analytics-tracking

name	analytics-tracking
description	Analytics tracking expertise — GA4 event taxonomy, GTM setup, ad pixel configuration (Meta/Google/TikTok), UTM parameter strategy, tracking gap audit for web and SaaS products
allowed-tools	Read, Bash, Glob, Grep

Analytics Tracking Skill

Expertise in instrumentation that connects user behavior to business outcomes. Bad tracking is noise. Good tracking answers: where do users drop off, which channels actually convert, and what does activation look like before churn?

How to Use This Skill

1. Read events.yaml for the event taxonomy — these are the events that matter across any web/SaaS product
2. Read pixels.yaml for platform-specific setup requirements and when to add each pixel
3. Read workflows/tracking-architecture.dot to understand the GTM-centric data flow
4. Scan codebase for existing tracking calls before proposing new events

Event Priority by Business Stage

Not all events are worth instrumenting immediately.

Prototype: Instrument sign_up, page_view, and one activation event specific to the product. Everything else is noise until the core loop is validated.

Pilot: Add feature_used for each key feature and upgrade_intent. These two events tell you whether users understand the product and whether they're hitting the paywall at the right moment.

Candidate: Full taxonomy from events.yaml. Add churn_signal — 90-day retention hinges on catching users before they cancel, not after.

Production: Add server-side events for purchase confirmation (prevents ad platform under-reporting due to browser blocking).

GTM vs Direct Implementation

GTM (Google Tag Manager) is worth the setup cost as soon as you have 2+ tracking destinations — from pixels.yaml. Without GTM: every new pixel means a code deploy. With GTM: new pixel = 10-minute GTM configuration, no code change.

Install GTM first, route all events through the dataLayer, then add destinations in the GTM UI.

Attribution Model Guidance

• Last-click: easiest to set up, undervalues top-of-funnel content. Use at Prototype stage.
• Data-driven (GA4 default): requires 400+ conversions/30 days to activate. Use at Candidate+.
• First-click: useful for understanding acquisition channels. Run alongside last-click.

Never make channel budget decisions based on last-click alone after Pilot stage — it systematically underfunds content and SEO.

UTM Discipline

Every link in every email, ad, and social post must have UTMs from events.yaml utm_parameters. Without UTMs, GA4 attributes traffic to "direct" and your channel data is unusable.

Naming convention: snake_case, lowercase, no spaces. Inconsistent UTMs = broken attribution.

Codebase Audit

When auditing existing tracking, grep for:

grep -rn "gtag\|dataLayer\|analytics\|pixel\|fbq\|_gaq" src/ --include="*.js" --include="*.ts" --include="*.jsx" --include="*.tsx"

Findings tell you: what's already tracked, where events fire, whether GTM is in place.

Common Rationalizations

Rationalization	Reality
"We'll add tracking after launch"	You lose launch-day data forever. Attribution for your best traffic day is gone.
"We just need Google Analytics"	GA4 alone is fine at Prototype. At Pilot you need conversion events. At Candidate you need the full pixel stack or you're flying blind on paid ROI.
"UTMs are too much overhead"	One UTM naming convention doc prevents months of broken attribution. The overhead is 30 minutes once.
"Server-side tracking is too complex"	Browser-side tracking loses 15-30% of conversions to ad blockers by Candidate stage. Server-side is a sprint, not a rewrite.