Data Validation
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      An In-Depth Training Guide For The Tracking Validation Checklist

      This article teaches you how to master, and become an expert on, the Tracking Validation Checklist.

      Table Of Contents

      1. Key Points & Getting Started

      2. Introduction To The Tracking Validation Checklist

        1. Why The Tracking Validation Checklist Matters

        2. How You Benefit From The Tracking Validation Checklist

        3. When to Run the Tracking Validation Checklist

        4. How to Prioritize Ads for the Tracking Validation Checklist

        5. Creating a Log for Effective Tracking Validation

        6. Maintaining A Log For Effective Tracking Validation

      3. The Structure of the Tracking Validation Checklist

        1. Quick Audit
        2. URL Parameter Validation
        3. Tracking Code Validation
        4. Run A Live Test (optional)

      4. Completing the Tracking Validation Checklist

        1. Issues Identified, No Solution Yet

        2. Issues Resolved or No Issues Found

      5. Conclusion

      Key Points & Getting Started:

      • Tracking Validation Defined: The Tracking Validation Checklist is a systematic approach designed to validate the setup of your marketing tracking to ensure quality marketing attribution. Perform it for all ads and maintain a detailed log to ensure tracking integrity. 
      • Core Steps: There are three core steps: Quick Audit, URL Parameter Validation, and Tracking Code Validation. Run these on each ad to ensure tracking setup accuracy. 
      • Completing Tracking Validation: Be prepared to troubleshoot common issues like URL stripping, missing tracking scripts, iframe complications, and express checkout challenges. After those issues are resolved (or if no issues are found), then you can confidently rely on your tracking setup.

      Get Started With Your Tracking Validation Checklist.

      Introduction to the Tracking Validation Checklist

      Marketing attribution is the backbone of data-driven decision-making in any robust marketing strategy. However, the accuracy of this attribution relies heavily on the proper setup and validation of tracking mechanisms, amongst other factors. The Tracking Validation Checklist is a systematic Checklist that ensures your tracking is correctly configured, allowing you to attribute conversions as accurately as possible to your campaigns, adsets, and ads.

      This Checklist is not just a recommended best practice; it is an essential step in the lifecycle of every ad. Whether you’re launching new ads or auditing existing ones, validating your tracking setup is crucial to maintaining the integrity of your marketing data. Without a Checklist like this in place, you would never know if your data is as accurate as it could be.

      Why The Tracking Validation Checklist Matters

      Accurate tracking validation is essential for capturing key user interactions, which directly impacts your ability to assess the true performance of your marketing efforts. Without proper validation, decisions might be based on incomplete or incorrect data, leading to misallocated budgets and flawed strategies. This is not a desirable state.

      The Tracking Validation Checklist addresses these risks by systematically testing and confirming that every component of your tracking setup is working as intended. This Checklist involves validating the entire tracking process—from the ad level through the funnel to the final sales checkout page—ensuring that traffic from ads is accurately tracked as it moves through your funnel. You can then log your test results and feel confident and secure that you've done everything in your power to ensure data accuracy. 

      How You Benefit From The Tracking Validation Checklist 

      Implementing the Tracking Validation Checklist offers several significant benefits that can enhance the performance and accuracy of your marketing efforts:

      1. Troubleshooting Made Easier: The Checklist equips you with the tools and processes to troubleshoot common issues like data mismatches or unexplained spikes in organic traffic. This ability to swiftly diagnose and correct problems further strengthens your marketing operations.

      2. Reliable Data for Informed Decisions: By ensuring every ad and campaign is properly tracked, the Checklist provides you with dependable data. This accurate data forms the foundation for making informed marketing decisions, from budget allocation to strategy adjustments.

      3. Strengthened Trust in Data: When discrepancies are minimized, and data consistency is maintained, you gain greater confidence in the accuracy of your marketing data. This trust is crucial for making informed decisions, as it ensures that the data you use to evaluate performance, allocate budgets, and adjust strategies is reliable and actionable.
      4. Increased Campaign Efficiency: Regular tracking validation minimizes errors that could otherwise lead to misallocated resources. This means your marketing dollars are spent more effectively, maximizing ROI and, consequently, MER.
      5. Peace of Mind: By scheduling regular checks and audits, you can catch tracking issues before they snowball into larger problems. This proactive approach provides mental peace, knowing your campaigns are being monitored closely and any issues can be quickly addressed.
      6. Enhanced Team Collaboration: Maintaining a tracking log, such as a Google Sheet, facilitates cross-team collaboration and communication. This shared document helps prevent redundant efforts and ensures everyone is aligned on the tracking status of each campaign.

      When to Run the Tracking Validation Checklist

      To ensure comprehensive and accurate tracking across your campaigns, the Tracking Validation Checklist should be performed consistently. For the best results, schedule the Tracking Validation Checklist at key points in your campaign’s lifecycle:

      • Regularly: Integrate the Checklist into your standard operating procedures (SOPs) for campaign management. Regular checks will build confidence in your data and ensure ongoing accuracy.

