What it is
GA4 and GTM is the setup work behind web data you can defend. Google Analytics 4 collects the events, Google Tag Manager fires the tags that send them, and most accounts drift into a state nobody fully understands. This work suits businesses rebuilding after a messy setup, moving platforms or preparing for a privacy review of their tracking. It covers property configuration, a documented container, consent mode configured properly and training so your team knows what they are looking at. Expect the assessment first, because a clean rebuild is sometimes cheaper than untangling years of tags. GA4 has been the standard since Universal Analytics stopped processing data in 2023, and it is both more flexible and easier to break than what it replaced. We do not promise perfect data, since consent and browser limits reduce what any tool can see. We promise a setup that is documented, tested and defensible when someone asks how a number was produced.
GA4 gives you enough rope to build almost anything, which is how most accounts end up over-tagged, under-documented and quietly wrong. Tag Manager tells the same story. One misfiring container and a busy week of sales gets counted twice, or a conversion stops firing the day a developer changes a button. The fix is not more tags or a fancier report. It is governance. If your tracking has no documentation, you do not have an analytics setup. You have a rumour, and a rumour is a poor thing to take into a budget meeting.
We build both with owners. A documented event model, a container with naming conventions and version history, and a rule that every tag has a reason to exist and a person who put it there. Consent mode gets configured and tested rather than plugged in, because a misconfigured consent banner is now a legal exposure and a data-quality problem at the same time. Then we train the people who will maintain it afterwards, which is the part that stops the drift returning within the year. Governance sounds heavy. In practice it is a naming convention and someone who cares.
What no setup can do is see everything. Consent requirements and browser limits reduce what gets collected, and that is a fact about privacy rather than a flaw in the software. The job is to know what you are missing, describe it honestly and make decisions on data you can explain to someone else. An account that admits its limits is more useful than one that reports to the decimal place and is quietly wrong about all of it. We would rather hand you fewer reliable numbers than a full picture assembled from things nobody tested.
What we do
GA4 configuration
Property structure, events and conversions aligned to your measurement plan, with event names chosen once and used consistently. Data streams set up correctly across web and app, and the standard reports configured around the questions the business actually asks rather than the defaults Google ships with the property.
GTM architecture
A container with naming conventions, version history and clear owners, so any tag can be traced back to who added it and why. Workspaces used properly, changes tested before they ship and no mystery tags sitting there since a redesign nobody remembers or wants to take responsibility for.
Consent and privacy setup
Consent mode configured and tested, with the regional requirements that apply to you handled properly. Privacy misconfiguration is now both a legal exposure and a data-quality problem, so we check what gets collected before and after a visitor makes a choice and write the behaviour down.
Documentation and training
Written so your team can maintain the setup after we leave. An event dictionary, a container map and a session walking through what each tag does and how to add one without breaking anything. Documentation is what turns a setup into an asset rather than a dependency.
How we work
Audit
We open the container and the property and read what is actually in there. Duplicate tags, tags with no owner, events firing twice and consent blocking more than it should. You get a list of what is wrong and what each problem costs in trust.
Plan
An event model and a container plan agreed before anything is touched. Which events matter, what they are called, who owns each tag and how consent should change what fires. You approve the map before we build to it, and it stays current.
Build
The rebuild or the repair, done in a test environment where one exists and validated event by event. Nothing counts as finished until it has been checked in the reports against the plan, rather than assumed to work because the tag technically fired.
Prove
Documentation, training and a validation report showing what fires where. We also set a light monitoring rhythm, because containers drift whenever several people touch them and nobody is watching. Monitoring catches the drift before it reaches a budget meeting.
What it costs
GA4 and GTM work is priced by the scope of the rebuild and the state of the container, and what moves the number is how many tags, sites and systems are involved. A clean rebuild of one site costs less than untangling a container with three years of accumulated tags and no owner, which is why we assess before quoting. Consent requirements and app tracking add real work, and compliance review adds time to it. Training and documentation sit inside the project rather than being sold separately, because a setup nobody understands fails within months. Most clients then move to a light retainer for monitoring, which costs far less than the first build.
Who it is for
For businesses rebuilding after a messy setup, migrating platforms or preparing for a compliance review of their tracking. That includes iGaming operators, fintechs, healthcare providers and law firms where consent and data handling get examined closely, and local service businesses whose call tracking has quietly stopped working and whose budget is being allocated on the wrong evidence. In practice the buyer is usually a marketing lead who needs numbers they can defend and a developer who wants the tickets written properly. If more than one person has ever added a tag without telling anyone, this service is for you.
Two kinds of business come to us: local service businesses and companies in regulated markets. See everything in Be proved.
Questions we get asked
Can you fix our existing setup or is it a rebuild?
We assess first. Sometimes a clean rebuild is faster and cheaper than untangling years of tags, and sometimes ten careful fixes do the job perfectly well. We recommend whichever is genuinely less work and show you the evidence for the recommendation before you decide. The assessment is worth paying for either way, because it is the only way to price the rest honestly instead of guessing at what is under the surface. Teams usually want the answer to be repair. It is rebuild more often than anyone enjoys. Either way you end the assessment knowing exactly what your data is worth, which is not something most teams can say about their current setup.
Do you handle consent mode?
Yes, including the regional nuances. Privacy misconfiguration is now both a legal and a data-quality problem, so consent is set up and tested rather than plugged in and forgotten. We check what gets collected before and after a visitor makes a choice, and we document the behaviour so you can show an auditor rather than describe it. Consent is also the most common reason the numbers changed, so it gets checked before anyone blames the marketing. Getting this wrong hurts twice, once legally and once in every report you produce.
What is GA4 used for?
It records what people do on your site and app as events, so you can see which marketing produces action and which does not. It replaced Universal Analytics, which stopped processing data in 2023. GA4 is more flexible than what it came before and easier to misconfigure, which is why the setup deserves a plan rather than an afternoon. Used properly it answers real questions about behaviour and value. Used badly it produces charts that look authoritative and mean very little, and the difference is invisible from the interface. It also feeds Google's advertising products, which is worth knowing because it changes what the platform is built to give you.
Do I need Google Tag Manager if I have GA4?
Not strictly, but most teams end up wanting it. GTM lets you add and change tags without a developer release and keeps a record of who changed what and when. Without it every tracking change becomes a ticket and a deployment, and the tags multiply anyway in whatever system is easiest to reach. The tool is not the hard part. The hard part is agreeing what should be measured and keeping the container honest afterwards, and that discipline matters whichever route you take.
Why is GA4 showing fewer users than our old reports?
Usually consent requirements, cookie limits and the gap between what a browser allows and what older tools claimed to measure. The old numbers were often too good to be true, and the drop is usually the difference between guessing and measuring. We show you where the difference comes from instead of adjusting anything until the figures look familiar, because a comfortable number is still a wrong one and the board deserves the real one. Expect some of the gap to be permanent and worth understanding rather than fixing.
Can GA4 track conversions across devices and domains?
Partly, and the limits are worth understanding before you rely on it. Cross-domain measurement can be configured, identity resolution has rules and gaps, and consent changes what is even available to join on. We set up what is genuinely possible, document it and tell you plainly what remains invisible. The worst outcome is a report that implies certainty it does not have, so we mark the edges rather than smooth them over. Where the gap matters to a decision, we design a test instead of claiming a number we cannot stand behind.
More Be proved services
- AnalyticsNumbers you can trust before you spend a penny more.
- Looker StudioOne dashboard, plain language, the figures that decide things.
- Digital strategyThe plan that ties all four together, and the budget with it.
Tell us what you need from ga4 & gtm. We will tell you what we would do about it.