Performance Tracking
Knowing what each channel and campaign actually produced: consistent tagging, conversions defined once, and reporting that survives someone changing a URL.
Overview
Channel reporting falls apart on naming. One person writes the source as facebook, another as Facebook, a third as fb-paid, and three months later nobody can produce a clean channel report without a manual spreadsheet that has to be redone every month.
The fix is a taxonomy, a link builder people actually use, and conversion definitions that live in one place. It is unglamorous work that quietly determines whether every performance conversation afterwards is about results or about data cleaning.
Who this is for
- Companies rebuilding the same channel report manually each month
- Teams whose channel groupings are full of unassigned traffic
- Businesses where each platform reports a different conversion count
How we approach performance tracking
The specific pieces of work a typical engagement covers. Scope is agreed up front — nothing here is a surprise line item later.
Tagging taxonomy
A written convention for source, medium, campaign and content, with the case and separator rules that stop near-duplicates.
Link builder
A tool that constructs tagged links so nobody types one by hand. This is what makes the taxonomy hold.
Conversion definitions
Each conversion defined once with its value, so platforms and analytics are counting the same thing.
Channel grouping
Custom groupings that reflect how you think about channels, with rules for the traffic that would otherwise land in unassigned.
Automated reporting
Reports that refresh themselves, so the monthly cycle is reading and deciding rather than assembling.
Anomaly monitoring
Alerts when a channel's numbers move sharply, which usually means a tracking break rather than a marketing result.
From first call to measured result
The same sequence every time, so you always know what happens next.
Define
Agree the taxonomy and the conversion definitions with everyone who creates links, including agencies.
Equip
Give people a link builder and a short reference, since a convention nobody can follow easily will not survive.
Build reporting
Automate the reports that matter, with channel groupings and the unassigned bucket kept small.
Monitor
Anomaly alerts and a periodic audit of tagging quality as new campaigns are created.
Outcomes, not deliverables
A pile of artefacts isn't progress. These are the changes the work is meant to produce — and what we report against.
Reports that assemble themselves
Automation returns the days each month currently spent building the same spreadsheet.
Channels that are actually comparable
One taxonomy means the numbers can be compared without a reconciliation step.
Less unassigned traffic
Proper grouping rules move a large share of mystery traffic into channels where it can be understood.
Breakage found in days
Anomaly alerts catch a broken tag before it costs you a reporting period.
Common questions about Performance Tracking
The things people ask before they get in touch. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Why is so much of our traffic unassigned?
Usually untagged links, inconsistent naming, and referrals that lose their source through a redirect or an email client. A taxonomy plus grouping rules typically reduces the unassigned bucket substantially, and what remains is mostly genuine direct traffic.
Why do the ad platforms and our analytics disagree?
They measure differently by design. Platforms use view-through and modelled conversions and attribute generously to themselves; analytics attributes on last non-direct click. Both are internally consistent and neither is wrong, so the answer is to pick one for steering and use it consistently.
Who should own the tagging convention?
One named person, with agencies required to follow it. Conventions that everyone owns are conventions nobody enforces, and the drift starts within weeks.
Can you fix historical data?
Partly. Grouping rules can be applied retrospectively in some tools, which recovers a share of it. Genuinely untagged historical traffic cannot be recovered, which is the argument for fixing this sooner rather than later.
Thinking about Performance Tracking?
Tell us what you are trying to change. If we are not the right fit we will say so, and point you somewhere better.
Looking at the wider picture?
Performance Tracking usually sits alongside other work in Data, Analytics & Measurement. Browse the full area to see what it connects to.