Broken conversion tracking gives no warning. Campaigns keep running, reports keep showing numbers, and nobody notices anything until the monthly review. The audit below takes about ten minutes in conversation, and ends with the fix rather than a list of recommendations.
1. The inventory
Start by seeing what actually exists, not what you think you installed.
List my Google Tag Manager accounts and containers, then for the main site's container: every tag with its type and status, every trigger, and the date of the last publication.
The last publication date is the first signal. A container published eighteen months ago, on a site whose purchase journey has changed three times since, deserves a full review.
2. The five most common failures
Ask for these checks explicitly: they are the ones that come up in almost every account.
In this container, check and report: 1) tags with no trigger at all, 2) triggers that are not used by any tag, 3) tags pointing to a URL or an event that no longer exists, 4) duplicate measurement or conversion IDs, 5) tags that are disabled or paused. For each anomaly, explain the concrete consequence.
| Failure | What really happens |
|---|---|
| Tag with no trigger | It exists, it never fires. Zero conversions reported. |
| Orphan trigger | Harmless leftover, but a sign of unfinished cleanup, often the trace of a tag deleted by mistake. |
| Vanished event | The trigger waits for an event the site stopped sending after a redesign. |
| Duplicate ID | Conversions are counted twice: your reports overcount conversions, and the bidding algorithm optimizes on false data. |
| Paused tag | Someone disabled it for a test and forgot to turn it back on. |
3. Cross-check with what actually arrives
A container can be flawless on paper and produce nothing. The proof lies on the side of the platforms that receive, or do not receive, the conversions.
Compare: for each Google Ads conversion action, the date of the last recorded conversion; and in Analytics, the volume of conversion events over the last 30 days. Flag any action declared in Tag Manager that has no echo on the Ads or Analytics side.
This cross-check is what turns a hunch into a certainty: the tag exists, the trigger looks right, but nothing has reached its destination for six weeks.
4. Workspace and live version
An essential point of caution before any fix: Tag Manager separates what you edit from what actually runs on the site.
- The workspace is your draft. You can create, edit and delete there: the site does not move.
- The live version is what your visitors see. It only changes at publication.
- In between, publishing creates a timestamped version, and therefore a rollback point.
What is the status of my Tag Manager workspace? List the changes awaiting publication, and tell me whether the live version already contains them.
5. Have it fixed
With Actions mode enabled (Expert plan), the assistant no longer just observes. The mode stays off by default: you turn it on when you want, and turn it back off afterwards.
Fix the trigger of the “contact form” conversion so that it points to the event the site actually sends. Create a dedicated workspace, apply the fix, then show me the result BEFORE publishing.
The order matters: dedicated workspace, fix, review, then publication. You keep a rollback point at every step, and publishing remains a decision you make, never an automatic action.
Publish this workspace with an explicit version name and a description of the fixes made.
The audit in a single command
Once the method is understood, everything fits in a single message. Keep it within reach:
Run a full audit of my tracking: 1) inventory of tags, triggers and last publication date, 2) tags with no trigger, orphan triggers, duplicate IDs, paused tags, 3) cross-check with the conversions actually recorded in Google Ads and Analytics over 30 days, 4) workspace status. End with the fixes ranked from most to least urgent, each with the quantified consequence if I do nothing.