The last weeks of the year are the best time to tighten your tracking so come January 1st, you start with a clean slate. This preflight checklist gives you a step-by-step setup to ensure every call, form, and booked appointment/case is captured—and that your reports agree. You’ll configure GA4 events, Call Tracking, Success Center goals, CRM/intake mapping, and UTM standards, then finish with a 30-minute monthly audit you can run all year.
What “captured” really means
Captured = (1) the lead is logged (call/form/chat), (2) the source/medium/campaign is attached and persists, (3) key milestones—Booked, Showed, Signed/Started (whatever you use at your business)—are recorded, and (4) your Success Center and ad platforms see those outcomes. When these four agree, you can scale with confidence.
Preflight Overview (8 steps)
- UTM Standards
- Landing Pages & CTAs
- Call Tracking (DNI + outcomes)
- Forms & GA4 Events
- CRM/Intake Mapping
- Success Center Goals & Dashboard
- Offline Conversions (optional but powerful)
- 30-Minute Monthly Audit
Use this order. Each step builds the plumbing for the next.
1) UTM standards (name it now, save headaches later)
Create a single source of truth for campaign tags and share it with marketing and intake.
- Required fields:
- utm_source (e.g., google, meta, bing, email)
- utm_medium (e.g., cpc, paid_social, email, organic)
- utm_campaign (service + geo or offer)
- utm_content (ad variation or keyword theme—optional but useful)
- utm_source (e.g., google, meta, bing, email)
- Requirements:
- Lowercase only. No spaces; use hyphens.
- One campaign per service/location when possible (easier to roll up CAC).
- Maintain a tab for vanity URLs and QR codes used in print/events.
- Lowercase only. No spaces; use hyphens.
Goal: Every click carries clean, predictable tags that flow into forms, calls, and your CRM.
2) Landing pages & CTAs (reduce friction, increase conversions)
- One page per main action (e.g., “Knee Replacement Consult” vs. “Knee Replacement and/or PT Consult”).
- Dual CTA: prominent Call button (click-to-call on mobile) + Form above the fold.
- Hidden UTM fields on forms to pass source/medium/campaign into the lead record.
- Location & service specifics (insurance/retainer notes, hours, directions, FAQs) to improve lead qualification and conversion.
Goal: More qualified leads, fewer back-and-forths confirming their information resulting in cleaner data.
3) Call tracking you can trust (DNI + outcome tagging)
- Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI):
- Assign one phone number per major traffic source (Google Ads, Meta, Organic, Direct).
- Configure the script to capture UTMs and landing page path for each call.
- Assign one phone number per major traffic source (Google Ads, Meta, Organic, Direct).
- Routing & coverage:
- After-hours and overflow route to a trained team or voicemail with auto-text follow-up.
- Record calls (announce compliance as needed).
- After-hours and overflow route to a trained team or voicemail with auto-text follow-up.
- Outcome naming (keep it simple):
- Qualified — Booked
- Qualified — Not Booked
- Unqualified (wrong service/geo/insurance)
- Spam/Missed
- Qualified — Booked
- Ops rhythm: Front desk selects outcomes within 24 hours; manager reviews 5 calls/week for QA.
Goal: You’ll know which channels produce bookable inquiries—and where coaching or automation will help.
4) GA4 events (the minimum viable setup)
Install GA4 correctly and standardize events so they match your funnel.
- Core events:
- generate_lead for form submits (with parameters: form_id, service, location)
- phone_call for click-to-call (parameters: service, location, number_type)
- book_appointment for online scheduling completes (parameters: service, location)
- view_content for key pages (parameters: content_type, service) to monitor traffic quality
- generate_lead for form submits (with parameters: form_id, service, location)
- Quality parameters: Always pass utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign to your data layer so they can be stitched to events and forms.
- Testing: Use GA4 DebugView and real-time reports to confirm events and parameters before launch.
