analytics
When the user wants to set up, improve, or audit analytics tracking and measurement. Also use when the user mentions "set up tracking," "GA4," "Google Analytics," "conversion tracking," "event tracking," "UTM parameters," "tag manager," "GTM," "analytics implementation," "tracking plan," "how do I m
By coreyhaines31 · 62,383 installs
npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill analytics
Source repository · Upstream listing
Analytics Tracking
You are an expert in analytics implementation and measurement. Your goal is to help set up tracking that provides actionable insights for marketing and product decisions.
Initial Assessment
Check for product marketing context first:
If .agents/product marketing.md exists (or .claude/product marketing.md , or the legacy product marketing context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.
Before implementing tracking, understand:
1. Business Context What decisions will this data inform? What are key conversions?
2. Current State What tracking exists? What tools are in use?
3. Technical Context What's the tech stack? Any privacy/compliance requirements?
Core Principles
1. Track for Decisions, Not Data
Every event should inform a decision
Avoid vanity metrics
Quality quantity of events
2. Start with the Questions
What do you need to know?
What actions will you take based on this data?
Work backwards to what you need to track
3. Name Things Consistently
Naming conventions matter
Establish patterns before implementing
Document everything
4. Maintain Data Quality
Validate implementation
Monitor for issues
Clean data more data
5. Compute, Don't Eyeball
Derive every total, rate, and delta from row level data with a script or
spreadsheet — never by scanning rows and summing mentally. One silently
dropped row corrupts every figure downstream of it.
Cross check each headline figure a second, independent way (a
reconciliation total, a recomputation from a different grouping) before
reporting it, and chase any mismatch to the exact row.
When a claim is about one segment — a single campaign, ad set, channel, or
week — report that segment's own numbers. Never fold it into a neighboring
group and let the group's total speak for it.
6. Match Observation Windows
A rate or efficiency metric divides a numerator and denominator that cover
the same closed observation window. Never divide a full period's spend by a
partial period's conversions or revenue — restate both over the weeks that
actually have data, and say which weeks those are.
Cohort rates use only cohorts whose observation window has ended. A trial
or signup still inside its window is pending, not failed — exclude it from
the denominator and label it as pending rather than counting it against
the rate.
7. Recommend Against the Stated Goal
Analysis ends in a recommendation, and the recommendation must be argued
from the goal the brief states — the launch target, audience, revenue, or
positioning objective — not only from what is operationally easiest.
Name which stated goal each option serves and what it trades away.
Tracking Plan Framework
Structure
Event Types
Type Examples
Pageviews Automatic, enhanced with metadata
User Actions Button clicks, form submissions, feature usage
System Events Signup completed, purchase, subscription changed
Custom Conversions Goal completions, funnel stages
For comprehensive event lists : See [references/event library.md](references/event library.md)
Event Naming Conventions
Recommended Format: Object Action
Best Practices
Lowercase with underscores
Be specific: cta hero clicked vs. button clicked
Include context in properties, not event name
Avoid spaces and special characters
Document decisions
Keep provider defined names when using automatic or recommended events (e.g. GA4 click , view search results , purchase ). Map internal business names explicitly; naming a custom event does not make the provider collect it automatically.
Essential Events
Marketing Site
Event Properties
cta clicked button text, location
form submitted form type
signup completed method, source
demo requested
Product/App
Event Properties
onboarding step completed step number, step name
feature used feature name
purchase completed plan, value
subscription cancelled reason
For full event library by business type : See [references/event library.md](references/event library.md)
Event Properties
Standard Properties
Category Properties
Page page title, page location, page referrer
User user id, user type, account id, plan type
Campaign source, medium, campaign, content, term
Product product id, product name, category, price
Best Practices
Use consistent property names
Include relevant context
Don't duplicate automatic properties
Avoid PII in properties
GA4 Implementation
Quick Setup
1. Create GA4 property and data stream
2. Install gtag.js or GTM
3. Enable enhanced measurement
4. Configure custom events
5. Mark conversions in Admin
Event Example
For detailed GA4 implementation : See [references/ga4 implementation.md](references/ga4 implementation.md)
Google Tag Manager
Container Structure
Component Purpose
Tags Code that executes (GA4, pixels)
Triggers When tags fire (page view, click)
Variables Dynamic values (click text, data layer)
Data Layer Pattern
For detailed GTM implementation : See [references/gtm implementation.md](references/gtm implementation.md)
UTM Parameter Strategy
Standard Parameters
Parameter Purpose Example
utm source Traffic source google, newsletter
utm medium Marketing medium cpc, email, social
utm campaign Campaign name spring sale
utm content Differentiate versions hero cta
utm term Paid search keywords running shoes
Naming Conventions
Lowercase everything. GA4 treats LinkedIn and linkedin as two sources, and the split never merges back.
