Your GA4 is probably lying to you — here's a 5-minute check
I've audited tracking setups for dozens of e-commerce brands and the same problems show up every time. Here's a quick sanity check you can do right now:
1. Compare conversions across platforms
Open GA4 → Reports → Conversions. Compare your purchase count to Meta/Google Ads. More than a 15% gap? Your tracking is broken.
2. Real-time debug view
GA4 → Configure → DebugView. Add to cart on your site. If the event doesn't fire within 3 seconds, your GTM container or data layer is misconfigured.
3. Check for duplicate events
GA4 → Explore → pull up your purchase event. If event count vs. unique users ratio is above 1.3, you have duplicate firing — and your ROAS numbers are inflated.
4. Server-side gap
Client-side only? You're losing 15-30% of conversions to ad blockers and iOS restrictions. Server-side GTM closes that gap.
Most brands make ad spend decisions on bad data. Fix the foundation first, then scale.
We handle all of this at DataPulse — GTM, GA4, dashboards, the whole stack.
