Our client, one of the top foodservice distributors in the country, came to us with an all-too-common issue. Over the past several years, their web and app technologies grew and matured, but their analytics implementation was sadly left behind. A patchwork of custom code, outdated governance, and minimal access to analytics expertise left the company with a lack of trust in their data, and no concrete strategy for using marketing analytics for business growth.

Beginning with an exhaustive audit of their analytics program, our team meticulously documented the current state of Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Data Studio, highlighting key areas of improvement that needed to be addressed moving forward. This assessment always begins with a thorough understanding of the client’s needs and their capabilities -- i.e. what they want to measure vs. what they actually can. With our findings documented and our client in alignment, we established an action plan for putting in place a solid foundation for marketing analytics.

For a client with such a long trail of technical debt in their implementation history, the first step we took was to archive all Google Analytics data, properties, and accounts, other than those that were absolutely necessary to carry forward. From there, we rebuilt the account using industry best practices for organization and future-proof configuration. Not only did this serve to build a more reliable data source, it also drastically improved the experience for Google Analytics users within the organization.

The client’s Google Tag Manager account had to be similarly broken down into its most fundamental pieces and rebuilt using best practices. Across multiple platforms and domains (and between public and authenticated experiences), we developed a Tag Management strategy that produced a single source of truth, but also accounted for unique implementation requirements on each system.

At the end of the engagement, the client was left with an analytics and reporting program that allowed them to rebuild trust and confidence in the insights drawn from their data. Further, by bringing the technology and implementation approach up to speed with the maturity of their other web technologies, we helped unlock even deeper levels of data not previously available including in-depth marketing attribution reporting, ecommerce reporting, and more.