      • Before Launching or Updating a Campaign: Before any campaign goes live or if you're updating a URL, validate your tracking setup. This proactive step helps catch potential issues early, preventing inaccurate data from the start.

      • When Data Accuracy is in Question: If you notice discrepancies—such as a mismatch between platforms, unexplained increases in organic traffic, or sudden unattributed leads—it’s time to run the validation Checklist. This step helps pinpoint the source of potential errors.

      If you're pressed for time, focus on the most critical aspects first. In the next section, we'll guide you on how to prioritize the ads that matter most, ensuring your efforts are concentrated where they will have the biggest impact on your campaign's success.

      How to Prioritize Ads for the Tracking Validation Checklist

      Given limited resources, it can be important to prioritize ads based on their impact and role within your campaign:

      • Poor-Performing Ads: Start by validating ads that are underperforming without an obvious reason. This helps rule out data issues as a potential cause for their lackluster performance.
      • High-Spend Ads: Next, focus on ads that account for the majority of your budget. These ads drive the most traffic, so ensuring accurate tracking here will yield the most reliable data.

      • High-Converting Ads: Ads that consistently generate high amounts of leads or sales are next in line. If you get the impression that leads are sales are off for a particular campaign, then you'll need to rule out tracking issues as a potential cause.

      • New or Recently Modified Ads: Always validate new ads or any that have undergone recent changes. Ensuring that tracking parameters carry over correctly from past configurations is essential.

      By focusing your validation efforts on the most impactful ads, you’ll ensure that your tracking data is accurate where it matters most. This targeted approach maximizes resource efficiency, guaranteeing that your critical data is reliable and saving you time by avoiding a full Checklist run on all ads.

      Creating a Log for Effective Tracking Validation

      To ensure the effectiveness of your Tracking Validation Checklist, it’s essential to maintain a detailed log, typically using a Google Sheet such as the Tracking Log Template we have. Simply create a copy yourself to get started. This log serves several important functions:

      • Prevents Redundant Work: By documenting each step, you avoid duplicating efforts and ensure that every aspect of your tracking is checked systematically.
      • Facilitates Cross-Team Collaboration: A shared log allows team members to collaborate seamlessly, sharing insights and updates on tracking status (including our support team)
      • Provides Documented Proof: The log acts as evidence that tracking is set up correctly, which is crucial for audits and future reference.

      A well-maintained log ensures that your tracking efforts are thorough, organized, and accessible for ongoing or future validation needs.

      Maintaining a Log for Effective Tracking Validation

      To ensure your Tracking Validation Checklist is thorough and well-documented, it’s crucial to maintain a detailed tracking validation log. This log acts as a centralized record of all the tests you’ve performed and their results, providing both a historical overview and a roadmap for future audits. It also helps streamline communication across teams and prevent redundant validation efforts.

      How to Fill in the Tracking Validation Log:

      1. Campaign and Ad Details: Start by listing the basic details of the ad campaign you're validating, such as the campaign name, ad set ID, and platform.

      2. Test Results: For each test (Quick Audit, URL Parameter Validation, Tracking Code Validation), document whether it passed or failed, including any specifics about errors or discrepancies.

      3. Notes & Fixes: If an issue is found, provide details on what corrective actions were taken or what further tests need to be run. This will serve as an ongoing reference for you and your team.

      4. Completion Status: Mark each validation step as completed once you’ve resolved any issues and confirm that the tracking is functioning correctly.

      By filling in the tracking validation log at each stage of the process, you create a clear audit trail and ensure that your tracking systems are consistently validated and accurate.

      The Structure of the Tracking Validation Checklist

      Ensuring your marketing campaigns are backed by accurate, reliable data is non-negotiable. The Tracking Validation Checklist is your blueprint for achieving this precision.

      In this section, we’ll guide you through the four essential steps that form the backbone of the Tracking Validation Checklist. Each step is crafted to uncover and resolve tracking issues, ensuring that every click, opt-in, and sale is properly captured and attributed. By adhering to this process for every ad, you not only safeguard the integrity of your data but also empower your marketing strategy with insights you can trust.

      Let’s dive into the steps that will keep your campaigns running smoothly and your data impeccable:

