The problem.
This was an in-house role, not a Metric Owl client engagement. Knight Frank spent 18 months redesigning its UK website to generate more leads. The legacy CMS had inconsistent dataLayers and manual tagging, the privacy banner lacked granular consent, lead forms had abandonment rates above 80%, and nothing joined GA4 to leads in LeadPro CRM.
Marc led analytics through the rebuild, across more than 50 international websites, while keeping reporting running and the data compliant with GDPR.
What Marc did.
Tracking driven by the CMS
Mandatory Optimizely fields feed a standard page-load dataLayer.
- Editors pick page type, category, division and transaction type when they create a page.
- No manual tagging, and the same naming across 50+ websites from day one.
Every form tracked
An "all pages, all forms" solution built with Optimizely Expert Services.
- Opens, submissions and closures pushed to the dataLayer on any form on any site.
- New forms tracked as soon as they go live.
Website journeys joined to the CRM
A unique ID for each submission, sent to GA4 and LeadPro at the same time.
- Leads followed from first visit to form submission to CRM record.
- Marketing return measured on deals rather than form fills.
Measurement strategy and governance
One GA4 standard for all markets, agreed with senior stakeholders.
- KPI frameworks for property search: listing discovery, enquiry, valuation request, instruction to sell.
- Developer specifications, QA before releases, documentation and regular audits.
A consent banner that meets GDPR
A new privacy banner in TagCommander, with Consent Mode v2.
- Separate analytics, advertising and functional categories.
- Different defaults for the UK and EU than for other regions.
Forms fixed with evidence
GA4 and ContentSquare showed where people abandoned enquiry forms, worst on mobile.
- Fewer fields, better mobile layouts, clearer labels and validation, worked through with UX designers.
- Each change tested before full rollout, with Data Studio and Power BI dashboards for leadership.
Results.
- 27.4% more qualified leads in the first month after launch, from the form and mobile changes.
- 49.2% conversion rate on Market Appraisal forms from organic traffic, where owners request a valuation.
- 67% desktop and 63% mobile consent acceptance on the new banner.
- One tracking standard across 50+ websites, with leads traceable from website to CRM.
- Knight Frank's Project Team of the Year 2024: the project team, including Marc, was recognised for delivery and cross-team collaboration.
If your site has the same kind of problems, a GA4 mini audit shows where your tracking stands.