Watch this if you work at a marketing agency

@firstpartyjacob

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Why it worked

The video addresses a common pain point for marketing agencies: inaccurate conversion tracking. By highlighting specific, relatable problems and providing clear examples of how these issues lead to lost revenue and poor client results, the creator establishes credibility and offers a solution. The use of on-screen text and visuals makes the information easy to digest, and the direct call to action encourages viewers to seek a better tracking system.

Summary

This video highlights three common issues that lead to broken conversion tracking for marketing agencies: using integrations/plugins, relying on thank you pages, and solely using Google Tag Manager. The creator explains how these methods can lead to inaccurate data, under-reporting, and over-reporting of conversions, ultimately harming client results and the agency's reputation. The video advises upgrading to a more robust tracking system to ensure accurate data and better campaign optimization.

Structure

1Introduction: Broken conversion tracking is common in marketing agencies.
2Problem 1: Integrations and plugins are unreliable due to third-party cookie restrictions.
3Example: An agency under-reported revenue by $400k due to faulty Shopify/Facebook integration.
4

Original caption

Your agency is losing clients and fighting with existing ones cuz your tracking makes you look bad. We see it every single day so I wanted to make a guide on how to detect broken tracking. Here are 3 easy ways to tell your conversion tracking is broken and your clients ad results are wrong #marketingagency #agencyowner #marketingstrategy #metaads #googleads

More from @firstpartyjacob

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On-screen text

Watch this if you work at a marketing agency if you run a marketing agency there's a really good chance that your clients conversion tracking is completely broken inaccurate every month and making your agency look bad and two you're actually running your clients campaigns with broken data 4.4/10 3 signs your agency's tracking is broken 1. Integrations 1. you used integrations or plugins to connect their tracking Settings > Marketing Integrations Marketing Integrations Use these tools to make your marketing more effective. Google Analytics Discover where your visitors come from and what they do on your site. Connect Meta Pixel & CAPI Track conversions and measure the success of Facebook campaigns. Connect Google Tag Manager Use Google Tag Manager to update tags and code on your website. Connect Share data Choose your data sharing preference. Shopify will keep your settings up-to-date with the most appropriate and effective ad technologies. Learn more Maximum Customer activity data is shared using the Meta Pixel, advanced matching and Conversions API. Customers can disconnect this data from their Facebook account by changing their settings for "On Facebook Activity". Change your IDs it takes five seconds here's a little secret if it took five seconds to set their tracking up it's definitely wrong that might scare you if your client's on Shopify and you use the Facebook app to integrate the Pixel and the CAPI you're under-reporting like this agency who was missing $400,000 of client revenue that they were responsible for wrong 98.11 right 54.00 was double counting conversions because they used How would you like to send events? G Measurement Protocol (Default) Google Analytics (Ajax only forms) Google Tag Manager (Ajax only forms) the Gravity Forms GA4 integration and then connected GA4 to Google Ads to report conversions never connect GA4 it's terrible this agency was trying to import offline conversions but they were using the Hubspot lead integration event to actually get leads into Google Ads in the first place and so they were showing zero closed deals which was not true they used an integration long story short all these integrations have to use third party cookies to track your users and if you've ever shopped online specifically on Safari where everybody shops you'll see this message Privacy Report In the last seven days, Safari has prevented 151 trackers from profiling you. Your IP address is hidden from known trackers and websites you visit. which shows you that third party cookies do not work for tracking anymore so that's why your clients results look so bad 2. Thank you pages 2. you use thank you pages to track conversions now I've made a video about this before but I firmly believe that if you still use thank you pages to track your clients conversions you should be set on fire you should be sent to prison for the rest of your life along with the rest of your family it's for two reasons 1. thank you pages can be triggered a million times so if you have a form you have somebody fill it out and then land on the thank you page the person can reload that page a thousand times if there's a video on it or more info they can just keep coming back and a conversion event will fire every single time which is why we get clients who literally double triple 5x count 5x over-reporting the amount of conversions they get from thank you pages because people reload the pages that actually fire the conversion 2. and debatably worse thank you pages contain no personal data like name email phone number all these advanced matching parameters that ad platforms like meta and Google need to raise your event quality score and to actually find more people like that person because now they know who the lead actually is 3. Web Google Tag Manager 3. if you only use web Google Tag Manager conversion tracking your tracking is still broken now this is a little more nuanced because GTM is better than integrations or plugins but it's still reliant upon third party cookies and loading an external script onto your client's website and if you've ever shopped on Safari and you actually look at their privacy report you'll see that googletagmanager.com Google 76 is now one of the most commonly blocked domains by Safari which means any scripts any meta pixels any Google Ads conversions any platform you run ads on for your clients if they load through GTM they're getting blocked now so if you work at a marketing agency and you feel like more of your clients leads or revenue than they think and you just can't prove it cuz your reports look bad it's probably because your tracking is broken so stop using integrations plugins thank you pages and just web GTM on its own and upgrade to a better tracking system because that's how you're gonna prove to your clients that you actually grow their business and 2, optimize their campaigns with way better data so that you actually start growing their business more