      1. Quick Audit:
        1. Data Processing Test:
          1. Objective: Confirm your data is processed.
            If your data has not completed processing, then it's likely your numbers are already inaccurate and we won't be able to deduce any tracking setup issues. 
          2. How To Test:  Check if data processing is complete.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: Please wait for data processing to be complete before moving forward. If it is still stuck after 24 hours, please reach out to support@wickedreports.com
            • If passed: Then this is not an issue. Move forward with your investigation. 
        2. Attribution Health Test:
          1. Objective: Confirm that the attribution health metric is healthy.
            This will act as an indicator of whether or not your tracking setup is healthy.
          2. How To Test: Verify that the 7-Day Attribution Health is above 60%.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: If it is below 60%, then this is a negative indicator, indicating that you're tracking setup is unhealthy. Run through the Checklist to get it to a healthy place.
            • If passed: If it is above 60%, then this is a positive indicator, indicating that you're tracking setup is already healthy. Regardless, move forward with your investigation for further confirmation.
        3. Comparison Rate Test:
          1. Objective: Compare data accuracy across different platforms.
            This will act as an indicator of whether or not your tracking setup is healthy.
          2. How To Test: Read here.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: If it is below a 20% variance, then this is a negative indicator, indicating that you're tracking setup is unhealthy. Mark your results in your log and then run through the rest of the Checklist to get it to a healthy place.
            • If passed: If it is within a 20% variance, then this is a positive indicator, indicating that you're tracking setup is already healthy. Mark your results in your log and then move forward with your investigation.
      2. URL Parameter Validation:
        1. URL Parameter Validation Test:
          1. Objective: To ensure that your URL Parameters are correctly set up in your ad's platform and are populating on the landing page without being stripped or malformed.
            This ensures the source of your marketing traffic's clicks is available for capture
          2. How To Test: Read here.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: Add your URL Parameters to your ads. 
            • If passed: You can be confident this part of your funnel is set up correctly. Then, move forward with your investigation. 
      3. Tracking Code Validation
        1. Click Tracking Test:
          1. Objective: To confirm that your account's tracking code is capturing clicks, capturing IP addresses, and reading URL parameters accurately.
            This ensures that we can track users' IP addresses and attribute your traffic's ad clicks back to their proper ad source.
          2. How To Test: Read here.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: Read here.
            • If passed: You can be confident this part of your funnel is set up correctly. Then, move forward with your investigation. 
        2. Opt-In Tracking Test:
          1. Objective: To confirm that your account's tracking code is capturing IP addresses, URL parameters, and email opt-in submissions from your forms. 
            This ensures that we can tie together your traffic's email addresses and IP addresses. Thus, verifying that we can attribute leads back to their proper ad source via the IP address.
          2. How To Test: Read here.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: Read here.
            • If passed: You can be confident this part of your funnel is set up correctly. Then, move forward with your investigation.
        3. Sales Opt-In Checkout Test:
          1. Objective: To confirm that your account's tracking code is capturing IP addresses, URL parameters, and email opt-in submissions from your checkout forms.
            This ensures that we can tie together your traffic's email addresses and IP addresses. Thus, verifying that we can attribute customers back to their proper ad source via the IP address.
          2. How To Test: Read here.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: Read here.
            • If passed: You can be confident this part of your funnel is set up correctly. Then, move forward with your investigation. 
      4. Run a Live Test*
        1. Live Test
          1. Objective: This step is optional. It should be used when you need to unequivocally rule out the possibility that your clicks, and opt-in forms/checkout forms are tracking.
          2. How To Test: Read here.
          3. Test Results:
            • If failed: This indicates a tracking issue is still present in your system. Please contact support@wickedreports.com so that we can assist you.
            • If passed: You can be confident the funnel you've tested is set-up correctly.

      That's it! You successfully ran through the tracking validation Checklist. 

      Completing the Tracking Validation Checklist

      Once the Tracking Validation Checklist is complete, you’ll find yourself in one of two scenarios:

      Issues Identified, No Solution Yet

      If, after running through the Checklist, your tracking setup continues to have issues, don’t worry. Here’s how to proceed:

      • Check Troubleshooting Tests: Revisit the troubleshooting steps you performed. Double-check for any overlooked areas, such as URL parameter issues, missing tracking scripts, or problems related to your opt-in form at the checkout stage. 
      • Review the "Cannot Be Tracked" List: Some platforms, third-party forms, or checkout systems may not allow for proper tracking due to restrictions or missing capabilities. Ensure you're aware of any limitations that might affect tracking by reading our Cannot Be Tracked List.
      • Reach Out for Support: If all else fails, or if you’re encountering technical issues that are beyond your control, contact our support team (support@wickedreports.com) for guidance. We can assist with more complex tracking problems and ensure your setup is in a reliable condition.

      Issues Resolved or No Issues Found

      If your Checklist has passed with no errors, congratulations! Here’s what you can expect moving forward:

      • Smoother Audits: Your tracking validation log acts as a detailed reference for any future audits or troubleshooting. This organized documentation ensures swift identification of any issues, providing transparency across your team.

      • Data Confidence: With all tracking issues resolved, you can trust that the performance data being reported is reliable and accurate. This will enable smarter decisions regarding budget allocation and campaign optimizations.

      • Informed Decision-Making: The clarity and precision of your data allow you to confidently plan future campaigns and allocate resources, ensuring you’re maximizing both performance and return on investment.

      By sticking to this Checklist and maintaining a detailed log, you’re ensuring that your marketing attribution is precise, your campaigns are optimized, and your decisions are based on actionable insights rather than guesswork.

      Conclusion

      Mastering the Tracking Validation Checklist is crucial for any marketer looking to maintain data integrity and make informed decisions based on accurate marketing attribution. By following the steps outlined in this guide and preparing for potential challenges, you can ensure that your tracking setup is robust and reliable. This Checklist not only helps in optimizing current campaigns but also lays a solid foundation for future marketing efforts.