Blog

Field notes on consent, tracking & the money it moves.

What actually breaks in real GTM setups, what the current wave of privacy law changed for advertisers, and what we find when we scan hundreds of sites. Written to be used, not to rank (it ranks anyway).

GA413 Aug 2026 · 8 min

GA4 recommended, automatic and custom events: which to use when

Use Google's recommended event name whenever one exists. A custom name carrying identical data buys you an exploration row and an empty report shelf.

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GA4

GA4 Measurement Protocol: what it can and can't do

It adds events to a session it cannot create. Without a client_id and session_id from a real online visit, your server events land as (not set) / (not set).

13 Aug 2026 · 8 min read

GA4

GA4 ecommerce events: the required parameters nobody validates

Google marks currency and value required with an asterisk, then reports nothing when they're absent. What actually breaks, and the checks that catch it.

11 Aug 2026 · 9 min read

BigQuery

GA4 BigQuery export: what the schema gives that the interface won't

Link it today even if you won't query it for months. Nothing before the link date arrives later, and the daily export caps at a million events.

11 Aug 2026 · 9 min read

GA4

GA4 custom dimensions: event vs user scope, and the limits that bite

Scope is permanent, archiving can't be undone, and registration controls reporting, not collection. Pick event scope unless the value describes the person.

10 Aug 2026 · 9 min read

GA4

GA4 cross-domain tracking: the setup, and how to prove it works

The setting lives in the Google tag, not in GTM. The linker parameter expires after two minutes. And if you still see self-referrals, it isn't working.

10 Aug 2026 · 9 min read

GA4

GA4 'Unassigned' traffic: the causes, in the order to check them

Unassigned is the bucket GA4 uses when nothing matches. Here's the diagnostic order, including the consent-timing cause that never shows up in a UTM audit.

5 Aug 2026 · 7 min read

GA4

GA4 attribution models: which one your reports are using

Three models survive, the thresholds people quote for data-driven belong to other products, and switching model rewrites your history. What to check and change.

5 Aug 2026 · 7 min read

GA4

GA4 DebugView: why your events don't show up, and what it hides

DebugView shows what your browser sent, with your consent state, from your tag setup. It is a view of one device — not of what real visitors send.

4 Aug 2026 · 8 min read

GA4

What Cross-network means in GA4, and why it hides your Ads spend

Cross-network is where GA4 files Performance Max and Demand Gen traffic. It is a channel grouping, not a tracking leak — and Display spend is moving into it.

4 Aug 2026 · 9 min read

GA4

Engaged sessions, engagement rate and bounce rate in GA4

GA4's bounce rate is engagement rate subtracted from 100, and engagement has a mechanical definition. Neither compares to the Universal Analytics number.

3 Aug 2026 · 8 min read

Consent Mode

Consent Mode on an SPA: why tags fire twice, or not at all

The consent default has to run before React hydrates, a Once-per-page tag fires once for the whole visit, and two things are probably counting your route changes.

3 Aug 2026 · 9 min read

PECR

Proving consent: what a regulator actually asks for, and how to log it

What a consent record must contain under UK law, how long to keep it, what your CMP actually logs, and why those records don't survive a change of CMP.

30 Jul 2026 · 11 min read

Cookiebot

Switching off Cookiebot? Seven things to check before you do

Cookiebot pricing scales with subpages and domains, so people migrate. Here's what actually breaks in a CMP swap, and how to verify the site before and after.

29 Jul 2026 · 10 min read

Consent Mode

Your opt-in rate is a conversion rate: what moves it, legally

Which consent banner changes are legitimate design and which ones regulators have named. Plus the arithmetic for what a point of consent rate is worth.

29 Jul 2026 · 9 min read

GTM

Server-side tagging doesn't beat ad blockers. What it recovers

Three separate buckets of lost data get sold as one. Only one of them is worth paying a tagging server to fix, and it isn't the one in the pitch.

28 Jul 2026 · 8 min read

PECR

"Pay to reject cookies": is it legal in the UK and EU?

The ICO says consent or pay can be lawful under four conditions. The EDPB says most large platforms will fail. What each requires, and what it costs your data.

28 Jul 2026 · 9 min read

Consent Mode

GA4 traffic dropped after your cookie banner: the four causes

Part of the drop is real and correct. The rest is one of three install faults. How to tell which you have in ten minutes, and what the arithmetic actually is.

27 Jul 2026 · 11 min read

GTM

Google Tag Gateway vs server-side GTM: what each fixes

They're not alternatives, and Google's own documentation recommends running both. What each one actually does, and what neither of them touches.

26 Jul 2026 · 6 min read

Consent Mode

Basic vs Advanced Consent Mode: what modelling recovers

Advanced gives Google more to model with. It is not a data-recovery machine, and most properties never hit the thresholds that switch modelling on at all.

26 Jul 2026 · 6 min read

GTM

Server-side GTM hosting: Cloud Run vs Stape vs self-hosted

A vendor-neutral comparison of the three ways to run a tagging server, with verified 2026 pricing — plus what nobody selling it will tell you.

25 Jul 2026 · 8 min read

Consent Mode

Google-certified doesn't mean compliant: how to actually choose a CMP

Certification tests whether a CMP product can pass consent signals — not whether your installation does. The published research says almost nobody's does.

25 Jul 2026 · 6 min read

Google Ads

Google Ads vs GA4 conversions: which number to trust

The two counts will never match, and one of them shouldn't be driving your bidding. Why they differ, and which is right for which job.

25 Jul 2026 · 6 min read

Google Ads

Enhanced conversions vs offline import: which do you need?

They look like rival answers to one problem. They aren't. One recovers attribution; the other tells Google what a lead was worth. Most lead-gen accounts need both.

25 Jul 2026 · 7 min read

Benchmarks

We scanned UK private clinics for consent leaks. 37% failed.

A behavioural scan of private UK dental, aesthetic and physio sites. The problem wasn't missing cookie banners — it was banners that block nothing.

8 Jul 2026 · 4 min read

PECR

PECR fines after DUAA 2026: what the new £17.5m ceiling actually means

DUAA raised the maximum PECR/cookie fine from £500k to £17.5m or 4% of turnover, in force 5 February 2026. What changed, and who's exposed.

24 Jun 2026 · 6 min read

Cookiebot

Cookiebot is installed but tags still fire before consent. Here's why.

The most common CMP misconfiguration we see: Cookiebot is live, the banner shows, and Google Analytics fires anyway. Why it happens, and the fix.

19 May 2026 · 5 min read

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