Dedicated marketing-analytics agencies we reviewed that show a dashboard, a report or a measurement plan. All three promise custom dashboards and illustrate the promise with stock photos.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of 15 provider pages, August 2026The published price for the same named deliverable, a GA4 audit and setup, depending on which provider you ask. Neither end of that range cites a source. Ours is $795, and it’s further down this page.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of published analytics pricing, August 2026Provider pages that say what happens to your accounts and your data if you stop working together. On an analytics page, those accounts are the whole asset.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of 15 provider pages, August 2026What’s included
Strategy without measurement is opinion. Measurement without strategy is a dashboard nobody reads. This service is both halves, built once and checked every month.
Focus areas · Strategy & measurement
Marketing strategy
A clear plan tied to your goals and budget: what to do, in what order, and why.
Measurement & tracking
Conversion tracking and analytics set up correctly, once. It’s the ground truth everything else reports against.
Analytics (GA4)
Google Analytics (GA4) set up properly, and what it tells you, translated out of Google-speak.
Dashboards & reporting
Plain-English reporting that ties what we did to what it earned.
Budget planning
Spend goes where it earns its keep, and moves when it stops.
Attribution, gaps included
We tell you which results we can tie to which channel, and where we can’t. That’s more often than most agencies admit.
Audits
A clear-eyed look at where your marketing leaks money and where it grows.
Quarterly direction reviews
A longer look at where this is all going, beyond the last thirty days.
What counts as a conversion
The decision the rest of the category skips. Before anything is reported on, we write down what counts as a conversion (a booking, a paid deposit, a phone call over a minute), where it’s recorded, what it’s worth, and how we check it’s true. See a sample measurement plan →
Your accounts stay yours
We work inside your own GA4, Tag Manager, ad and CRM accounts, never a copy we hold. You keep full ownership and access, and all of it leaves with you if we ever part ways.
The measurement plan: what you actually receive
Of the fifteen provider pages we reviewed, three sold marketing analytics as their specialty. None of the three showed a dashboard, a report or a plan. All three illustrated the promise with stock photos. So here’s ours, for a made-up business. Read the full sample measurement plan →
Installing GA4 is free and takes about fifteen minutes, and we’ll tell you that before you ask. This document is the part that isn’t free: deciding what counts as a conversion, agreeing on what each one is worth, and proving the number matches the system that holds the money.
| What counts | Where it is recorded | What it is worth | How we verify it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trip booked, deposit paid | Booking system → GA4 key event → Google Ads | Deposit value, passed dynamically | Test booking monthly |
| Inquiry form completed | Gravity Forms entry, matched by ID | Counted, not valued | Entry count vs GA4 |
| Phone call over 60 seconds | Tracking number on the trips pages | Counted, not valued | Call log spot-check |
| Gift voucher purchased | Store checkout → GA4 purchase event | Order value | Payout statement |
| Trips booked at the desk, on paper | Nowhere. Currently invisible | Unknown | Not yet verifiable |
Every analytics account undercounts. The question is by how much, and whether the gap is steady enough to make decisions on. A booking number that is reliably 14% light is usable; one nobody has ever checked is not. The third tile is the one most plans would hide: desk bookings can’t be checked yet, so nothing in this plan reports on them and no budget decision rests on them until the front-desk log starts. For scale, published research comparing analytics key events against the system of record across 33 accounts found an average of 11.2% of conversions missing on sites without a consent banner and 20.3% on sites with one, with individual accounts ranging from 1% to 30% (Orbit Media Studios, How Accurate is Google Analytics?).
Every property, container, conversion action and connection named in this plan lives in Pelican Point’s own accounts. If we stop working together the plan stays, the tracking keeps running, and nothing has to be rebuilt. There is no version of this on our side.
- Every row names where it can be checked. Not “analytics says so,” but a second place the number lives. That’s what makes it something you can argue with instead of something you have to take on faith.
- The gap is published, not hidden. A number that undercounts by a steady 14% is usable. The problem isn’t inaccuracy. It’s inaccuracy nobody has measured.
- One line stays unchecked on purpose. Desk bookings written on paper can’t be verified yet, so nothing reports on them. That’s the column a sales document would have quietly dropped.
- What we are not counting is on the page too. A plan that counts everything is a dashboard. Three to five numbers decide things. The rest is context, and saying so out loud is most of the job.
Tracking that was installed vs. tracking that was checked against the money
The difference isn’t whether the tag fires. It’s whether anybody ever checked the number against the place the money lands.
Tracking that was installed
- A tag fires, so the box is checked
- Every event is counted, and thirty of them are on the dashboard
- One average, quoted with confidence
- A chart with no note against the odd month
- Nothing anywhere about who owns the account
- Set up once and never checked again, until a theme change quietly breaks it
Tracking that was checked against the money
- A number that matches the booking system, and a written note of how far off it runs
- Three to five numbers that decide things, and a published list of what we deliberately don’t count
- The average and its spread. A 1–30% range is not an 11% problem
- A note pinned to anything odd, written by the person who ran the month
- Your accounts, your data, in writing. They leave with you
- Re-checked on a schedule, because tracking breaks: releases rename buttons and forms move
Where it starts
$795 one-timeTracking & Analytics SetupGA4, Search Console and Tag Manager set up correctly. An $875 value bought separately, and the foundation every report stands on.
How pricing worksWhy your numbers don’t match your bank account
We’ll say this before you ask, because it’s true. Analytics costs nothing and the tag goes on in an afternoon. If that’s all you need, do it yourself and keep the money.
A “conversion” is a business decision, not a technical one. Is a brochure download worth the same as a booking? Is a sixty-second phone call a lead? Nobody can answer that from inside the analytics tool, and until somebody does, every report is arithmetic on a guess.
