Suede Analytics Tracking

Use this Suede measurement playbook to build tracking that supports auditable marketing and product decisions.

Initial Assessment

Check for .agents/product-marketing.md (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md) and read it if present — the key conversions, the decisions the data has to serve, and the tools already in place drive every recommendation here.

Then work the intake list under Task-Specific Questions below; ask only what the context file did not already answer.

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Production Changes: Halt Before Mutating

Editing live tags, properties, destinations, or consent settings is the highest-consequence action in this skill, and Boundaries below forbids doing it without explicit authorization and a rollback plan. When a task requires one and you do not have both, halt in four parts:

1. Stop. Do not publish the container, edit the property, or change the consent configuration.
2. Name the blocker in one line ("publishing this GTM container version changes what fires for all live traffic; I have no rollback version identified").
3. Offer 2-4 options (stage it in Preview and hand over the trace; write the change as a diff for the owner to publish; publish after the user names the rollback version; scope the change to a test environment).
4. Wait for the answer. Do not pick one and continue.

The same halt applies to anything the Privacy and Compliance section below sends to legal or privacy review: an unresolved lawful-basis question blocks implementation, it does not get an assumption.

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Tracking Plan Framework

Structure

Event Name | Category | Properties | Trigger | Notes
---------- | -------- | ---------- | ------- | -----

Event Types

Type	Examples
Pageviews	Automatic, enhanced with metadata
User Actions	Button clicks, form submissions, feature usage
System Events	Signup completed, purchase, subscription changed
Custom Conversions	Goal completions, funnel stages

For comprehensive event lists: See references/event-library.md

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Event Naming Conventions

Recommended Format: Object-Action

signup_completed
button_clicked
form_submitted
article_read
checkout_payment_completed

Best Practices

• Lowercase with underscores
• Be specific: cta_hero_clicked vs. button_clicked
• Include context in properties, not event name
• Avoid spaces and special characters

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Essential Events

Marketing Site

Event	Properties
cta_clicked	button_text, location
form_submitted	form_type
signup_completed	method, source
demo_requested	-

Product/App

Event	Properties
onboarding_step_completed	step_number, step_name
feature_used	feature_name
purchase_completed	plan, value
subscription_cancelled	reason

For full event library by business type: See references/event-library.md

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Event Properties

Standard Properties

Category	Properties
Page	page_title, page_location, page_referrer
User	user_id, user_type, account_id, plan_type
Campaign	source, medium, campaign, content, term
Product	product_id, product_name, category, price

Best Practices

• Avoid PII in properties
• Reuse the Standard Properties names above rather than inventing per-event variants

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GA4 Implementation

Quick Setup

1. Create GA4 property and data stream
2. Install gtag.js or GTM
3. Enable enhanced measurement
4. Configure custom events
5. Mark conversions in Admin

Custom Event Example

gtag('event', 'signup_completed', {
  'method': 'email',
  'plan': 'free'
});

For detailed GA4 implementation: See references/ga4-implementation.md

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Google Tag Manager

Container Structure

Component	Purpose
Tags	Code that executes (GA4, pixels)
Triggers	When tags fire (page view, click)
Variables	Dynamic values (click text, data layer)

Data Layer Pattern

dataLayer.push({
  'event': 'form_submitted',
  'form_name': 'contact',
  'form_location': 'footer'
});

For detailed GTM implementation: See references/gtm-implementation.md

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UTM Parameter Strategy

Standard Parameters

Parameter	Purpose	Example
utm_source	Traffic source	google, newsletter
utm_medium	Marketing medium	cpc, email, social
utm_campaign	Campaign name	spring_sale
utm_content	Differentiate versions	hero_cta
utm_term	Paid search keywords	running+shoes

Naming Conventions

• Lowercase everything
• Use underscores or hyphens consistently
• Be specific but concise: blog_footer_cta, not cta1
• Document all UTMs in a spreadsheet

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Debugging and Validation

Testing Tools

Tool	Use For
GA4 DebugView	Real-time event monitoring
GTM Preview Mode	Test triggers before publish
Browser Extensions	Tag Assistant, dataLayer Inspector

Validation Checklist

Each box closes on an artifact from the tools above, matched to the tool category's "Required current proof" in Tool Integrations below. An unchecked box does not mean "probably fine" — it means the tracking is reported as unverified, never as done. Inspecting the tag config is not proof; a readback is.

