Are you ready for an audit?

Welcome to the first edition of the Conversion Ledger.

I intend to provide real value to your brand through thoughtful content and wins we’re seeing through our testing.

Reply with any feedback, questions, or thoughts about growing your brand.

Without further ado:

Before you can trust your data to guide decisions, you have to ask yourself one question:

“Do I really know what my data is telling me?”

When we take on a new client using GA4 as their source of truth, this is the first thing we ask.

Because here’s the reality:

If your data isn’t reliable, neither are your decisions.

Why Data Truth Matters

Imagine you’re running an A/B test on your PDP.

Your primary metric is ATC.

But what if your ATC event isn’t firing correctly?

Or worse, what if it’s double-counting actions?

Now your entire test is built on a shaky foundation.

And the insights you pull? Completely unreliable.

The same applies to form submissions on a landing page.

Does the event fire on a button click? Or only on a successful submission?

Neither is inherently wrong, but you have to know what you’re measuring.

What Happens When You Skip the Audit

Skipping a GA4 audit is like skipping the pre-flight checklist on an airplane.

Here are just a few issues we’ve uncovered that could’ve derailed tests before they even began:

• Double-firing transactions:
  One client’s GA4 was reporting twice the revenue because each transaction ID had two transactions associated with it.

• Events sent to the wrong measurement ID:
  Several clients were unknowingly sending critical event data to the wrong GA4 property.

• Universal Analytics auto-migration:
  Many smaller clients still had this setting enabled, creating messy, unreliable data that was hard to untangle.

These issues might not just skew your tests—they can completely misrepresent your business performance.

What We Check During a GA4 Audit

Here’s how we approach GA4 audits at Surefoot:

1. Start with the client’s goals.

   • What metrics do they care about most?

   • What are they trying to measure?
     These frame the entire audit.

2. Check the basics.

   • Is BigQuery linked for deeper analysis?

   • Are privacy settings and data retention configured correctly?

3. Dive into data quality.

   • Does the measurement ID match across tools?

   • Do events follow a natural decay pattern? (e.g., more product views than add-to-cart events, more add-to-cart events than purchases).

4. Gut-check the data.

   • Compare GA4 metrics with external platforms like Shopify to ensure consistency.

5. Identify custom event opportunities.

   • Need better insights? Add events for navigation clicks, promo code usage, or specific add-to-cart actions.

Audits Are More Than Fixing Errors

A GA4 audit isn’t just a checklist.

It’s a communication tool.

It helps you understand the history of your data, where you are now, and where you want to go.

It builds a foundation of trust between teams and ensures you’re all working with the same understanding.

And when you start your testing program with clean, reliable data?

You can move faster, adapt quicker, and learn more effectively.

Final Thought

Your tests are only as good as the data behind them.

A GA4 audit isn’t just a step in the process, it’s the groundwork for smarter decisions and bigger wins.

So ask yourself:

“Can I trust my data to guide me?”

If the answer isn’t a confident yes, it’s time to dig deeper.

You might be surprised by what you uncover and the opportunities it unlocks.

Looking forward,

Brian