№003Tracking
You don't have a data problem. You have a definitions problem.
Why "active user" means seven different things across your tools — and how to fix it in one afternoon.
02 May 2026
Operating principles and playbooks from years of hands-on growth work — paid acquisition, tracking, and the data that ties them together. Published when there's something worth saying.
Five years building a B2B supplier's online presence from nothing to a seven-figure store. What actually moved the number, in the order it mattered.
Three years running Google Ads for a chauffeur and luxury transport operator in Ireland and the UK, tripling the fleet. The instant-quote, tracking and account structure that made it work.
Optimising for lead volume is the default setting of every Google Ads account, and it's usually wrong. The instrumentation that lets you optimise for quality instead.
Performance Max can work for lead gen, but only when it's fed a qualified conversion signal and given real guardrails. The setup that keeps it from buying junk leads.
A form fill is not a customer. Offline conversion tracking feeds Google Ads what happens after the lead, qualified, closed or wasted, so Smart Bidding learns to buy the leads that actually convert.
Third-party cookies are already unreliable in Safari and Firefox, whatever Chrome eventually does. The first-party tracking setup that survives the transition, practically, not theoretically.
A working checklist of the twelve most common conversion tracking failures, from double-firing tags to Smart Bidding trained on the wrong signal. Tick the ones you recognise.
Server-side Google Tag Manager recovers signal lost to ad blockers and browser privacy limits, but it isn't free or always necessary. Real costs, and a straight test for when it pays for itself.
The playbook from two years running paid for the Middle East's largest storage provider: optimise for move-ins, not enquiries.
The two platforms answer different questions by design. The six reasons the numbers differ, and which to trust for what.
One leads, one builds. The three questions that tell you which your company actually needs first.
How the role differs from a fractional CMO, an agency and a full-time hire, and the questions to ask anyone wearing the title.
Three observations from years of growth work — and what makes the high-leverage teams different.
Why "active user" means seven different things across your tools — and how to fix it in one afternoon.
iOS attrition, browser deprecations, and the work that recovers the signal most accounts are quietly losing.
A field-tested playbook — what to test, in what order, and why sequence beats volume.
Get new field notes by email. No newsletter padding, no "5 ways to…" — just the writing.