You’re planning to grow your Meta and Google advertising next year, and you’d like to be sure the tracking and reporting are set up properly before the budget goes in. We think that’s a really sensible way to go about it. This proposal works through each part of your brief, with what we’d do, what you’d get, what we’d need from your web developer and what it would cost.
This is our recommendation, based on what you’ve shared with us so far: your brief, your plans for Meta and Google next year, last Christmas’s opt-in rate, the ExpressionEngine site and the rebuild coming up. It covers the six areas you asked about, a GA4 review, training, UTM tracking, tag and conversion tracking, consent and compliance, and testing with documentation, and sets out how we’d approach each one.
Thank you as well for sharing your rough budget plan for next year. It helped us shape a recommendation that fits alongside your media, campaign support and the website rebuild, all of which you’ll want to be able to measure.
It isn’t the only way to do this, and it’s not set in stone. Once we’ve seen your accounts and spoken to your developer, we may suggest adjusting things, and if your priorities or budget change, we’re happy to shape it around them. Where we’ve had to make an assumption, for example about where donations happen on your site, we’ve said so, and we’ll check it with you before we start.
You also asked what we’d need from your web developer, and whether we offer support once the work is done. You’ll find those in sections 04 and 08. All prices exclude VAT.
Nothing in this document is contractually binding until set out in an Order Confirmation and signed.
A lot of charities grow their advertising first and only look at their tracking once the numbers stop adding up. You’re doing it the other way round, which will save time and money later. Your brief already picks out most of the gaps, so our job is mainly to close them properly, in a way that still works after the website rebuild.
Your brief was clear and well thought through, which made this part easy.
| Area | What you’ve told us | What we think it means |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising | Meta and Google advertising is growing next year, with around £6,000 of media spend for the year. | That works out at roughly £500 a month. That’s not a problem, but it does mean the data needs to be accurate. With a budget that size, a few missing or misattributed donations can make a good campaign look poor, or the other way round. Meta and Google also learn from the conversions they’re sent, so if those are wrong, they’ll optimise towards the wrong thing. |
| Consent | Cookie opt-in was lower than you’d expect during last year’s Christmas Meta campaign. | Anyone who declines cookies doesn’t show up in your reports, and Meta can’t learn from them either. It’s usually down to how the banner looks and reads, or to tags firing before someone has made a choice. We’d look at this early on. |
| Website | The site is built on ExpressionEngine, and a £25,000 rebuild is planned for next year. | Tracking usually has to be redone when a site is rebuilt. We’ll set things up so most of it can move across: the Tag Manager container, the developer notes and the documentation can all go into the brief for the new site. One thing to keep in mind: when you scope the rebuild, it’s worth making sure moving the tracking across is written into the brief for whichever agency builds it. Otherwise it can easily get missed, and the new site may launch with gaps in your data. |
| Your team | You’d like the team to be able to run and understand GA4 reports themselves. | We’ll walk the team through the setup using your own data once it’s live, and write everything down so the knowledge doesn’t sit with one person. |
We’d start with the basics, look at consent early, and build everything so it carries over to the new website. And because the media budget is modest, Google Ad Grants could make a bigger difference for you than it would for a larger charity. There’s more on that in section 08.
We think good tracking needs to be in place before any marketing activity starts. Without it, it’s hard to know how your campaigns, and the work that goes into them, are really doing.
Our approach is to track things on purpose. We use a simple framework that helps your team understand why we’re tracking something, not just what we’re tracking. With the basics right, you can make decisions about your digital work based on real numbers. Without them, a lot of those decisions end up being guesswork.
We work in the same three phases on every project like this. Your six areas fit neatly into them, and sections 03 to 05 go through each one.
We agree with you what to measure: your goals, the actions that matter, and the framework everything is measured against.
We set it up with your developer, then test it from start to finish.
We check it’s working, hand it over with documentation, and your team takes it from there.
Before we change any tracking, we’ll look at what’s already there and agree with you what TLG most wants to measure. That way everything we set up has a clear purpose, and the reports answer the questions your team is actually asking. This stage covers areas 1 and 3 of your brief.
A review of your GA4 setup, covering data streams, events, conversions, internal traffic filtering, data retention and the link to Google Ads. And consistent UTMs, with a naming convention, a shared builder and log, and guidance for Meta, Google, email and offline campaigns.
Review GA4. We’ll check your data streams, events and key events (what GA4 now calls conversions), internal traffic and unwanted referrals, cross-domain tracking if donations happen on another site, and the links to Google Ads and Search Console. Data retention is set to two months by default, and we’d normally recommend fourteen. We’ll also turn on GA4’s new hostname filter, so only your own sites can send it data.
