The Red Dog Company
Meet the Client
The Red Dog Company (thereddogcompany.com) The Red Dog Company is a British luxury pet brand dedicated to creating premium dog beds, mats, collars, and accessories. All products are made in the UK.
Challenges
Low Data Accuracy for Google Ads and Meta Ads
Leads to weaker ad performance and misguided decisions.
Inflated Data for GA4
Leads to misguided decisions.
Poor Attribution
Misrepresents channel performance, leading to poor budget allocation.
Objectives
High Data Accuracy
Reliable tracking improves ad performance and enables confident decision-making.
Improved Attribution
Clearer attribution shows the true value of each channel and boosts campaign performance.
Initial Setup
Tracking Configuration
GA4 used Google Tag Manager (GTM), Google Ads used checkout scripts, and Meta Ads used Shopify's native integration.
Tracking Method
The client relied on client-side tracking, which is vulnerable to being blocked by ad blockers, iOS privacy restrictions, and other tracking prevention mechanisms. This results in lower data accuracy and weaker attribution across marketing platforms.
Solutions
Tracking Configuration
All tracking was centralized using Google Tag Manager (GTM) to manage all tracking in one place. We also leveraged Stape's app to implement e-commerce dataLayers, which relies on customer events.
Tracking Method
A custom server-side tracking setup was implemented using Stape. This approach enhances data accuracy, improves attribution, provides more control over data, allows for data enrichment, and even slightly improves site speed.
Project Results
0%
Data Accuracy
+0%
Accuracy Improvement
+0%
Attribution Improvement
Understanding Metrics
Data Accuracy: Measures the percentage of actual purchases that are successfully recorded in each platform. The data accuracy should be as close to 100% as possible, but we should also avoid inflated data.
Accuracy Improvement: Shows the percentage increase in data accuracy after the project, averaged across all marketing platforms.
Attribution Improvement: Shows the percentage increase in properly attributed events after the project. It reflects how many more events are now correctly assigned to marketing channels instead of being classified as unattributed (e.g., Direct or Not Set).
Overcoming Tracking Restrictions: Represents the percentage of users who use a tracking prevention system. While not all of these users necessarily block tracking right now, it reflects the potential for data loss.
Data Accuracy
Business Impact
Ad Performance
With more conversion data, ad platforms can optimize targeting, bidding, and delivery more effectively, maximizing return on ad spend and reducing wasted budget.
Data Analysis
More data ensures we get the full picture, so we don’t miss important insights and can more effectively analyze and optimize marketing and website performance.
Attribution Improvement
Business Impact
Ad Performance
Accurate attribution allows ad platforms to allocate credit to the right touchpoints, improving campaign targeting, bidding, and budget allocation. This leads to better return on ad spend and more effective use of marketing resources.
Data Analysis
When attribution is accurate, businesses can make informed decisions based on reliable data, optimizing future campaigns and improving overall marketing strategy.
Overcoming Tracking Restrictions
Business Impact
Tracking Accuracy:
Server-side tracking bypasses current tracking restrictions, ensuring high data accuracy and attribution.
Future Resilience:
As tracking prevention systems evolve, server-side tracking provides a future-proof solution.
Project Outcomes
We bypassed these restrictions with server side tracking.
Additional Improvements
Beyond measurable gains in tracking accuracy, attribution, tracking prevention mitigation, and site speed, the project delivered several structural and strategic improvements that significantly strengthened the overall tracking foundation.
New Events:
Added previously untracked events to capture key user interactions across the customer journey, enabling more granular segmentation and remarketing.
New Parameters:
Introduced additional parameters to enrich events with more context, supporting advanced remarketing and deeper analysis.
Clean Setup:
Simplified and standardized the tracking setup by removing legacy issues, reducing complexity, and ensuring clear ownership and long-term scalability.
Integrations:
Aligned analytics and advertising platforms to ensure consistent event logic, reliable data flow, and platform readiness.
Data Enrichment:
Enhanced events with additional first-party and contextual data to improve attribution, audience building, and performance optimization.
Client Experience
“Many have tried and failed - Igor is the first person to sort out our tracking - and to a high standard of accuracy. We are very pleased with the results.”
Nick L
Founder
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