Hero Conf 2026 - Spend Less, Win More Leads: A Technical GA4 Setup That Cut Ad Waste by 50% - Christian Goodrich

A talk by Christian Goodrich, Head of Search at SOZO.

I gave this talk at Hero Conf, in association with brightonSEO, on 30th April 2026. It shows how to move beyond counting leads and build a practical GA4 setup that measures which leads are worth having.

Using a real lead-gen case study, I walk through capturing structured data at the point of form submission, setting up events properly in Google Tag Manager and segmenting within GA4 to identify lead quality. That's what cut wasted ad spend by over 50% while lifting lead quality by 25.9%.

I then show how those quality signals were fed back into Google Ads and visualised in Data Studio, so spend came down where quality was low and went up where performance was strongest.

It's all built with free tools in the Google ecosystem, so PPC specialists and smaller businesses can apply it without an advanced CRM or a paid attribution platform.

🔗 SOZO, where I'm Head of Search:
https://sozodesign.co.uk/

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cargoodrich/

🔗 My personal website and industry thoughts, Goodrich.Digital:
https://goodrich.digital/

🔗 The full write-up, step by step:
https://goodrich.digital/insights/technical-ga4-setup-cut-ppc-ad-waste/

Transcript

1. Christian Goodrich SOZO Spend Less, Win More Leads: A Technical GA4 Setup That Cut Ad Waste by 50% /in/cargoodrich | speakerdeck.com/cargoodrich
2. “You’ve had X enquiries this month.” 🤷 🥱 #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
3. The case study … #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
5. The friction … #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
6. “We feel new leads don’t come from paid search.” “Returning customers are probably clicking our ads.” “We’re fielding too many domestic enquiries.” #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
7. What was being tracked: • Form submissions • Cost-per-acquisition • Lead volume What they wanted: • 100% commercial enquiries • High-value sectors • New customer acquisition #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
8. The intent problem … #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
9. 🥳 ... ?
11. Fix the signal, fix the spend. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
12. The cost for additional tooling: £0. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
13. THE SOLUTION: STEP 1 OF 5 Define commercial value #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
14. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
15. THE SOLUTION: STEP 2 OF 5 Upgrade the forms #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
16. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
17. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
19. THE SOLUTION: STEP 3 OF 5 Data Layer via GTM #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
20. Output the values in the Data Layer: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
21. Setup Data Layer Variables in GTM: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
22. Pass these to GA4 via Tag Manager: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
23. Set the ‘Trigger’ to fire on form success: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
24. Test the event fires with GTM debug: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
25. Setup custom definitions in GA4: This is the event parameter passed via GTM. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
26. Now for the reporting … #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
27. THE SOLUTION: STEP 4 OF 5 GA4 to Data Studio #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
28. Refresh your GA4 fields in Data Studio: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
29. Customise field names if you like! #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
30. Get creative with conditional formatting: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
31. Welcome to your new data! 🥳 #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
32. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
33. Other cool ways to present the data: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
34. “You’ve had X enquiries this month.” 🤷 🥱 Say goodbye to just: “This month you’ve had X first-time customer enquiries.” ✅ Say hello to: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich ✅ “You’ve received X leads from X commercial sector.” ✅ “You’ve spent X in Paid to receive X first-time leads.”
35. THE SOLUTION: STEP 5 OF 5 Activate ‘conv. value’ #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
36. ‘Conv. value’ is not just for e-commerce! #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
37. Most lead gen accounts: Conversion value = blank or £1 That’s an oversight. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
38. If you can’t pass revenue, pass quality. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
39. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
40. Push values from GTM to Google Ads: OR #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
41. Segmented conversions in Google Ads: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
42. Identify what drives qualified leads: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
43. The results 🥁 #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
44. Ad spend across Google + Bing reduced by 50+% 30% (intentional) decline in conversions +25.9% in lead quality + significant intent uplift ✅ ✅ ✅ #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
45. Early impact: #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
46. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich GA4 + Google Ads + Data Studio:
47. And when the wins extend beyond the numbers … #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
48. Informed marketing decisions. No more “probably” or “feel”. Spend redistributed to improving UX. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
49. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
50. “But most of our leads come via phone calls.” 🤔 #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
51. #HeroConf #brightonSEO @cargoodrich
52. B-Corp digital growth agency for ambitious, purpose-led brands.
54. Thank you! linkedin.com/in/cargoodrich christian@sozodesign.co.uk speakerdeck.com/cargoodrich