Goal: GA4 sees the same leads your team sees—and with the same context.
5) CRM/intake mapping (make source data stick)
Your CRM/EHR is the system of record; it must retain acquisition data from first contact through signed case/patient start.
- Create locked fields: First-Touch Source, Medium, Campaign, Keyword/Creative (write-once).
- Add Last-Touch fields if you run remarketing or multi-visit funnels.
- Stage mapping:
- Lead → Booked → Showed → Signed/Started
- Each stage change must not overwrite First-Touch fields.
- Lead → Booked → Showed → Signed/Started
- Intake checklist: Include “Confirm/update Source” and “Select Outcome” for every new contact.
- Deduping: Merge by phone/email so repeat callers roll up to one record (and one cost).
Goal: Downstream pipeline and revenue reports can be segmented by source without manual Excel gymnastics.
6) Success Center goals & a simple CAC dashboard
Turn tracking into decisions with a small set of goals and ratios everyone trusts.
- Success Center Goals (examples):
- Leads = generate_lead + qualified calls
- Booked = appointment/consult scheduled
- Shows = attended consult/appointment
- Signed/Started = case retained / patient began plan
- Leads = generate_lead + qualified calls
- Dashboard tiles:
- Spend (by channel/campaign)
- Leads, Booked, Shows, Signed/Started
- CPL, Cost per Booked, Cost per Started/Signed (CAC)
- Breakouts by service and location
- Breakouts by service and location
- Spend (by channel/campaign)
- Cadence: Weekly 20-minute review to move budgets and assign ops fixes; monthly re-baseline targets.
Goal: The team agrees on one scoreboard and acts on it.
7) Offline conversions (close the loop to ad platforms)
While optional, this is where performance jumps: send Booked and Signed/Started back to Google/Meta so algorithms optimize to the outcomes you value.
- Capture IDs: Store GCLID/GBRAID/WBRAID (Google) or hashed identifiers (Meta) at lead creation.
- Upload milestones: When a contact reaches Booked/Started, upload the event with accurate timestamps and (if possible) value.
- Naming: Match your CRM stage names to keep reporting tidy.
Goal: Ads learn to find more people who book and start—not just people who click.
8) The 30-minute monthly audit (print this)
Timebox: 30 minutes, first Monday of the month.
- Spot-check tags (5 min): Click one ad per channel → confirm UTMs populate form hidden fields and DNI swaps correctly.
- GA4 sanity (5 min): Real-time test of generate_lead and phone_call with expected parameters.
- Call outcome QA (5 min): Listen to 2 random calls; verify outcome tags and script adherence.
- CRM stage integrity (5 min): Open 3 recent Booked → Showed → Started records; confirm First-Touch fields persist.
- Success Center deltas (5 min): Review CPL, Cost per Booked, CAC outliers by campaign/service/location.
- Change log update (5 min): Record any campaign/number/page changes to explain future variances.
If a check fails, assign an owner and due date—then move on. Consistency beats perfection.
Launch-day smoke test (15 minutes on Jan 2)
- Submit a test form and make a test call from mobile.
- Verify GA4 events, UTM capture in CRM, call recording, and Success Center goals increment.
- If using offline conversions, confirm IDs (GCLID or hashed contact) are stored on the test record.
Roles, SLAs, and training (how it sticks)
- Owners:
- Marketing owns UTMs, GA4, Success Center.
- Operations owns intake scripting and outcome tags.
- One executive sponsor reviews the dashboard weekly.
- Marketing owns UTMs, GA4, Success Center.
- SLAs: Respond to new leads within 5 minutes (call + text if missed).
- Training: Quarterly refresher for the front desk on scripting and tagging.
Ready for wheels-up?
If you’re a current MyAdvice client, submit a Support Ticket to help you implement this preflight quickly. If you’re evaluating options, we’re happy to run a rapid audit and deliver a prioritized punch list so January’s data is clean and actionable. Book a demo
