Challenge
SBLI worked with multiple advertising vendors, each using its own methodology for defining conversions and tracking goals. This created significant reporting discrepancies between vendors, confusion about actual business performance, and degraded advertising effectiveness because no two systems agreed on what constituted a conversion.
Solution
I built a unified tracking system with GTM as the central distribution hub:
- Centralized Event Architecture: Implemented the Object Action Framework naming convention and collaborated with SBLI leadership to define a standardized set of business events. All events flow through the GTM data layer and are distributed uniformly to every vendor and ad platform.
- Server-Side Event Tracking: Events tracked client-side through GTM were simultaneously sent server-side via the Measurement Protocol with unique event IDs for deduplication, ensuring privacy-compliant tracking that captures conversions browsers miss.
- End-to-End Funnel Coverage: The tracking system spans the entire customer journey from initial online or phone engagement through the complete life insurance application process, including offline events like medical exams that can span up to 90 days.
- Offline Event Integration: Built a custom push-pull system to batch and distribute server-side events from offline conversion points, connecting CRM data back to the original marketing touchpoints.
Results
- Vendor-Agnostic Consistency: Every advertising vendor and internal team references the same event definitions and conversion data, eliminating the discrepancy problem entirely.
- Full-Journey Attribution: Custom dashboards in Looker, Tableau, and Microsoft BI connected to BigQuery provide multi-touch attribution across a 90+ day conversion window that spans online and offline touchpoints.
- Lower Acquisition Costs: With consistent, reliable data flowing to all ad platforms, SBLI optimized campaign performance and reduced customer acquisition costs with confidence.