Courses / Advanced / Section 6
Level 2 · Advanced
Analytics and measurement
Every visit, interaction and conversion is measured through Google Tag Manager, GA4 and Microsoft Clarity, with visitor consent respected, and every lead in the CRM carries the source that produced it.
- 9lessons
- 7.6 hof lessons
- 4.2 hhomework
- 7checkpoints
Milestone
Every visit and conversion is measured, with consent handled
Lessons
- 6.1
Measurement plan
45 min + 25 homeA written list of what will be measured and why, before installing anything.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-5.7;docs/brief.mdfrom 2.1. - Covers
- Business questions first: where do leads come from, where do visitors drop off.
- The funnel: visit, engagement, form start, lead, qualified lead, sale.
- Events, parameters and key events; a naming convention.
- Which tool answers which question: GA4, Clarity, Search Console, the CRM.
- Do along
- Have Claude draft
docs/measurement-plan.mdas a table of events, triggers and parameters; trim it to what the student will act on. - Done when
- Each event in the plan is tied to a question it answers.
- Homework
- List the ways customers reach the business that the site cannot measure, and note a baseline of lead counts per stage from the CRM. Write a small measurement plan by hand for a second business.
- 6.2
Google Tag Manager
50 min + 25 homeOne container on the site through which all tracking is managed.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-5.7;docs/measurement-plan.mdfrom 6.1; a Google account; the site live on its domain. - Covers
- Why a tag manager: change tracking without changing code.
- Account, container, tags, triggers, variables.
- Installing the container in the Next.js project.
- Preview mode, versions, publishing.
- Do along
- Create the container, have Claude install it, verify in preview mode.
- Done when
- GTM preview mode connects to the live site and shows page views firing.
- Homework
- Check every public and admin page in preview mode and describe the four planned events as tag, trigger and variables in plain words. Record which Google account owns the container.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-6.2. - Covers
- Property and data stream; the measurement ID.
- The Google tag configured in GTM, not in code.
- Realtime report and DebugView.
- Settings worth changing at the start: data retention, internal-traffic filter, time zone and currency.
- Do along
- Set up the property, add the tag in GTM, publish, visit the site.
- Done when
- The student's own visit appears in GA4 Realtime.
- Homework
- Find a visit from a second device in Realtime and define any second regular connection as internal traffic. Add the 14-month retention period to the privacy page.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-6.3;docs/measurement-plan.mdfrom 6.1. - Covers
- The data layer: the site announces what happened, GTM decides what to do with it.
- Having Claude push events from code: form start, form submit, lead created, call-to-action click.
- GTM triggers and GA4 event tags for each.
- Marking the lead event as a key event; keeping personal data out of analytics.
- Do along
- Implement the plan, test each event in GTM preview and GA4 DebugView.
- Done when
- A test form submission shows the lead event in DebugView exactly once, with the planned parameters.
- Homework
- Repeat the event test on the second form and try three ways to break "exactly once" (double-click, back button, direct visit to the thank-you page). List every call-to-action with the
cta_idandcta_locationit sends.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-6.4. - Covers
- Why consent is needed and which visitors it applies to; the limits of this lesson (mechanics, not legal advice).
- A consent banner: accept, reject, choose categories, change later.
- Google Consent Mode v2: default state, update on choice, the four consent signals.
- Making each tag in GTM depend on consent.
- Do along
- Have Claude build the banner and the consent wiring; test "reject" and "accept" paths in GTM preview.
- Done when
- With consent rejected no analytics or advertising cookies are set, and after acceptance tags fire normally.
- Homework
- Test the analytics-only choice in preview, check the banner on a phone and try its wording on one outside reader. Write the questions about the student's own business to put to a qualified adviser.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-6.5; a Microsoft Clarity account. - Covers
- What session recordings and heatmaps show that numbers cannot.
- Installing Clarity through GTM and tying it to consent.
- Masking sensitive content such as form fields.
- Connecting Clarity with GA4; reading rage clicks, dead clicks and scroll depth.
- Do along
- Install, generate a few sessions from different devices, review them.
- Done when
- The student's own session can be replayed in Clarity with form input masked.
- Homework
- Watch recordings of two other people requesting a quote on their phones and note where they hesitated. Replay a session with a form error to check masking, and set a reminder to read the scroll heatmap in a week.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-6.6; the sitemap from 3.9; access to the domain's DNS settings. - Covers
- Verifying the domain; submitting the sitemap from 3.9.
- Indexing: checking a page and requesting indexing.
- Queries, impressions, clicks, position.
- Linking Search Console with GA4.
- Do along
- Verify the property, submit the sitemap, inspect the home page.
- Done when
- The property is verified and the sitemap is accepted.
- Homework
- Inspect the remaining public pages and the admin login in URL Inspection, and write five searches the student expects to be found for, to compare with real queries in four weeks. Review the home page's title and description as a searcher.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-6.6; the dashboard from 5.6. - Covers
- UTM parameters and a naming convention for campaigns.
- Click identifiers added by ad platforms and why to keep them.
- Capturing UTM values, click identifiers, referrer and landing page on first visit and sending them with the form.
- Showing the source on the lead card and adding "leads by source" to the dashboard from 5.6.
- Do along
- Have Claude implement capture and storage; open the site through three differently tagged links and submit the form each time.
- Done when
- The three test leads show three different sources in the CRM and in the dashboard chart.
- Homework
- Build labelled links for the places that already link to the site (profiles, signature, newsletter) and test three untested cases: a direct visit, an unlabelled referral and first touch. Note remembered sources on older leads.
What the lesson covers
- Prerequisites
- Checkpoint
lesson-6.8; the browser connection from 1.6. - Covers
- A test routine: GTM preview, GA4 DebugView, browser network tab, a consent-rejected run.
- Common faults: double counting, missing events, own visits polluting data.
- Comparing GA4 lead events with CRM leads for the same period.
- A GA4 exploration of the funnel from the measurement plan.
- Do along
- Run the full routine with Claude driving a browser for the repetitive steps; write the results to
docs/tracking-qa.md. - Done when
- For a test batch, the number of lead events in GA4 equals the number of new leads in the CRM.
- Homework
- Confirm the batch count the next day in the standard report and set the internal-traffic filter to Active. Run one test by hand on a phone, and after a week compare GA4 lead events with CRM leads.