Yes
GA4 certified
Server-side ready
Tracking
Shopify, always
Source of truth
You own them
Properties
The problem
Everyone is counting differently.
This is the conversation we have on almost every first call. Four platforms report the same month and none of them agree, so nobody trusts any of the numbers and decisions get made on instinct instead.
| Shopify | Actual orders placed and paid for. The only number that appears in your bank account. | 412 |
| Meta Ads | Claims every purchase within its attribution window, including buyers who were coming anyway. | 386 |
| Google Ads | Claims the same purchases separately. Add these two together and you have sold more than you did. | 271 |
| GA4 | Last-click by default, and quietly missing conversions wherever consent or ad blockers got in the way. | 338 |
Illustrative figures from a typical Shopify account. The pattern is what matters: the platforms claim 995 orders between them for a month in which 412 were actually placed.
The stack
How we set up Google Tag Manager, GA4 and server-side tracking, and why.
Nothing exotic. A properly configured standard stack beats a clever custom one that nobody on your team can maintain after we leave.
Measure
GA4 ecommerce setup and GTM
A clean GA4 property with ecommerce events firing correctly, tags managed in GTM rather than pasted into the theme.
- GA4 events
- GTM container
- Data streams
Recover
Server-side tracking for Shopify
Events sent from the server as well as the browser, so ad blockers and cookie loss stop silently eating your data. GTM server-side setup where the spend justifies it.
- Meta CAPI setup
- Enhanced conversions
- Deduplication
Comply
Consent and privacy
Consent Mode configured for EU and UK traffic, so you keep modelled data instead of losing those visitors entirely.
- Consent Mode v2
- Cookie banner
- GDPR setup
Connect
Shopify integration
Customer events, checkout tracking and the web pixel API set up the way Shopify now expects, not the old script method.
- Web pixels
- Checkout events
- Order data
Report
Looker Studio
One dashboard pulling Shopify, GA4 and both ad platforms together, refreshed daily and readable in thirty seconds.
- Blended view
- Daily refresh
- Shared access
Watch
Search Console
Organic performance connected in properly, so SEO progress shows up in the same place as everything else.
- Search Console
- Bing Webmaster
- Index coverage
Attribution
Honest about what can be known.
Since iOS 14 and the death of the third-party cookie, perfect per-order attribution does not exist. Anyone selling you a tool that promises it is selling you a model with confident-looking output.
What we do
Blended metrics against Shopify
Total ad spend against total revenue from Shopify, so the number cannot be inflated by two platforms claiming the same order. Add post-purchase surveys and geo holdout tests where the budget justifies them, and you get directionally honest answers about what is working.
What we do not do
Pretend the platforms are right
We will not build a report that sums Meta ROAS and Google ROAS and calls it performance. We will not present modelled conversions as if they were counted ones. And we will tell you when a difference between two numbers is noise rather than a finding.
Reporting
One dashboard, read in thirty seconds.
Built so a founder can open it on a phone before a meeting and know where the business is. Detail sits underneath for anyone who wants it.
Shopify, not platform-reported
Revenue
Total revenue over total ad spend
MER
What acquisition actually costs
New customer cost
After COGS, shipping and fees
Contribution
What is included
Conversion tracking services in the setup, and after it.
Most of this is a one-off project. The monitoring afterwards is what stops it quietly breaking the next time an app is installed.
- Full tracking and tag audit
- GA4 property build or cleanup
- GTM container setup and documentation
- Shopify web pixel and checkout events
- Server-side tracking and CAPI
- Conversion deduplication across platforms
- Consent Mode and cookie banner
- Search Console and Bing connected
- Looker Studio dashboard build
- Custom dimensions and audiences
- Documentation your team can follow
- Ongoing monitoring and alerts
Process
Two to three weeks, then it stays fixed.
The setup is short. The value is that every decision made afterwards rests on numbers that hold up.
01
Audit
Every tag, pixel and property reviewed. You get a written list of what is broken, duplicated or missing.
Week 1
02
Rebuild
GA4, GTM and Shopify events set up properly, with the old duplicated tags removed rather than left running.
Week 1 to 2
03
Server-side
Meta CAPI setup and enhanced conversions added, GTM server-side container where needed, deduplication verified against real orders.
Week 2
04
Validate
Test orders placed and traced through every platform until the numbers reconcile to Shopify.
Week 2 to 3
05
Dashboard
Looker Studio built against your actual metrics, not a template, and walked through with your team.
Week 3
06
Monitor
Alerts for broken events and a monthly check, because a new app can silently undo any of this.
Ongoing
Questions
Tracking and analytics questions.
Why do Shopify and GA4 never match?
They are measuring different things. Shopify counts paid orders. GA4 counts events it managed to receive, which excludes anyone who blocked the script, declined consent or dropped off mid-session. A gap is normal. A large or growing gap means something is broken, and that is what the audit finds.
Do I need server side tracking on Shopify?
If you spend meaningfully on ads, yes. Browser-only tracking loses a real share of conversions to blockers and privacy settings, and your bidding algorithms optimize against whatever data they receive. If your ad spend is small, the setup cost may not be worth it yet and we will say so.
Can you fix an existing GA4 setup?
Usually. Most of the accounts we see were set up once during the Universal Analytics migration and never revisited. Sometimes cleaning up is faster than rebuilding, sometimes it is not, and the audit tells us which.
Which attribution model should we use?
For decisions, blended metrics against Shopify revenue. Platform attribution models are useful for comparing campaigns inside one platform and misleading for comparing across them. We report both and explain what each one is for.
Do we own the accounts and dashboard?
Yes. GA4, GTM, Search Console and the Looker Studio dashboard are all in your accounts. Documentation is handed over so another team could pick it up without us.
Is this a one-off project or a retainer?
The setup is a project. Monitoring is optional afterwards, and it exists because tracking breaks quietly. A theme update or a new app can undo a working setup and nobody notices for a month.
Can we just set up Google Tag Manager ourselves?
You can, and Google's own guide is fine for a basic container. What goes wrong is Shopify-specific: checkout events, the web pixel API, consent mode and deduplication against CAPI. Most of the accounts we audit were set up by someone following that guide and are double counting purchases without knowing. If you set it up yourself, at least get it audited.
Give us access. We will tell you which numbers to trust.
A written audit of every tag, pixel and property, with what is broken and what it is costing you. Yours to keep whether or not you work with us.