We measure with Matomo, and your data stays yours

Why we moved away from Google Analytics

Google Analytics is free, but you pay with your data. Your visitor data sits on Google’s servers, and Google also uses it for its own purposes. On top of that, there are three problems:

• Privacy. American analytics tools have been legally contested in Europe for years. If you use GA4, your settings and consents have to be perfectly in order.
• Missing data. Ad blockers and browsers block Google Analytics more and more often. So part of your audience simply doesn’t show up.
• A black box. What GA4 reports is often an estimate or a model. It’s hard to check the raw data yourself.

What we use instead

Matomo, in Europe or on your own server

Matomo is a fully fledged, open source analytics platform. It runs in Europe with Matomo itself (Matomo Cloud) or on your own server, instead of with Google. We use Matomo Cloud, and set it up for clients wherever it fits best. You get visitors, channels, campaigns, goals and e-commerce, just as you’re used to. The difference: the data is yours.

First-party and server-side tracking

With first-party tracking, the measurement comes from your own domain, not from a third party. With server-side tracking, the data first goes to a server you manage yourself, and only then, filtered, to platforms such as Google Ads or Meta. That way you decide what gets shared.

What you gain

• The data is yours. No third party viewing or using your visitor data.
• Privacy in order. IP addresses are anonymised, the data stays in the EU, and your cookie banner and Consent Mode v2 are set up correctly.
• Better measurement. Less data lost to ad blockers and browsers, so a more complete picture.
• Better insights. Your website, your campaigns and your leads in one dashboard. You see not just visitors, but also which channels bring in enquiries and revenue.
• Better campaigns. We can correctly feed back who does and doesn’t convert to Google Ads, Meta and LinkedIn, so their algorithms learn better.

What we do

• Setting up Matomo, or migrating your existing GA4 tracking, with the history you want to keep.
• Goals and conversions configured: forms, phone and email clicks, appointments, orders.
• Cookie banner and Consent Mode v2, including with our own Cookie Manager.
• Server-side tracking where it pays off, for example for online shops and for companies that advertise heavily.
• Offline conversions: from your CRM back to Google Ads, so you steer on real customers instead of form submissions.
• KPI dashboards and a monthly report you can actually understand.

How far you can go: Rule Zero

In our own online shop Rule Zero we follow every session through to the order. We see which channel brought a customer in, what happened before they bought, which email led to an order and how much revenue an abandoned basket email brought back. That’s also how we know that 542 visitors came in via AI assistants such as ChatGPT over four months, and that those visitors were the most engaged of all.

Not every business needs to go that far. But it shows what’s possible when you have your data in your own hands.

How we start

1. Analytics check. We look at how you measure now, what’s missing and what’s wrong.
2. Plan. What we set up or migrate, and which goals we measure.
3. Installation and checks. We set everything up, test every conversion and check that the figures add up.
4. Dashboard and follow-up. You get a custom dashboard and, if you want, a monthly report.