# Tracking Kit

> Our tracking kit is a tested Google Tag Manager container and store setup that records every sale and enquiry once, with the right value, in GA4 and Google Ads. Each order also records how the customer arrived, so you can check the ad platforms against your own records.

Canonical: https://thegrowthproject.com/growth/conversion-tracking/

## Why your own order records matter

Ad platforms count generously. Google Ads credits a sale to an ad if the customer clicked one at any point in the past few weeks, even if they came back through a bookmark. Your store credits the visit they bought on. Neither is wrong, and the truth usually sits between them. You can only see the gap if you have both; the field note [What Google Ads says vs what your orders say](/blog/what-google-ads-says-vs-your-orders/) is a worked example.

The kit is the measurement half of a [marketing data layer you can trust](/guides/marketing-data-layer/), and the first thing we check in a [Google Ads audit](/growth/google-ads-audit/).

## What's in the kit

### Ecommerce events, once each

The ten standard GA4 ecommerce events, from product view to purchase, come from your store's own data layer through one tag. One source means no duplicate purchases when a plugin adds its own.

### Leads, counted only when they're real

Forms are recorded only after they've actually been sent. Phone and email clicks are recorded separately, and go to Google Ads as secondary goals so the ads still bid for sales.

### A purchase conversion that tells the truth

Fires on your store's own purchase event.

- Order number, so Google drops duplicates
- Value without GST and shipping
- Enhanced conversions from the hashed email and phone
- The conversion linker, to tie a sale to its ad click

### Consent by region

European rules apply to European visitors, and Australian measurement isn't switched off by a default copied from another country's law.

### Guards against double counting

Some store plugins send their own conversions. The kit leaves exactly one source for each, so a plugin update can't quietly double your reported sales.

### Where each order really came from

Each order records how the customer arrived when they bought. A dashboard in your store shows tracking health, order sources and the checkout funnel step by step.

## How it works

1. **Audit.** We read your live container, tags, conversion actions and recent orders, and list what is and isn't counting.
2. **Build in a workspace.** The live site isn't touched while we work. The container is built from code, so every change is recorded.
3. **Test with real orders.** Preview mode, a test purchase, a test enquiry and GA4 debug view: each event once, at the right value.
4. **Publish and check.** A new container version goes live with the previous one ready to restore. We confirm Google Ads is recording sales within 48 hours, then compare with your orders each week.

## After the review

We build the fixes as part of [MarTech Infrastructure](https://thegrowthproject.com/services/martech-infrastructure/).

## Common questions

### What is included in the tracking kit?

A Google Tag Manager container with GA4 ecommerce events, lead events (forms, phone and email clicks), a Google Ads purchase conversion with enhanced conversions, consent settings by region and guards against double counting. On the store side, each order records how the customer arrived, and a dashboard shows tracking health, order sources and the checkout funnel.

### Which platforms does it work with?

It is built and proven on WooCommerce and WordPress, where our plugins send the events. On other platforms we map the same container onto the platform's own data layer.

### We already have Google Analytics. Why would we need this?

Having the tag installed is not the same as counting correctly. Most accounts we review have at least one of these: a purchase action that stopped recording, micro-events counted as conversions, revenue including GST and shipping, or two tags reporting the same sale. Each one misleads the ad platforms and you.

### Will it break anything on my site?

Changes are built in a separate Tag Manager workspace, tested in preview mode with real test orders, then published as a new version. The previous version stays one click away if anything looks wrong.

### What about privacy and consent?

Consent defaults are set by region, so the strict settings European law needs apply to European visitors without silently switching off measurement for Australian customers. If you run a consent banner, the kit respects it. What your policy should say is your decision; we make the setup match it.