The tracking fix
The first step, before any reporting. We fix your tracking so every intake in your case management system records the ad, search or call that brought it in. That’s what lets us tell you, accurately, what a signed case cost by channel.
- Takes
- About two weeks from the day we have access
- Price
- $5,000, fixed, paid at the start
- Access
- Write access to the systems below, removed at handover
- You get
- A plain-English handover, and one number before and after
- Then
- The monthly report, if you want it
What we change, in order.
Each layer depends on the one before it. If an item doesn’t help join spend, intake source and signed case, it isn’t in scope.
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On your website
People land on one page and get in touch from another, days later. The ad that sent them is only in the first page’s address.
- Store the click ID, campaign tags, landing page and referrer for 90 days the moment someone arrives.
- Add hidden fields to every form that creates an intake: contact page, case review, sidebar and multi-step forms, Spanish pages. They fill in from what was stored.
- Check whether your chat or intake widget can pass the same details. If it can’t, it goes in the handover as a known gap.
- Make sure nothing on the way in (a redirect, a consent tool, a plugin) strips the click ID.
- Run the tracking from a subdomain of your own site, so browsers and ad blockers are less likely to cut a visitor’s source off before it’s recorded.
Touches: gclid, gbraid, wbraid, fbclid, msclkid, utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content
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On your phones
Many new clients call rather than fill in a form. A call to the number on your site carries no source unless the number does.
- Show each visitor their own tracking number, from a pool big enough that numbers aren’t reused while someone is still browsing.
- Give offline media and your business listings numbers of their own, so those calls don’t land as “direct”.
- Connect call tracking to your ad platforms and analytics, so a call carries its click ID and campaign.
- Point call ads at a tracked number, and count a call only past a minimum length we agree with you.
Touches: CallRail, CTM, Invoca
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In your case management system
This is the layer most setups skip, and the one cost per signed case depends on.
- The intake record holds the channel, campaign, click ID, landing page and date of first visit.
- Calls reach the intake with their source too, not just a phone number.
- “How did you hear about us” becomes a fixed picklist instead of free text.
- The source stays with the intake when it becomes a matter. We test this; some setups drop custom fields at conversion.
Touches: Litify, Filevine, Clio
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In your ad platforms and analytics
If an ad platform counts page views and button clicks as conversions, it bids for page views and button clicks.
- One primary conversion per real intake: a form, a call over the agreed length, a chat. Everything else becomes secondary.
- Nothing counted twice between the ad platforms and analytics.
- Conversion matching sends a hashed email and phone number only, so signed cases can be sent back later without rework.
- Analytics key events match the ad platforms’ conversions, data is kept for 14 months, and the ad and search accounts are linked.
Touches: Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta, GA4, Tag Manager
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Everywhere else
Anything without a tag arrives as “direct” or “referral”, which tells you nothing.
- Campaign tags on your business listing’s website link, legal directories, social ads, email, and the QR codes on offline media.
- The naming convention written down, so your team and your agency keep using it.
Touches: Business Profile, Directories, Email, QR codes
Exhibit A
Then we prove it, with test intakes.
Every test is screenshotted for the handover, so you can see it worked without taking our word for it.
/free-consultation?gclid=TEST-1002&utm_source=test&utm_campaign=test
Browses to a second page, then submits the contact form.
- Channel
- Paid search
- Source
- test
- Campaign
- test
- Click ID
- TEST-1002
- Landing page
- /free-consultation
- Submitted from
- /contact
- Visit a landing page with a test click ID, browse to a second page, and submit the form. The intake appears in your case management system carrying the test ID and tags.
- Repeat on every form, including Spanish pages and widgets.
- Call the tracking number after a landing page visit. The call shows up in call tracking with its source, and on the intake.
- The ad platforms and analytics show the conversions recording.
- Convert a test intake to a matter, and check the source is still there.
- Delete the test intakes and matters, or ask your admin to.
Exhibit B
What you get at the end.
A short document in plain English, with no tool names in the body. Its headline is one number.
Share of new intakes that arrive with their source attached
- Before we start
- Measured at your firm
- Two weeks after
- Measured at your firm
We don’t promise a figure. Referrals and walk-ins never carry a click ID, and the right share depends on your mix. It’s also the first line of our check-in 60 to 90 days later.
- What we changed, where, and how to check it’s still working.
- Known gaps we couldn’t close, such as a widget that can’t pass tags, and what each one costs you in visibility.
- The tag naming convention and the picklist values.
- The access we held, and the date we removed it.
- A check-in 60 to 90 days out, booked before we hand over.
What we need from you.
Access to each system below, with the name of whoever can approve it, and thirty minutes with whoever runs intake. This needs write access, unlike the monthly report, which only reads. We list what we’ll change in writing before we start, and remove our access when we hand over.
| System | Level | What for |
|---|---|---|
| Tag manager | Publish | The capture script and conversion tags |
| Domain name settings | One DNS record, added by you or whoever manages it | The subdomain the tracking runs from |
| Ad accounts | Standard | Conversion actions and call ads |
| Analytics | Editor | Key events, data retention, the link to your ads |
| Call tracking | Admin | Number pools and integrations |
| Website or form builder | Editor | Hidden fields on every form |
| Case management system | Admin, or your admin makes the change with us | Source fields on the intake record |
| Business listings | Manager | Tags on the website link |
What never leaves your site
- Nothing typed into a free-text field (what happened, details of the matter) is sent to an ad platform or analytics. We check the tags, because some send the whole form by default.
- No name, email or phone number in a page address. Thank-you pages included.
- An ad pixel on a contact page fires a conversion and nothing else.
- If you run a consent banner, the tags respect it. Whether you need one is your counsel’s call, not ours.
What isn’t in it
- Campaign management
- Bidding
- Landing page redesign
- Ad creative
- SEO
Sending signed cases back to the ad platforms, so they bid for cases rather than intakes, isn’t part of the fix. The fix sets things up so it can be added later without redoing anything.
Questions partners ask
- Our agency runs our ads. Does this replace them?
- No. We don’t manage campaigns, bids or creative. We need access to the accounts they work in, and we write the tag naming convention down so they can keep using it.
- A freelancer or a plugin can already capture click IDs. What’s different?
- Capturing the click ID gets the source as far as the form, and a setup often ends at conversions in the ad platform. We carry it onto the intake record and through to the signed case and its fee, so spend, intake source and signed fees can be divided in one place. That join is the part a firm usually can’t buy from a tracking setup alone.
- Why not just trust the conversions in our ad platforms?
- Ad platforms count form fills and calls, not signed cases, and they may be counting page views as well. The fix makes them count real intakes. Your case management system is still the only place that knows which ones signed, which is why the source has to reach it.
- What if a widget or a call center can’t pass the source?
- We record it in the handover as a known gap, with what it costs you in visibility, rather than pretend it’s fixed.
- Why does clean data take 60 to 90 days to build up?
- Cases take weeks to sign. A cost per signed case worked out the week after the fix would cover intakes that arrived before it, with no source to divide by.
Start with a call.
A short call about how your intakes arrive and where their source gets lost. If your tracking already holds, we start with the monthly report. If it doesn’t, we fix it first, because a report on intakes nobody can trace can’t tell you much.
If neither would pay for itself at your firm, we’ll say so on the call.