The short answer
A UK professional services firm tracks an enquiry to a signed client by giving each one a reference number and recording five stages against it: arrival, enquiry, worth a call, proposal and signed. Analytics can record the first two. The firm records the rest in its own log, and a monthly tally of that log is the figure to hold an agency to.
Key takeaways
- A form event counts enquiries, and a signed client appears only in the firm's own records.
- Give every enquiry a reference number with no personal data in it.
- Google lists later-stage lead events, but they are not sent automatically.
- Phone calls prompted by the website need a log line, or the website gets no credit.
- The same fee gives three different cost figures, depending on which count divides it.
Imagine a managing partner at a ten-person UK accountancy practice reading the agency's March report. It says the website produced 36 enquiries in the quarter, and the partner is pleased. In the same quarter the practice signed eight new clients, and when the office manager is asked where they came from, nobody can say. Three of the eight came through the form. Two phoned after searching and mentioned it in passing. The partners do not know whether the report is good news. Everything below is built to make that question answerable.
Where the trail goes cold
A website tag follows a visitor until the form is sent, and then the trail passes to people. Google's recommended event for that moment, generate_lead, fires when a user submits a form online or submits information offline. Everything afterwards, from the first call to the engagement letter, happens in the firm's inbox and diary, where no tag reaches.
That is why a platform report and a UK firm's accounts rarely agree. Our article on what one enquiry should cost shows the sum a firm runs once it has a conversion rate, and the rate can only come from the stages recorded here.
Five stages, one reference number
Treat the journey as five stages, and decide in advance which of them a tag can record. Google's recommended-events list includes events for later lead stages, and the table sets them beside the firm's own records. It names Google's events as listed, which a firm can send or ignore.
| Stage | What happens | Where it is recorded | Google's listed event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Arrival | A visitor lands from search, a profile or a link | Analytics, automatically | None needed |
| 2 Enquiry | A form is sent, or a call is logged | Tag for the form, the log for the call | generate_lead |
| 3 Worth a call | The firm judges the enquiry fits its work | The firm's log | qualify_lead or disqualify_lead |
| 4 Proposal | A partner speaks to the person or sends terms | The firm's log | working_lead |
| 5 Outcome | An engagement letter is signed, or it is not | The firm's accounts | close_convert_lead or close_unconvert_lead |
The reference number is the thread. Issue it when the enquiry arrives, put it on the log line and quote it on every later note. It should mean nothing outside the firm, so it carries no initials and no fragment of an email address.
What to send to Analytics, and what to keep
Mark the form event as a key event before the agency starts, and keep personal data out of it. Google's help page says marking an event as a key event affects reports from that point and does not change historic data, so a late start leaves a gap that cannot be filled. Standard properties can mark up to 30 events.
Google's guidance on personally identifiable information is blunt: no data should be passed that Google could use or recognise as such, and the examples include email addresses. It adds that information typed into form fields, and anything of the kind in page addresses or titles, must be removed before collection. A thank-you page address that carries a client's name fails that test. Our article on what account access to give a marketing agency covers who should see what.
The later stages can go to Analytics under their reference numbers, or stay in the log. For a firm of this size the log is enough, and it is the safer course while nobody on the team can say what has been sent.
One fee, three answers
The count that divides the fee decides whether the agency looks cheap or expensive. The practice, its quarter and its fee below are invented. Suppose the agency charges £1,500 a month, so £4,500 for the quarter, and the log holds 52 enquiries by first contact.
| First contact | Enquiries | Worth a call | Proposals | Signed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website form | 36 | 20 | 8 | 3 |
| Phone, after a web search | 10 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
| Phone, introduced by a client | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| Total | 52 | 34 | 16 | 8 |
The report that said 36 was accurate, and it undersold the work by ten enquiries and two clients. It would also have flattered the agency, since £125 sounds modest beside a £900 client. Which of the three figures matters depends on the question, and only the last answers whether the spend paid. The log made all three possible.
Reading the tally as rates
Each stage divided by the one before it shows where the quarter leaked, and the routes leak in different places. In the invented tally, 34 of 52 enquiries were worth a call, which is about 65%. Of those 34, 16 reached a proposal, and half of the 16 signed. Those are the practice's own rates, and they are the ones to carry into the sum on enquiry cost.