The event has to fire where the transaction actually completes, and carry the value with it. Not on a thank-you page that changed address the last time the booking plugin updated.
Compare what analytics counted against the system that holds the money: the booking system, the CRM, the invoices. Published research across 33 accounts put the average miss at 11.2% without a consent banner and 20.3% with one, with individual accounts anywhere from 1% to 30% (Orbit Media Studios). An average is not an answer. Yours is a specific number, and it belongs in writing.
This is what makes measurement a standing job rather than a purchase. Releases rename buttons, forms move, themes get swapped, and a conversion action quietly stops firing. Nobody notices until a quarter of reporting has already been written on it.
One useful thing almost nobody says: even when the counts are light, the rates hold up. Bounce rate, engagement rate and conversion rate stay fairly reliable when the totals are undercounting. That’s why we’ll happily draw a conclusion from a trend while refusing to quote you a total to the unit.
How pricing works
The measurement work has a flat published price. The thinking is either hourly or already inside your engagement.
GA4, Search Console and Tag Manager set up correctly. An $875 value bought separately, and the foundation every report stands on.
Senior time on a real decision, at the consulting rate, with no retainer attached and no delivery work assumed.
Every plan and engagement carries its own strategy and reporting. You don’t pay twice for the thinking. See plans & pricing.
Bundling is cheaper than buying the pieces.
See plans & pricingHow long it takes
What to expect
Strategy is front-loaded. Measurement is permanent. The sequence looks like this.
Current results, tracking and spend reviewed: what’s true, what’s broken, what’s missing.
Tracking and reporting set up so nothing is a guess. Conversions checked end to end, once, properly.
What’s working gets more. What isn’t gets changed or cut. In writing, every month.
Who we help
Budgets behave differently in every category below, and the strategy has to know which one it’s in.
Hospitality & Resort
Season-shaped budgets and the math of direct bookings versus booking sites.
Explore →E-commerce & DTC
Return on ad spend you can trust, product feeds that check out, spend that follows margin.
Explore →Medical & Med Spa
What a booked consult is worth, and what it costs to get one.
Explore →Home Services & B2B
Long sales cycles, few conversions, and the patience to measure them properly.
When you win, we win
Real clients, real numbers. Ratios and rankings, sourced, with each client’s sign-off.
Don’t take our word for it
“The Southern Tide Media team has smartly positioned itself as partners, versus “vendors.” Each step along the strategic path, I feel as if they are “all in” and have our best interests at heart.”
“Southern Tide Media increased our conversion rates on our SEO campaigns by 60% in short time… Brandon takes the worry out of all the technical jargon and translates that into workable applications you can understand as a business owner.”
“In every dealing I have ever had with Brandon Evans, he has been knowledgeable, fair, and has responded quickly. I would highly recommend using him for any of your business’s marketing or advertising needs!”
Questions, answered
Can you fix our GA4?
Yes. It’s the most common first job. Tracking & Analytics Setup at $795 covers GA4, Search Console and Tag Manager set up correctly, so the numbers you report on are true.
Do I even need to pay someone for this?
Maybe not, and we’d rather say so than sell you something. Analytics software is free and installing it takes about fifteen minutes. If that’s all you need, do it yourself and keep the $795. What people pay us for is the part afterward: deciding what counts as a conversion, wiring it to fire where the money changes hands, and proving the number matches your booking system or your invoices. If your tracking already matches your own records and you trust your numbers, you don’t need this service.
Why is my analytics data wrong, and how wrong?
It’s wrong, everyone’s is, and the useful question is by how much. Ad blockers, consent banners, untagged links and duplicate tags all take a bite. Published research comparing analytics key events against the system of record across 33 accounts found an average of 11.2% of conversions missing on sites without a consent banner and 20.3% with one, but individual accounts ranged from 1% to 30% (Orbit Media Studios, How Accurate is Google Analytics?). That spread is the point: an average is not your number. We measure yours against your booking system or CRM and write the gap down. A number that is reliably 14% light is usable. A number nobody has checked is not.
What does the $795 actually buy?
GA4, Search Console and a Tag Manager container set up properly, with the conversions that matter to you defined and firing where the transaction completes. Priced separately, those pieces come to $875. What it doesn’t buy is a rebuild of a broken checkout or a custom data warehouse. If we find something like that, we quote it first at $95/hour instead of absorbing it quietly.
Do we need a retainer for strategy?
No. Strategy sessions run at $150/hour with no minimum and no notice period. And if you’re on any plan or engagement, the strategy for it is already included.
Which numbers actually matter for a business my size?
Three to five. The rest is context. For most of the businesses we run, the decision numbers are bookings or qualified inquiries, the cost per one of those, and the share of revenue that comes direct instead of through a marketplace or booking site. Sessions, impressions, followers and time on page are worth a look when something moves, and worth nothing as a monthly target. Part of this service is writing down which is which, so nobody is optimizing toward a number that can’t pay a bill.
How do I know if my marketing is working?
The test we use is blunt: does the number in the report match the number in the system that holds your money, and has anyone ever checked? If yes, the trend is trustworthy and you can act on it. If nobody has checked, every conclusion drawn from it, including ours, is a guess wearing a chart. That check is the first thing we do, and it’s on the sample measurement plan.
Is my tracking silently broken right now?
It might be, and that isn’t alarmism. Tracking breaks by default. Releases rename buttons, forms get moved, themes get swapped, plugins update and change a confirmation URL. The conversion action keeps existing and quietly stops firing, and nothing warns you. We’ve opened accounts where the last recorded conversion was months old and every budget decision since had been made on a signal that had stopped. It’s also the single most common finding in a Full Audit.