Sure your numbers are real? Get a free tracking audit →
The numbers were lying

33,337 conversions that never happened.

The reports looked great. The tracking under them was broken, and nobody had checked. Every budget call was being made on numbers that weren't real.

Found across US Google Ads accounts I work on: equipment dealers, home services and professional services.

What one audit found
33,337
conversions counted in 90 days at an outdoor power equipment dealer. None of them were leads.
A "Page View" action was set up as a conversion. So plain visits to the site were showing up as results.

I found it and flagged it. Nobody had noticed, because on paper it looked like a win.

Same problem, other accounts
3 accounts
Three different accounts showed zero conversions in Google Analytics while they were getting leads. The tracking was waiting for events that never fired.
97%
At a luxury kitchen studio, 97% of the spend on its top searches went to competitors' brand names. Zero conversions from it.
1 form
At an IT services company, the main contact form could never be counted, no matter how many people filled it out.
995
In another account, 995 keywords with zero impressions. Just clutter, never a single click.
What it meant for the business
  • The kitchen studio stopped paying for competitors' names. That was $319.60 of the $330 going to its top 30 searches. I cut it on July 13.
  • The IT services company had about 28 real form leads in 3 months that Google Ads showed as zero. The ads were working. Nobody was counting.
  • A performing arts nonprofit had 0 ticket sales recorded in 12 months, across 17,161 clicks. The tag pointed to an ID that didn't exist. Fixed in August. Too early for results, but now sales can be counted.
  • In total, I fixed broken tracking in 8 accounts.
Read the leads nobody counted →
Why nobody sees it

None of this shows up in a normal report review. The reports look fine. You only catch it by checking what each number is actually counting. That's the first thing I do on any new account, before touching strategy.

If the number is wrong, every decision after it is wrong. A great campaign built on a broken number still loses money.
Google Analytics 4 Google Tag Manager Google Ads Tracking audit

Sure your numbers are real?

Send me access and I'll tell you what your reports are quietly getting wrong.

Get your free audit →See more work