Eliminate IT bottlenecks. TRACE5 provides the technical expertise to manage GTM, server environments, and tracking infrastructures with total autonomy. In 5 days. In-house or online.
Why This Matters
Every company running ads today is managing a data pipeline — whether they realize it or not. The problem: when no one on the team truly understands how it works, errors are only discovered when it's too late.
Google Ads, Meta, and GA4 never show the same number — and no one can explain why. Decisions are made flying blind.
A conversion tag firing on every page instead of just the thank-you page — and Smart Bidding optimizing for weeks on completely wrong data.
New conversion goal? Ticket. Remove a tag? Ticket. Fix a bug? Ticket. Then you wait two weeks for implementation.
The cookie banner works. But whether Consent Mode v2 is correctly configured and whether Meta keeps tracking despite rejection — nobody on the team really knows.
"Tracking is a data pipeline. If garbage comes out at the end, there's a leak somewhere in the pipeline."
After TRACE5, your team knows how to find the leak — and how to avoid building one in the first place.
The Framework
The name is no coincidence. Each letter stands for a module — and a concrete skill your team will have after the workshop. Each day builds on the previous one. Every exercise is immediately applicable to your real systems.
5 Modules · 5 Days · 1 Framework That Lasts.
Who sees what — and why no single tool is enough
GTM, GA4, Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn: No single tool covers the entire customer journey. Your team learns each tool's role, its blind spots, and why a solid data pipeline is built exactly the way it is.
Set up GA4 via GTM, use Preview Mode, see data flow in real time.
Conversion Tracking — All Platforms, One Setup
The direct conversion tag beats the GA4 import. Always. Your team sets up tracking for Google Ads, GA4, Meta Pixel, and the LinkedIn Insight Tag: lead forms, newsletters, e-commerce purchases with dynamic order value and transaction ID.
dataLayer variables, Custom Event Triggers, complete multi-platform test in Preview Mode.
Data Quality — The Right Answer for Management
UTM parameters, naming conventions, attribution models: why Google Ads, Meta, and GA4 never show the same number — and why that's not a bug. Plus a 4-step debugging workflow for any tracking problem.
Systematically debug a GTM container with intentionally built-in errors.
Compliance — What Technically Happens When Someone Declines
Consent Mode v2, default values, timing, modeled conversions: the technical truth behind the cookie banner. You'll learn a 4-check workflow that ruthlessly exposes every setup error — including a privacy audit checklist for everyday use.
Find and fix consent errors on the demo website. Privacy audit with the 10-point checklist.
Future-Proofing — Cookies Disappear, Data Stays
Remarketing audiences from real events, Enhanced Conversions with hashed first-party data, cross-device matching. Outlook on Server-Side GTM: what it solves, when it's worth it, and exactly what to brief a vendor on.
A real GTM container with 10 hidden errors — your team finds and fixes them.
How It Works
Half of each day is pure practice. All exercises run on a fully prepared demo website with a configured GTM container. No setup effort required upfront. From Module 2, we can work directly in your own accounts upon request.
The workshop takes place directly at your company — or remotely with shared screens. No travel costs, maximum practical relevance to your own setup.
The optimal group size for live exercises. Everyone actively participates. No prior GTM development knowledge needed — basic ads experience is perfectly sufficient.
Including breaks and plenty of time for specific questions about your setup. Flexibly schedulable: 5 consecutive days or split into weekly blocks.
On the last day, we audit your actual GTM container together. You leave the workshop with a clear inspection report and a prioritized fix plan.
After Five Days
No abstract learning goals. These are the tangible skills permanently anchored in your team after TRACE5.
Set up conversion tracking for Google Ads, GA4, Meta, and LinkedIn — including Preview Mode, cross-verification, and clean publishing. All without an IT ticket.
Audit an existing GTM container and systematically fix the twelve most common error types. No more blind trial and error.
Know why Google Ads shows 85, Meta shows 72, and GA4 shows 38 conversions — and confidently explain to management which number is the right one.
Configure, verify, and debug Consent Mode v2. And precisely understand the legal and data consequences of an incorrect setup.
Give developers or agencies precise technical briefings — whether for dataLayer events, Server-Side GTM, or the Meta Conversions API.
Use the 12-point checklist to systematically check any GTM container for errors and privacy issues in minutes — yours or your agency's.
Digital Sovereignty
Most companies only realize they've lost control when it gets really expensive. In marketing: GA4 and Google Ads show completely different numbers, and nobody can explain it. In IT: software vendors raise prices — and you can't switch.
For 16 years, I've watched companies lose control over their most important resource. I give it back — with two concrete offerings.
The 5-day in-house seminar for technical online marketing. I make your marketing team technically self-sufficient. After 5 days, your team can diagnose errors in the data chain themselves — from web server to browser.
Result: Find errors in minutes instead of weeks. Clean data for your ads. No more guessing and no unnecessary IT tickets.
Turnkey open-source infrastructure on German servers. I build your company a sovereign IT environment and hand it over completely. Nextcloud instead of Google Drive, OnlyOffice instead of Microsoft 365.
Result: Invest once instead of paying rent forever. No CLOUD Act, no vendor lock-in, full data control.
Frequently Asked Questions
For online marketing managers, performance marketing teams, and anyone who runs ads and wants to understand what happens on the website afterward. Basic knowledge of Google Ads or Meta Ads is helpful. Programming skills are not required — the workshop is designed for marketers, not developers.
Practically nothing. All exercises run on a fully prepared demo website. You just need laptops with Chrome browser and access to your own Google Ads and GA4 accounts. If we audit your container on the last day, we'll need access for that.
No. We can compress the workshop into five consecutive days or split it into weekly blocks (e.g., one day per week). Since each module builds on the previous one, the weekly block format is often even more effective: The team has time in between to apply what they've learned in practice.
Different: Your team understands the pipeline, diagnoses errors independently, and builds new tracking setups without an IT ticket.
Stays the same: Highly complex backend setups often still require a specialist. But after TRACE5, you can give them an absolutely precise briefing and assess the quality of their work.
On the contrary. The more complex the existing setup, the more your team benefits from finally understanding it. In the preliminary call, we clarify your current status and adapt the exercises to your reality. No dry theory.
Yes, that's the most direct path to complete digital sovereignty. If you request both, you'll get a holistic overview in the first call and then decide at your own pace where to start.
The First Step
Tell me about your current setup, your challenges, and your goals. I'll get back to you within 24 hours with an initial concept for your workshop — free and with no obligation.
Choose a convenient time for a free 30-minute consultation.
