Nordic Sailing & Marine Platform
A Nordic sailing services and travel booking platform
Context
About this project
This Nordic travel and sailing platform had Google Analytics installed and was getting basic traffic data, but had no insight into how visitors were actually using the site. They couldn't see which content generated genuine booking interest, where people dropped off, or whether their calls to action were working. The business was making decisions about their marketing and website based on pageviews alone.
Challenge
The challenge
- GA4 was only recording pageviews, no events, no conversion signals
- The booking enquiry flow had multiple steps with no tracking between them
- CTAs (contact forms, phone links, course enquiries) had no click tracking
- No way to distinguish casual browsers from high-intent visitors
Approach
What I did
- 1
Discovery and event taxonomy
Reviewed the site with the client to understand which user actions were commercially meaningful. Defined a clear event taxonomy covering CTA clicks, form interactions, course page engagement, and booking intent signals, naming each event consistently for clean GA4 reporting.
- 2
GTM implementation
Built all event tags in Google Tag Manager using a mix of click listeners, form submission triggers, and scroll depth triggers. Used data layer pushes where native GTM triggers weren't sufficient to capture specific interactions.
- 3
GA4 conversion configuration
Marked key events as conversions in GA4, specifically the enquiry form submission and the course booking click-through. Set up funnels in the GA4 Explore reports to visualise the path from landing to booking intent.
- 4
Testing and validation
Used GTM Preview mode and the GA4 DebugView to confirm every event was firing correctly before publishing. Checked across desktop and mobile, and verified that no duplicate events or misfires existed.
Results
Outcome
- Full event tracking live across all key user interactions
- Booking enquiry funnel now visible end-to-end in GA4
- CTA performance measurable for the first time, form clicks, phone clicks, course enquiries
- Client can now identify which pages and traffic sources drive booking intent, not just pageviews
Key takeaways
- Pageview data alone is nearly useless for businesses with conversion-driven goals
- A clear event taxonomy before implementation saves significant time in GTM and GA4
- GA4 Explore reports unlock funnel analysis that isn't available in the standard reports
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