Why Most Brisbane Business Owners Are Flying Blind
I’ve sat down with a lot of business owners from Chermside to Coorparoo, and almost all of them have the same frustration: "I’m spending money on marketing, but I have no idea what’s actually working."
You might be paying for Google Ads, posting on Facebook, and paying someone to help with your website. But at the end of the month, when you look at your bank account, can you point to exactly which of those things made the phone ring?
If you can’t, you’re likely wasting at least half of your budget.
Google has a tool called GA4 (Google Analytics 4). It’s the latest version of their free tracking software. Most people find it confusing, messy, and a bit of a headache. But if you set it up right, it’s like turning the lights on in a dark room. You stop guessing and start knowing.
In this guide, I’m going to show you how to set this up properly so you can see exactly which marketing makes you money. We aren't going to talk about "data layers" or "event parameters." We’re going to talk about phone calls, contact forms, and sales.
The Two Ways to Handle Your Tracking (And Which One is Better)
There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to setting up your tracking.
1. The "Set and Forget" (The Lazy Way)
This is what happens when you just click "Next, Next, Finish" on the Google setup screen. It tracks how many people visit your site, but it doesn't tell you if they actually did anything. Knowing 500 people visited your site is useless if you don't know if they were just lost or if they were ready to hire you.2. The "Business Results" Setup (The Right Way)
This is where we tell Google exactly what a "win" looks like for your business. For a plumber in Morningside, a win is a phone call. For a boutique in Paddington, a win is a completed checkout. This setup takes an extra hour, but it saves you thousands in wasted ad spend later.Your Practical Setup Checklist
If you want to do this yourself, or if you want to make sure the "tech guy" you hired did it right, here is the checklist you need to follow.
Step 1: Create the Account (Properly)
Don't let your former web designer own your account. I’ve seen dozens of Brisbane businesses lose years of data because their account was tied to an old employee’s personal email.Action: Ensure the account is created using a business email you own. The Result: You own your data forever. No one can hold it hostage.
Step 2: Turn on "Enhanced Measurement"
Google has a feature that automatically tracks things like people scrolling down your page or clicking on your videos.Action: Go to your settings and toggle "Enhanced Measurement" to ON. The Result: You’ll see if people are actually reading your content or just hitting the page and leaving immediately. This helps you stop losing customers by showing you where they get bored and walk away.
Step 3: Define Your "Conversions" (The Money Makers)
This is the most important step. Google doesn't know what a lead looks like until you tell it.If someone fills out your "Request a Quote" form, Google needs to count that as a conversion. If they click your phone number to call you from their mobile, that’s a conversion.
Action: Set up "Events" for form submissions and phone number clicks. Then, mark those events as "Conversions." The Result: Your reports will now show you "I got 10 leads from Google Ads and 2 leads from Facebook this week." Now you know where to spend your money.
Step 4: Filter Out Your Own Staff
You and your staff probably visit your own website ten times a day to check prices or grab a phone number. This messes up your numbers. It makes it look like you have more visitors than you really do.Action: Filter out your office IP address so your own visits don't count. The Result: You get real numbers to get more customers rather than an inflated ego from your own traffic.
What Most Business Owners Get Wrong
I’ve looked under the hood of hundreds of GA4 accounts. Here is where the money is usually being wasted:
1. Tracking "Page Views" instead of "Leads" Your SEO guy might tell you "Traffic is up 20%!" That sounds great, but if that traffic is from people in the USA looking for a DIY tip and you only service South East Queensland, that traffic is worth zero dollars. You need to track leads, not just hits.
2. Not Linking Google Ads If you are running ads, you MUST link your GA4 account to your Google Ads account. If you don't, Google's robots won't know which ads are working and they'll keep spending your money on the wrong keywords.
3. Ignoring the "Path Exploration" This is a fancy way of saying "where do people go on my site?" If you see that 80% of people go to your "Prices" page and then immediately leave, your prices might be too high, or you aren't explaining the value well enough. This is a massive clue on how to fix your business.
Is it Worth Paying Someone to Do This?
Look, I’ll be honest. If you are tech-savvy and have a spare Saturday, you can figure this out. But for most business owners, your time is better spent on the tools or managing your team.
If you hire a professional, it should cost you a few hundred dollars for a one-time setup. If someone is trying to charge you a monthly fee just to "manage your analytics," they are probably taking you for a ride unless they are also providing deep monthly insights and strategy.
The Timeline for Results: Once this is set up, it takes about 2 to 4 weeks to gather enough data to make smart decisions. You shouldn't change your entire marketing strategy based on three days of data. Wait until you see a pattern.
What Should You Do First?
1. Check if you even have GA4. Go to your website, right-click, and "View Page Source." Search (Ctrl+F) for "G-". If you don't see a code starting with G followed by numbers, you aren't tracking anything. 2. Define your 3 most important actions. Is it a phone call? A contact form? A booking? 3. Get it configured. Either follow the steps above or get a pro to do it.
Stop letting your marketing budget vanish into a black hole. When you can see exactly where your customers are coming from, you can stop wasting money on the stuff that doesn't work and double down on the stuff that does.
Need help seeing which marketing is actually making you money? At Local Marketing Group, we help Brisbane businesses get their tracking sorted so they can grow with confidence. Contact us today to get your tracking fixed properly.