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Overview

To ensure that your Google Analytics setup is proper, make sure that you have correctly installed the tracking code on your website and that you have set up your goals and filters correctly. Additionally, you should regularly review your traffic sources to identify any potential issues with direct or none traffic. If you are experiencing issues with direct or none traffic, consider implementing UTM tracking parameters to more accurately track the sources of your website traffic. However, keep in mind that UTMs can break due to a variety of reasons, including ad blockers, misconfiguration of GA, and ReCharge checkout issues.

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Common Failure Points in Google Analytics

Google Analytics has some common failure points that can cause data sources to diverge. Let’s explore a couple of these below:
  • Subscription Checkout Issues
    • Subscription services like ReCharge often do not correctly attribute orders. This can happen for a number of reasons, and the solutions generally depend on the subscription service.
  • Adblockers
    • The data that GA provides is generally only as good as the tracking, and most, if not all tracking tech (pixels, cookies, tag, etc.) can be circumvented by customers.
  • Faulty Tracking
    • There’s no absolute right or wrong approach for setting up UTMs, but most companies make some sort of mistake when setting up tracking. The best practices we have identified are covered in this starter doc and this template.
  • Factors not visible to SourceMedium
    • Tracking is complex, and many other factors that are not visible to SourceMedium can come into play. It is generally reasonable to expect 10-20% discrepancies between Shopify (source of truth) and GA.
Some of the best practices we have identified are outlined in this starter doc on improving your last-click attribution and our UTM link-building template.