Transcript

Watch this if you work at a marketing agency. If you run a marketing agency, there's a really good chance that your clients conversion tracking is completely broken. And one, you're showing them the wrong data in reports every month and making your agency look bad. And two, you're actually running your clients campaigns with broken data. So if you run an agency or you work at one, here are three simple ways to tell if your clients conversion tracking is messed up and if you need to fix it. One, you used integrations or plugins to connect their tracking. It always looks like this. Just connect your account, paste your IDs, your pixels, your IDs. It takes five seconds. Here's a little secret. If it took five seconds to set their tracking up, it's definitely wrong. That might scare you if your client's on Shopify and you use the Facebook app to integrate the Pixel and the CAPI. You're under-reporting like this agency who was missing $400,000 of client revenue every single month that they were responsible for. This agency was double counting conversions because they used the Gravity Forms GA4 integration and then connected GA4 to Google Ads to report conversions. Never connect GA4 to Google Ads. It's terrible. This agency was trying to import offline conversions, but they were using the Hubspot lead integration event to actually get leads into Google Ads in the first place. And so they were showing zero closed deals, which was not true. It's because they used an integration. Long story short, all these integrations have to use third party cookies to track your users. And if you've ever shopped online, specifically on Safari, where everybody shops, you'll see this message, which shows you that third party cookies do not work for tracking anymore. So that's why your clients results look so bad. Two, you use thank you pages to track conversions. Now I've made a video about this before, but I firmly believe that if you still use thank you pages to track your clients conversions, you should be set on fire. You should be sent to prison for the rest of your life, along with the rest of your family. It's for two reasons. One, thank you pages can be triggered a million times. So if you have a form, you have somebody fill it out and then land on the thank you page, the person can reload that page a thousand times. If there's a video on it or more info, they can just keep coming back and a conversion event will fire every single time, which is why we get clients who literally double, triple, five X count the amount of conversions they get from thank you pages because people reload the pages that actually fire the conversion. Two, and debatably worse, thank you pages contain no personal data like name, email, phone number, all these advanced matching parameters that ad platforms like Meta and Google need to raise your event quality score and to actually find more people like that person because now they know who the lead actually is. Three, if you only use web Google Tag Manager for your clients conversion tracking, your tracking is still broken. Now, this is a little more nuanced because GTM is better than integrations or plugins, but it's still reliant upon third party cookies and loading an external script onto your client's website. And if you've ever shopped on Safari and you actually look at their privacy report, you'll see that googletagmanager.com is now one of the most commonly blocked domains by Safari, which means any scripts, any meta pixels, any Google Ads conversions, any platform you run ads on for your clients, if they load through GTM, they're getting blocked now. So if you work at a marketing agency and you feel like more of your clients leads or revenue than they think and you just can't prove it cuz your reports look bad, it's probably because your tracking is broken. So stop using integrations, plugins, thank you pages, and just web GTM on its own and upgrade to a better tracking system because that's how you're gonna prove to your clients that you actually grow their business and two, optimize their campaigns with way better data so that you actually start growing their business more.