Oh, again...
We had a project where GA4 showed steady revenue growth, MetaAds reported super-effective campaigns, and the agency delivered glowing ROI reports - close to 300%.
Everyone was happy. Until we pulled real data from the CRM and matched it to BigQuery transactions.
The result: negative trends in the CRM, positive numbers in GA4, and fireworks in the agency report.
Each platform tracks success to suit its own logic:
• GA4 relies on browser-side events - if a script doesn’t fire, the event is lost
• Meta and Google Ads use their own attribution - often over-crediting themselves
• Agencies lean on GA4 and ad dashboards - easy to pull, easy to sell
• CRM shows reality — who paid, when, and how much
If you only look at GA4, you’re seeing a version of reality that favors platforms — not your business.
On this project:
• The agency got bonuses for “growth” (kudos!))
• The business saw falling revenue - but couldn’t trace the cause
• The gap came from lost events, over-attribution, and filtered segments
No one lied. But no one asked how reliable the numbers really were.
Now, on any serious project, here’s what I do:
• Track purchases and profit via CRM - it’s the only true source of truth
• Use GA4 as a visualization layer —-not a single source for decisions
• Label reports with source, attribution logic, and known limits
• Ask the team: do we want flashy metrics - or actual cash flow?
GA4 isn’t the enemy. But it’s not designed to protect your bottom line.
If you don’t challenge your numbers, the platform and agency might look like winners - while the business quietly loses.
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