Kick Point Playbook gives you the digital marketing skills you need to grow—whether you want to land more clients, level up your career, or make smarter marketing decisions. Get bi-weekly insights on analytics, SEO, and reporting, curated by Dana DiTomaso and her team. Each issue is packed with expert tips, must-read articles, and free resources like templates and checklists—all designed to help you take action and see real results.
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You Shall Not Pass 🧙♂️ How to Make Sure Your GA4 Is Respecting Consent Signals
Published about 2 months ago • 5 min read
How to Verify Consent Signals Are Being Received Correctly in GA4 for Modeling Eligibility and GDPR Compliance
You put a consent banner on your site. That’s great!
But here's the problem...
Just because your banner looks nice doesn't mean GA4 is actually respecting what your visitors choose. We see this mistake all the time during analytics audits.
The banner is there, sure.
But the data?
Still flowing in before getting consent. Oops.
Here's what you should check right now:
Is data being sent to GA4 before consent is given?
Does the GCS value change when someone clicks "Accept" or "Deny"?
Are consent signals showing up in your GA4 property?
Navigating consent signals doesn’t have to be stressful.
In our latest video, Dana DiTomaso walks you through how to test whether your setup is working, and shows you what to do if it’s not.
Mastering GA4 Annotations: The Complete Guide for Analytics Teams
Annotations in GA4 are finally here, but most guides barely scratch the surface. In this complete walkthrough, we show you how to go beyond the basics with best practices, naming conventions, colour-coding, and cross-team workflows. Plus, we’ve created a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) template that you can easily use to set your team up for success.
Learn how to avoid annotation overload and create a system your future self will thank you for.
Spring Refresh for Your GA4: Clear Out Data Clutter
In our latest webinar, Dana DiTomaso shared a step-by-step process for tidying up your GA4 account as part of a regular maintenance routine. From reducing configuration errors to cleaning up “Unassigned” traffic, these checks help ensure your data stays accurate so your decisions stay informed.
Here’s one example we covered:
Still seeing “not set” in your reports? You’re not alone. This sneaky issue often points to two culprits:
Google Tag Manager misfires: make sure your configuration tag runs on initialization, not all pages
Tab hoarding: yep, users who leave pages open for hours can mess with your data
✨Bonus tip: Report a few days into the month (around the 3rd–5th) to give GA4 time to catch up on late data processing. Want more ways to clean up your setup? Watch the full webinar and get your GA4 into tip-top shape.
Is your 3rd party data suddenly not attributed correctly in GA4?
Let’s be honest, you probably didn’t notice and wouldn’t notice for at least a week but thankfully I saw Elvinas Karalis and Matteo Zambon discussing on LinkedIn how GA4’s sudden change to cookie formats was breaking any 3rd party integrations. How fun! 🙃
I immediately checked one of our clients who uses CallRail and sure enough, all the attribution data from CallRail was gone starting on May 7th. This isn’t just a CallRail situation. Any tool that you use to push data into GA4 from an outside source would be impacted. You should check your GA4 data right away, and here is how:
Open up an Events report in GA4 (e.g. Engagement > Events).
Search for your Measurement Protocol generated events (for CallRail, that can be first_time_phone_call and repeat_phone_call or just phone_call).
Compare May 7th to yesterday to the previous time period. (In this example I’m looking at May 7th to 12th, compared to April 30th to May 5th). Make sure to skip May 6th since that is when the change was put into place.
Add a secondary dimension of Session source/medium.
Sort by Event count if the report isn’t sorted by that already.
If you see big increases in (not set) and zero attributed events in the more recent time period, your attribution data is impacted by this change. Below is an example from one of our clients, where you can see how attribution has completely fallen off.
If this change impacts you:
Contact the 3rd party tool you’re using right away and let them know! CallRail has fixed this as of May 14, CallTrackingMetrics is working on it, but I’m sure there are lots of other tool providers out there who have no idea yet.
Add an annotation in GA4 noting the date of the change and a description of the impact. For example, set up an annotation from May 6 to whenever it is fixed for your tool, noting that attribution is broken for these specific events.
Communicate the change to clients and/or leadership, so they’re aware of the attribution drops in the data. You don’t want to make this a surprise in your next report!
I also emailed Ginny Marvin, Ads Liaison at Google, to ask her why this change was pushed out without any communication or warning. She has elevated it to the right people and hopefully we’ll get an explanation soon.
Trying to get Consent Mode working but don’t want to go the “Advanced” route? Simo Ahava’s guide to Basic Consent Mode walks you through how to manually manage tag behavior based on user choices—no fancy automation required! It’s a must-read if you're aiming for GDPR compliance without breaking your measurement setup.
🧪 WCAG 3.0’s Proposed Scoring Model: A Shift In Accessibility Evaluation
The next version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 3) could overhaul how we evaluate accessibility. Instead of pass/fail, the W3C is exploring a graded scoring system that reflects the spectrum of user experiences. Mikhail Prosmitskiy explains what this could mean for accessibility audits and why it’s a big deal for digital teams.
🔍 Survey: 36% of consumers start searching on Pinterest, not Google
A new survey shows nearly half of Gen Z and millennial respondents actually prefer Pinterest over Google when searching for ideas or inspiration. While Google still dominates for fact-finding, Pinterest is gaining ground in the discovery phase, especially for lifestyle, fashion, and home-related queries. If you're not optimizing for visual discovery, it might be time to rethink your strategy.
📘 The LinkedIn Playbook Every B2B Marketer Should Steal
If your company page is all promo and no personality, this one's for you. Exit Five shares a simple, smart playbook for using employee voices, memes, and community-focused content to drive real engagement on LinkedIn. It’s not about going viral, it’s about actually being seen.
🧭 How User-Centric SEO Helps You Build Sustainable, Meaningful Growth
Forget optimizing for bots! Are you optimizing for how people actually search? In this piece, Lani Haque breaks down what it really means to take a user-first approach to SEO, from intent matching to content formats to SERP behaviors. If you’ve been chasing rankings without thinking about your audience, this is your cue to pivot.
🛒 The State of Ecommerce SEO in 2025: How to Win in Today’s Product SERPs
The product SERPs aren’t what they used to be and Aleyda Solis is here to break down what is working. From optimizing structured data and product listings to adapting for AI-driven search experiences, this guide is packed with up-to-date strategies for standing out in a crowded ecommerce space.
You’re already part of the team—now help us grow the fan club! Refer your digital marketing and analytics friends to the newsletter and earn exclusive rewards.
Refer 2 people: Get a shout out from Dana DiTomaso on LinkedIn
Refer 6 people: Get access to an exclusive presentation from Dana on Unpacking GA4 Explorations
Marketing Analytics Summit: Hands On with GA4 (Workshop)
Are you heading to the Marketing Analytics Summit, June 2-5, 2025? If so, be sure to register for Dana’s workshop, Hands On with GA4!
In this workshop, Dana DiTomaso will guide you through GA4’s event-based model, custom reports, and powerful audience tools. You’ll walk away with the skills and confidence to rethink your setup and make GA4 work for you.
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Kick Point Playbook
Insights that fuel action. Learn, apply, and grow your marketing skills.
Kick Point Playbook gives you the digital marketing skills you need to grow—whether you want to land more clients, level up your career, or make smarter marketing decisions. Get bi-weekly insights on analytics, SEO, and reporting, curated by Dana DiTomaso and her team. Each issue is packed with expert tips, must-read articles, and free resources like templates and checklists—all designed to help you take action and see real results.
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