Hyphens between words. No spaces, underscores, or + . Pick one separator for the whole company; this skill uses hyphens.
One spelling per source. linkedin , never also li or linkedin.com . Keep the allowed values in a shared sheet and build links from it.
No personal data. Never put emails, names, phone numbers, or user IDs in a UTM. They land in analytics reports and in referrer logs, and Google's terms prohibit sending PII to GA4.
Specific but short: blog footer cta , not cta1 .
Test the final URL. Shorteners and redirects can drop or double parameters. Click the live link and check the landing URL before the campaign ships.
UTM Patterns by Partner Type
Partner links break most often because each deal gets named on the spot. Fix the pattern per partner type once: utm medium names the kind of deal, utm source names who sent the traffic.
Partner type utm source utm medium utm campaign utm content
Newsletter {partner} (one per partner, across all their publications) newsletter {partner} {publication} {yyyy} {mm} {placement} {yyyy mm dd}
Creator (YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok) {platform} creator {creator} {post date} or the video ID
Podcast {podcast} podcast {podcast} {yyyy} {mm} {spot} {yyyy mm dd} (pre roll, mid roll)
Affiliate {partner} affiliate {partner} affiliate placement, if they have several
Community {community} community {community} {program} the channel or post, if known
Use creator as the medium for paid creator deals , not social (which mixes them with your organic posts) or video (which mixes them with paid video ads). The platform goes in utm source .
One link per placement. A newsletter that runs you on two dates gets two links, so each date's clicks stay separate. The monthly utm campaign rolls them up.
Add a custom channel group in GA4. GA4's default grouping sends mediums like newsletter , creator , podcast , and community to Unassigned (only affiliate and email map to a default channel). Create a channel group with a rule per medium so partner traffic shows up as its own channels.
Podcast and video links often aren't clickable, so pair the UTM link with a promo code or vanity URL. See influencer marketing for the rest of partner measurement.
The partner type pattern is adapted from Wispr Flow's link creator skill (MIT), published in the skills.marketing library.
Traffic From AI Assistants
You can't tag links that ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or Copilot put in their answers. Some of those visits arrive with a referrer ( chatgpt.com , perplexity.ai ) or an assistant added utm source ; many arrive as direct, or come later through a branded search.
Add a GA4 channel group rule that matches known assistant referrers and sources into an "AI assistants" channel, and update the list as new assistants appear.
Treat that channel as the floor. Assistant driven visits that show up as direct or branded search can be most of the effect, and they won't carry the referrer.
For measuring the full effect (exposure, delayed visits, and longer attribution windows), see ai seo . For reconciling it with other sources, see attribution .
Debugging and Validation
Testing Tools
Tool Use For
GA4 DebugView Real time event monitoring
GTM Preview Mode Test triggers before publish
Browser Extensions Tag Assistant, dataLayer Inspector
Validation Checklist
[ ] Events firing on correct triggers
[ ] Property values populating correctly
[ ] No duplicate events
[ ] Works across browsers and mobile
[ ] Conversions recorded correctly
[ ] No PII leaking
Common Issues
Issue Check
Events not firing Trigger config, GTM loaded
Wrong values Variable path, data layer structure
Duplicate events Multiple containers, trigger firing twice
Privacy and Compliance
Considerations
Cookie consent required in EU/UK/CA
No PII in analytics properties
Data retention settings
User deletion capabilities
Implementation
Use consent mode (wait for consent)
IP anonymization
Only collect what you need
Integrate with consent management platform
Output Format
Tracking Plan Document
Task Specific Questions
1. What tools are you using (GA4, Mixpanel, etc.)?
2. What key actions do you want to track?
3. What decisions will this data inform?
4. Who implements dev team or marketing?
5. Are there privacy/consent requirements?
6. What's already tracked?
Tool Integrations
For implementation, see the [tools registry](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/tools/REGISTRY.md). Key analytics tools:
Tool Best For MCP Guide
: :
GA4 Web analytics, Google ecosystem ✓ [ga4.md](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/tools/integrations/ga4.md)
Mixpanel Product analytics, event tracking [mixpanel.md](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/tools/integrations/mixpanel.md)
Amplitude Product analytics, cohort analysis [amplitude.md](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/tools/integrations/amplitude.md)
PostHog Open source analytics, session replay [posthog.md](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/tools/integrations/posthog.md)
Segment Customer data platform, routing [segment.md](https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills/blob/main/tools/integrations/segment.md)
Related Skills
ab testing : For experiment tracking
conversion tracking : For getting conversions (including GA4 key events from forms and bookings) to ad platforms and GA4, and verifying they arrive
attribution : For attribution models, multi touch/MMM/incrementality, and reconciling conflicting numbers across tools (once tracking is live)
seo audit : For organic traffic analysis
cro : For conversion optimization (uses this data)
revops : For pipeli