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Seat 1 · Agency · Merkle Sokrati (dentsu), for Helios

Fixing measurement before fixing marketing

Business Analyst, Merkle Sokrati2018–192 min read
90% → ~40%funnel drop-off, once tracking was fixed
7 → 15brands advertised
02 · The situation

Demand looked weak, and the budget was at risk

ClientHelios, The Watch Store (Titan Group), a multi-brand retailer of international luxury watches in India
My roleBusiness Analyst, Merkle Sokrati
Timeframe2018–19

We generated leads that the client’s call center followed up. The funnel showed about 90% drop-off at key stages against a typical industry level of about 40%. On paper, demand looked weak and the budget was at risk.

Before touching the media, I audited the tracking chain end to end: Meta pixel, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and UTM parameters. The UTM builder was passing excessive parameters, and Analytics was treating them as duplicates and silently discarding real user data. Users were converting; the system wasn’t recording them.

03 · What I did

Fix the tracking, then test

I rebuilt the UTM structure, reconfigured Tag Manager firing rules and validated tracking end to end before any media change. Then I used the clean data to run proper A/B tests that had been impossible to measure before.

04 · What happened

The funnel was healthy all along

  • Funnel drop-off returned to about 40%, in line with benchmark.
  • A planned budget cut based on false data was avoided.
  • Lead performance improved sharply, and the client grew the brands it advertised from 7 to 15.

Before optimizing anything, check that the system can tell the truth.

Measurement · Luxury retail · India · Meta, Google Analytics, Tag Manager · Tracking audit, A/B testing

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