Agree a measurement framework. This is a 90-minute workshop with you and the team, where we connect TLG’s mission to the goals, KPIs and metrics that show progress. The example on the right is our first attempt, based on your website and brief. It’s just a starting point for the conversation.
Set up UTMs. We’ll create a naming convention that matches how GA4 groups traffic, so your Meta campaigns show up as paid social rather than “unassigned”. You’ll also get a shared builder and log in Google Sheets with dropdowns, so nobody needs to remember the rules, and short guidance for each channel, including offline things like print, QR codes, events and church talks.
We’d shape this properly with you in the first workshop.
Each setting marked red, amber or green, with a list of fixes in priority order. We make the fixes in the next stage.
Your mission, goals, KPIs and metrics on one page, so everyone agrees on what we’re measuring and why.
One agreed way of tagging campaign links, set up to match how GA4 sorts traffic into channels.
A quick way to build tagged links, with a record of everything you’ve sent out and guidance for each channel.
This is the largest part of the work. We’ll turn the framework into a technical plan, set it up in Google Tag Manager, and work with your web developer on the changes needed in ExpressionEngine. This stage covers areas 4 and 5 of your brief.
Enquiries, sign-ups and donations tracked in GA4, Google Ads and Meta, including the Meta Pixel and Conversions API. And a review of your cookie banner, after lower than expected opt-in during last Christmas’s Meta campaign.
We’ll look through your Tag Manager container and either tidy it up or rebuild it, depending on what we find. Then we’ll set up:
There are now simpler and cheaper ways to set up the Conversions API than there used to be, including an option from Meta itself. Once we’ve done the review, we’ll recommend whichever suits TLG best.
The rules have changed a bit this year. The Data (Use and Access) Act introduced a new exemption in February for analytics used only to improve your own website, the ICO published its final guidance in April, and the maximum fines for breaking the cookie rules have gone up to £17.5 million.
Our aim is to make the banner clearer and fairer, and to make sure everyone who does say yes is counted properly. That includes:
We won’t design a banner that pushes people into saying yes. It goes against the guidance, and we don’t think it’s how TLG would want to treat its supporters.
One thing to mention: the choice of cookie banner provider (sometimes called a consent management platform) is yours, and we aren’t responsible for the platform itself. We’ll work within whatever it allows, and let you know early if it limits anything above.
We’re very happy to work with them directly, and it’s usually quicker that way. Most of this work happens in Tag Manager, so the website platform matters less than you might think. Where ExpressionEngine does come into it is the page templates and forms.
This is usually one to two days of developer time. We’ll put everything in one brief, with the events from the measurement framework and code examples, so there isn’t lots of back and forth. Your developer adds it to the site, and we test their changes before anything goes live.
The main thing we’d like to check early on is where donations happen. If people give through a form on your ExpressionEngine site, it’s straightforward. If they’re sent to a separate donation platform, we’ll need to set up cross-domain tracking and use whatever that platform offers for sending data back. Either is fine, but it changes who does what, so it’s good to know early.
To give you an idea of the level of detail, this is what we’d ask your developer to add to the donation thank-you page. It runs once, after a successful payment. We’ll confirm the exact details with you during planning, once we know which donation platform you use.
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; window.dataLayer.push({ ecommerce: null }); // clear any previous ecommerce data window.dataLayer.push({ event: "purchase", donation_frequency: "once", // once | monthly donation_amount: 25.00, amount_type: "default", // default | custom ask_label: "Supports a child for a week", // text under the chosen amount, "custom" if own amount payment_method: "card", // card | google_pay | apple_pay | paypal | direct_debit fund_designation: "general", // general | the specific appeal or programme chosen campaign_name: "christmas_appeal_2026", // campaign set on the donation form, "general" if none donor_type: "individual", // individual | church | organisation gift_aid: "yes", email_contact_opt_in: "yes", ecommerce: { transaction_id: "TLG-000123", // payment reference from your donation platform currency: "GBP", value: 25.00, items: [{ item_id: "001", item_name: "once", item_category: "donation", item_category2: "general", price: 25.00, quantity: 1 }] } });
Once everything is set up, we’ll test it with cookies accepted and declined, write it all down, and take your team through it so you can carry on without us. This stage covers areas 6 and 2 of your brief.
We check every tag with cookies accepted, declined and changed part way through a visit, on desktop and mobile, then compare the numbers with your donation records.
A short handover document, a tracking plan, and a website performance dashboard in Looker Studio.
