4 receives, which are marked as key events, the parameters each one carries and whether the names match what the business means by a lead.
Consent states
How tags behave when a visitor accepts, declines or ignores the consent banner, and whether that behavior matches your consent setup.
Conversion destinations
Which Google Ads conversion actions are primary, how they are counted, whether they come from a Google Ads tag or an imported GA4 key event, and whether the same action is counted twice.
Test steps
We submit labeled test entries through your real forms with GTM preview and GA4 DebugView open, then confirm what reached each destination.
Access we need
Read access to GTM and GA4, read access to Google Ads conversion settings and a way to submit test entries without alerting your sales team. If we implement fixes, we ask for publish access to GTM for the agreed changes only.
From finding to verified fix
Illustrative audit finding.
| Field | Illustrative finding |
|---|---|
| Path | Request a quote form, /contact |
| Expected | One generate_lead event per completed submission |
| Observed | Two events per submission, one on button click and one on thank-you page view |
| Severity | High. Google Ads bids toward this conversion |
| Owner | Analytics owner, with web developer for the form |
| Fix | Remove the click trigger and keep the confirmed submission trigger |
| Retest | Submit three labeled test entries. Confirm one event each in DebugView and one conversion each in Google Ads |
Once a path is repaired, Tag Guardian can watch it on a schedule. It checks key pages, forms and tags, compares events with expected behavior and alerts the owner when something changes.
Audit, implementation or ongoing management
- Audit. We find the faults and document them. You choose who fixes them.
- Implementation. We make the agreed fixes in GTM and GA4 and retest each one.
- Monitoring. We set up scheduled checks on the paths you care about most.
Most teams start with the audit. You can decide on the rest after you see the findings.
Related reading
If tracking is fine and you want help running the account, see Google Ads management.
Read the guide: Why GA4 and Google Ads conversions don’t match.