HeroConf April 2026 | Spend less, win more leads: A technical GA4 setup that cut ad waste by 50% (Christian Goodrich)

Delivered by Christian Goodrich, Head of Search Marketing at SOZO, at HeroConf (in association with brightonSEO) on Thursday 30th April 2026.

In this talk, Christian showed how to move beyond basic lead volume tracking and build a practical GA4 framework focused on qualified leads.

Using a real-world case study, he demonstrated how capturing structured data at the point of form submission, setting up events properly in Google Tag Manager, and segmenting within GA4 made it possible to identify true lead quality and cut wasted ad spend by over 50%.

He then walked through how those quality signals were fed back into Google Ads and visualised in Looker Studio, helping teams reduce spend where quality was low and reinvest where performance was strongest.

Built entirely using free tools within the Google ecosystem, the approach is immediately applicable for PPC specialists and SMEs without advanced CRM or paid attribution platforms.

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