If it wasn't a call, a form or a booking, it wasn't a lead.
Most "conversions" we open turn out to be page loads. The report looks great and the phone doesn't ring. We wire GA4, Google Ads conversion actions, call tracking and form tracking so each real enquiry is counted once, then we test it by making the call ourselves.
Three reasons to count properly. One of them isn't about ads.
"The report says 60 conversions. I got 9 calls."
Your bidding is learning from the wrong signal, so it's buying more of the wrong visitors. Fixing the count is the first thing that has to happen before anything else in the account can be judged. Usually found first by a the $595 Audit.
"I want it right before I spend a dollar."
The cheapest time to wire tracking is before the first click. If we're building your account, this is included. If someone else is, ask them to show you the test call landing in Google Ads before you approve a budget.
"I just want to know where enquiries come from."
GA4 and call tracking work without ads. Which pages people read before they call, whether Google Business Profile or the website is doing the work, and whether that directory listing you pay for sends anyone. Worth knowing on its own.
Four tools, one rule: a real action, counted once
These are the four pieces and what each is for. All of them are set up inside accounts you own. None of them counts a page view as a lead.
Google Analytics 4
What it's for. Seeing what people did on your site: which pages, from which source, before they called or didn't.
What we do. Install it once, in your Google account. Set up events for calls, forms and bookings and mark them as key events. Exclude your own traffic and ours. Link it to Google Ads so both count the same things.
Conversion actions
What it's for. Telling Google Ads what a lead is, so bidding learns from real enquiries and the report counts them.
What we do. One action per real outcome: "Phone call, 60 s or longer", "Form submitted", "Booking made". Each set to count once per click. Each named in plain English. Anything that fires on a page view is removed, or set to secondary so bidding ignores it.
Dynamic number insertion
What it's for. Knowing which calls came from an ad, without changing your real number anywhere.
What we do. A tracking number swaps into your website only for visitors who arrived from an ad. Your real number stays on Google Business Profile, your van and your invoices. Every call is logged with duration, so a wrong number or a four-second hang-up isn't counted as a lead.
Form submission tracking
What it's for. Counting a form when it's actually sent, not when someone looks at it.
What we do. The tag fires on the form's success event or thank-you page, never on the page the form sits on. We submit the form ourselves and watch it arrive once in Google Ads and once in GA4. Then we delete the test.
Booking systems
What it's for. Counting a booking as a booking, which is the best lead there is.
What we do. If you take bookings online (Cliniko, Timely, Fresha, Square or whatever you use) we wire the completed booking as its own conversion where the system allows it. Some don't. We'll tell you if yours is one of them rather than pretending.
Tested by doing it, then written down
What it's for. So you, or whoever comes after us, can check it's still working in ten minutes.
What we do. One real call, one real form, one real booking. Screenshots of each landing once in Google Ads and GA4. A one-page note saying what each conversion action is, what fires it, and how to test it yourself.
One click, one action, one count.
This is the whole mechanism. A lead travels this path and is counted exactly once at the end of it. The two places it usually goes wrong are marked, because between them they explain most of the inflated reports we've ever opened.
- Counted on page load. The tag fires when the landing page opens, so every visitor is a "lead", including the ones who left in four seconds.
- Tag fires twice. Google's tag installed by a plugin and again by hand. One form, two conversions. Cost per lead halves overnight and nothing real changed.
- Both make the report look better than the business. And both teach Google's bidding to buy the wrong clicks.
Read, wire, test, write it down
About a week, most of it waiting for access to your website or tag manager. If someone else looks after your site and won't give you access, that's the first problem to solve.
Read what's there
We open GA4, Google Tag Manager if you have it, and every conversion action in Google Ads. For each one we write down what actually fires it. This is usually where we find that "Conversion" means "visited the homepage".
Wire the real ones
Call tracking number, form success event, booking event. Installed once, in your accounts, under your logins. Old actions that count page views are removed or set to secondary so bidding stops learning from them.
Test by doing it
We call the number and stay on for a minute. We submit the form. We make a booking. Then we check that each one arrived once in Google Ads and once in GA4, and delete the test leads so they don't inflate your first report.
Write it down
A one-page note: what each conversion action is, what fires it, where the tag lives, and how to run the same test yourself in ten minutes. Yours to keep and to hand to whoever manages the account next.
What gets counted decides everything after it.
Bidding learns from it. Reports are built on it. Decisions about budget follow from it. So the rule for what counts has to be strict, and it has to be written down.
One-off on its own. Free with management.
Covers GA4, Google Ads conversion actions, call tracking and form tracking on a standard website with one booking system. Several sites, several booking systems, or a tag setup that has to be rebuilt from scratch are quoted in writing first. Included at no charge with Google Ads management and with Google Ads setup.
Enquire →- GA4 installed in your Google account, linked to Google Ads
- Conversion actions: call, form, booking, once each
- Call tracking with dynamic number insertion
- Form tracking on success, not on load
- Tested with a real call, form and booking
- One-page write-up, yours to keep
The call-tracking provider charges a monthly fee for the tracking number. It's paid by you, in an account in your name, and we'll tell you the provider and the price before setting it up. Why it's free with management: we can't manage an account honestly on numbers we don't trust, so we'd have to do this anyway.
Before you ask
Isn't this just GA4?+
GA4 is one of the four pieces. It tells you what people did on the site. It doesn't, on its own, tell Google Ads what a lead is, swap in a tracking number for ad visitors, or know that your form was actually sent. Those are the other three pieces, and they're the ones that are usually missing or wrong.
Does call tracking change my phone number?+
No. Your real number stays everywhere: Google Business Profile, your van, your invoices, your email signature. The tracking number only appears on your website, and only for visitors who arrived from an ad. Everyone else sees your real number. Calls to the tracking number forward to your real one, and you answer as normal.
Why is it free with management?+
Because we can't do the management job on numbers we don't trust. Every bid, every negative and every monthly report depends on the count being right. We'd have to fix tracking before doing anything else anyway, so charging for it separately would just be charging twice.
How much of this is automated?+
The tags fire automatically. That's what they're for. Setting them up, deciding what counts as a lead, removing the actions that count page views, and testing the result with a real call and a real form is done by a person.
Google Ads will offer to create conversion actions for you automatically, and to "enhance" them. We switch that off and say so in the write-up, because those actions count engagement, not enquiries.
Someone else looks after my website. Is that a problem?+
Only if they won't give you access. We need to install one tag, either directly or through Google Tag Manager, and we'll send your developer exactly what to add if you'd rather they did it. If you're told you can't have access to your own website's tag manager, that's the gatekeeping we started Moon Digital to get away from, and it's worth sorting out regardless of tracking.
Will you be able to see my customers' details?+
Not through this. GA4 and Google Ads don't send us names, and we don't set them up to. Call tracking logs the caller's number and duration inside the call-tracking account, which is in your name. If we listen to a call it's to check the tracking works, and we'll tell you when we have.
Get the tracking right
We reply within one working day with a fit check. If it suits you, the reply has the invoice, the access steps and a delivery date. If it doesn't, it says so.
Don't put passwords, customer or patient details in this form. Access, where needed, is granted inside the platform after the fit check. How we handle your information.
from $450 · free with mgmtEnquire →