This is a Looker Studio report using your website data from GA4. It shows how well the site turns visits into action and where people get stuck, based on the KPIs we agree in your measurement framework. The figures below are made up, just to show the layout, and we’ll shape the real version with you during planning.
| Landing page | Sessions | Engagement rate | Avg. scroll | Form starts | Conv. rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| / | 6,210 | 54% | 48% | 96 | 1.9% |
| /donate | 1,240 | 71% | 66% | 712 | 11.8% |
| /christmas-appeal | 2,030 | 62% | 58% | 188 | 4.3% |
| /churches/partner-with-us | 890 | 66% | 61% | 41 | 2.6% |
| /get-involved/volunteer | 760 | 49% | 42% | 22 | 1.4% |
“We want to make sure our tracking and reporting are set up properly first.” Modupe Ogunniyi, your brief
It’s worth being clear about this from the start. If something isn’t on the left, we’ll send you a short written quote before doing it, so there are no surprises for either of us.
We don’t manage your donation platform or cookie banner, but we’ll make sure both work properly with the tracking. If either turns out to be the thing holding the results back, we’ll let you know.
If we start in the week of 11 January, everything should be set up, tested and handed over by late March. That includes two weeks for your developer to work through the brief, which we’ll confirm once we know how you usually work with them.
The developer’s time is the part most likely to move. We’ll send them the brief by the end of week 3 and have allowed two weeks for them to add it to the site. We’ll confirm that once we know how you work with them, and if it looks like it needs longer, we’ll let you know straight away.
You pay for the finished work, not by the hour. If something takes us longer than we expected, that’s for us to absorb.
Half when we start and half at handover, on 30-day terms. Anything outside section 06 is quoted in writing first.
Moving the setup to the new site isn’t included, but because it’s all documented and built to carry over, it should be a few days’ work rather than starting again.
This is under a fifth of what you’ve planned for digital next year, and it’s what will tell you whether the rest is working.
Everything we set up is designed to work without us. But new campaigns need new tracking, forms change, and Google and Meta keep updating things. You asked whether we offer ongoing support, so here’s what that would look like, for a simple monthly fee.
a month, + VAT
That’s £12,000 a year, which fits within the £13,000 you’ve set aside for agency support. There’s no pressure to decide now. It probably makes sense to see the setup working first.
Tracking tends to drift over time. A form gets rebuilt, a tag gets overwritten or a platform changes how it counts things, and within a few months the numbers can stop matching what’s really happening. Ongoing support keeps the setup working, so you can keep relying on the data.
It’s especially useful if you have a Google Ad Grant. A Grant gives eligible charities up to $10,000 a month of free Google search ads, which is many times your planned media budget, and its rules require conversion tracking that works. If you don’t have one yet, we can let you know whether TLG is likely to be eligible.
The people you’ll be working with, with help from the rest of Arkyard when it’s needed.
Co-founder. Leads the project, runs the framework workshop and the handover, and will be your main contact throughout.
Co-founder. Looks after our relationship with TLG and makes sure we deliver what we’ve said we will.
Specialises in data and measurement. Sets up and tests the Tag Manager, GA4 and Conversions API work, and works directly with your developer.
Has ten years of paid media experience with charities and environmental organisations. Makes sure the tracking gives Google Ads and Meta what your campaigns need.
Checks that conversions are coming through properly in Google Ads, Meta and your Ad Grant, so the platforms are learning from the right things.
Keeps the project on track, works out timings with your team and developer, and makes sure nothing gets missed.
We’re a small agency that works only with charities and non-profits. We bring the technical side, an understanding of how supporters behave, and a straightforward working relationship.
It’s often the first thing charities ask us to help with, and it’s what lets our advertising and website work be judged on real numbers.
If something isn’t working, including our own work, we’ll tell you. If the review turns up anything awkward, you’ll hear about it early, along with what we’d suggest doing about it.
That means we can compare things like consent rates and conversion rates with other charities. When we say a number looks good or not, it’s based on real comparisons.
Arkyard was founded by Christians and most of the team shares that faith, which helps us understand what motivates TLG’s supporters and partner churches. We hire for skill first, so you’ll get people with the technical knowledge the work needs.
Each of these started with getting the data right. We’re happy to put you in touch with any of them.
Share it with anyone else who should see it, and note down any questions or anything you’d like to change. We’d much rather hear those now.
Read-only access to GA4, Tag Manager, Google Ads and Meta, and an introduction to your web developer. If we can see this year’s Christmas campaign, we can record the opt-in rate and compare it with the new setup later.
We’d suggest the week of 11 January, starting with the framework workshop. We’ll then send over an Order Confirmation.
Thanks again for such a clear brief, Modupe. It’s been good to think about this with you, and we’d really enjoy helping TLG get it set up.
We look forward to hearing what you think.
Jacob