• Events firing on correct triggers — a DebugView/live-events capture showing each event on the intended action
• Property values populating correctly — a property readback per event, values matched against the tracking plan
• No duplicate events — the same capture inspected for repeat fires (multiple containers, trigger firing twice)
• Works across browsers and mobile — the readback repeated on at least one non-primary browser and one mobile session
• Conversions recorded correctly — a source receipt plus a destination receipt for the conversion, not the source alone
• No PII leaking — the payload of a real captured event read field by field, plus masking/sampling settings for session replay

Report what was proven and what was not. "Instrumented" and "verified" are different claims; only the second one may cite this checklist.

Common Issues

Issue	Check
Events not firing	Trigger config, GTM loaded
Wrong values	Variable path, data layer structure
Duplicate events	Multiple containers, trigger firing twice

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Privacy and Compliance

Privacy, consent, retention, deletion, and identifier rules vary by jurisdiction, audience, data type, contract, and platform configuration. Do not treat this skill as legal advice or declare a universal consent rule.

Before implementation:

1. Identify the actual markets, audience age, data categories, vendors, purposes, and data flows in scope.
2. Review current official regulator and platform requirements for those jurisdictions and configurations; obtain qualified privacy or legal review when the requirement is unclear or material.
3. Document the approved lawful basis or consent state, retention and deletion behavior, access controls, and prohibited properties.
4. Collect only approved data, avoid direct personal identifiers unless the reviewed design expressly allows them, and test both allowed and denied consent paths.

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Output Format

Tracking Plan Document

# [Site/Product] Tracking Plan

## Overview
- Tools: GA4, GTM
- Last updated: [Date]

## Events

| Event Name | Description | Properties | Trigger |
|------------|-------------|------------|---------|
| signup_completed | User completes signup | method, plan | Success page |

## Custom Dimensions

| Name | Scope | Parameter |
|------|-------|-----------|
| user_type | User | user_type |

## Conversions

| Conversion | Event | Counting |
|------------|-------|----------|
| Signup | signup_completed | Once per session |

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Task-Specific Questions

1. What tools are you using (GA4, Mixpanel, etc.)?
2. What key actions do you want to track?
3. What decisions will this data inform?
4. Who implements - dev team or marketing?
5. Are there privacy/consent requirements?
6. What's already tracked?

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Tool Integrations

This pack does not ship analytics connectors. Use the user's authorized property UI, debugger, export, API, or installed connector and verify current official documentation before constructing a call.

Tool category	Typical use	Required current proof
Web analytics	Sessions, acquisition, web conversions	Debug event plus property readback
Product analytics	Event funnels, cohorts, retention	Schema check plus sampled event readback
Tag manager	Controlled client-side deployment	Preview trace plus published-version ID
Customer data router	Send approved events to destinations	Source receipt plus destination receipt
Session replay	Diagnose interaction friction	Consent, masking, sampling, and replay verification

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Boundaries

• Do not claim an event, conversion, consent state, or attribution path works until a current debug or readback proves it.
• Do not mutate production tags, properties, destinations, or consent settings without explicit authorization and a rollback plan.
• Do not collect secrets, direct personal identifiers, or sensitive traits merely because a tool permits them.
• Do not decide business success from a single dashboard number; state the metric definition, window, denominator, and exclusions.

Routing

• Need experiment design or result interpretation -> use suede-ab-testing.
• Need paid-campaign decisions -> use suede-ads.
• Need attribution modeling, model comparison, or cross-tool reconciliation -> use suede-attribution.
• Need pipeline and CRM attribution -> use suede-revops.
• Need organic visibility diagnosis -> use suede-seo-audit.
• From those skills, route instrumentation plans and firing verification back to suede-analytics.