The routes differ more than the totals suggest. The form signed 3 of 36, about 8%. The phone calls that followed a web search signed 2 of 10, which is 20%. Neither number is a verdict on the agency, and with counts this small a single client moves either rate by several points. They do show why a report counting only forms describes the weakest-converting door and ignores the stronger one.
Asking the phone question
One question, asked the same way on every call, is what puts the phone enquiries in the tally. "How did you come to find us?" works better than a list of options, since callers answer in their own words and the person logging it can sort them later. Where the caller does not know, record "not said" rather than guessing, because a guess spoils the count it was meant to improve.
Give the log one owner, who can be the office manager, and give the task a few minutes each week. A log that depends on whoever remembers is empty by the second month. Fewer columns help: the reference number, the date, the first contact, the stage reached and the outcome are enough, and the name stays on the same row where Analytics never sees it.
When the log is running
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Get a recommendationWhen the log and the tag disagree
Count the form enquiries in the log against the form event each month, and treat a gap as a question for the agency. If the log holds 36 forms and Analytics shows 30, something has stopped counting. The tag may have broken when the site was edited, or the form may have been replaced by one the tag does not recognise. If Analytics shows more than the log, someone may be sending test submissions, or a form may be filing enquiries nobody reads. Either gap is cheap to chase in the month it opens and expensive a year later.
What to ask the agency to report
Ask for the form count and the firm's own outcome column side by side, every month. Put the log's tally in the same report as the agency's figures, and ask the agency to explain any month where they diverge. The agency will need read access to the analytics account to do it, which our article on what an agency needs in the first month sets out. Mark the key event first and the agency starts with a clean baseline. The steps from enquiry to introduction are set out on our how it works page.
A UK practice should read the log by the month the enquiry arrived, not the month it signed. A March enquiry that signs in May belongs to March, and March's row keeps changing until the stragglers settle. A professional services decision is slow, so a verdict on any one month before the following quarter is premature.
When not to hire an agency yet
Do not appoint an agency until someone owns the log and the phone question is being asked. Without an owner the log decays within weeks, and the outcome column is the only part the agency cannot supply. Wait too if no one can say today how many clients the practice signed last quarter, because there is then nothing to compare the agency against, and a UK firm with no baseline cannot tell a good quarter from a lucky one.
Frequently asked questions
What UK partners ask about tracking enquiries.
Can Google Analytics tell a UK firm which website enquiries became clients?
Only if the firm tells it. Analytics records the form being sent. Whether the person was worth a call, received a proposal or signed happens in the firm's own records. Google lists events for those later stages, but they are not sent automatically, so someone has to send them or the firm keeps the later stages in its own log.
Which event should a practice mark as a key event?
Start with the one that records a completed enquiry form. Google's recommended event for it is generate_lead. Marking it as a key event affects reports from that point on and does not change earlier data, so mark it before an agency starts, not after the first review.
Is it safe to send a client's name or email address to Google Analytics?
No. Google's guidance on personally identifiable information says no data should be passed that Google could use to recognise a person, and it names email addresses among the examples. Use a reference number with no meaning outside the firm, and keep the name beside it in the firm's own log.
What should the enquiry log record for a call that never touches the website?
The date, how the person says they found the firm, who took the call, whether it was worth a call and what it became. Ask the question on every call. A phone call prompted by a search is invisible to a form event, and without the log those clients are credited to nothing.
How long does it take to see signed clients in the figures?
Longer than the first month. A UK professional services engagement often takes weeks from enquiry to signature, so a month's enquiries are still turning into clients while the next month's report is written. Read the log by the month the enquiry arrived, and revisit each month's row until it settles.
Sources and useful reading
Three Google Analytics Help pages were opened and read for this article. The practice, its enquiries, fee and every count in the tables are invented.
- Google Analytics Help: [GA4] Recommended events, for the lead event names and when each fires.
- Google Analytics Help: [GA4] Mark events as key events, for the effect on reports and the limit on standard properties.
- Google Analytics Help: Best practices to avoid sending personally identifiable information, for what must stay out of the data.
This article is commercial decision support and is not legal, financial or data protection advice. It quotes no market price. The practice, its fee, the 52 enquiries and every other count in the tables are invented to show the method and describe no real firm or supplier. Google may change its help pages and event names, so check them before configuring anything.