What should a PPC specialist know about analytics and data collection? In our workshop for uLab, we covered the entire chain, from the technical components of tracking and media platforms to collecting and activating first-party data.
Last week, Zuzka Mikyšková, Lenka Pittnerová, and I took a summer trip to Brno. We prepared an analytics workshop for uLab’s PPC team, where we spent the day summarizing what top PPC specialists should know about analytics and collecting data for ad platforms.
We tailored the agenda together with Petr Bureš and Markéta Kabátová. We have friends from the analytics community at uLab (hi Iveta D. and everyone else 👋), but this was our first time at their offices. As someone born and raised in Prague, who occasionally gets some grief for it outside the city, I felt right at home. uLab’s largest meeting room is called Prague – I appreciate that. :)
During the workshop, we covered how analytics and media tracking work today, the technical components involved, and what PPC specialists should keep an eye on to make sure their campaigns get as much data as possible. This workshop will be followed by a detailed technical session with selected specialists, where we’ll dive into the implementation details and do some hands-on clicking and scripting.
The workshop presentation (in Czech) is available here.
I started with a high-level look at the difference between a smaller client (where the specialist delivers conversions, the data isn’t connected, and they work with APIs or directly in the GA4 and ad platform UIs) and a larger company, where both media reporting and activation are built around a single source of truth in BigQuery.
Zuzka went through the technical components – the data layer, client-side GTM, and server-side GTM – and what PPC specialists should be able to check in each of them.
On the data layer: We went through it from a technical perspective – what it is, how it’s structured, and how to inspect it. The key message was not to think of it as something purely technical, but as a semantic layer between the website and tracking that should be understandable to everyone and reflect the requirements for collecting conversions and audiences.
On server-side GTM: From a certain client size onwards, we deploy it everywhere. Media platforms are increasingly requiring it, and although it’s a technical component, it has a real impact on campaign performance. There seem to be different views on it within the PPC community, so Zuzka shared our perspective.
We also covered consent and the options for anonymous tracking. Lenka then went through conversion tracking for off-the-shelf platforms (Shoptet, Shopify, and WordPress), click IDs, how to verify within the platforms that tracking from a website or app is working correctly, and how to collect first-party data from the platforms and activate it in media platforms – either by sending it directly or importing it from a CRM.
On click IDs: It sounds like a nerdy topic, but click IDs (gclid, fbclid, ttclid, etc.) are important for correctly attributing clicks to conversions and for reporting based on raw media platform data. PPC specialists should know why they appear in URLs, that they’re stored in browser storage, and how to check that nothing on the landing page strips them out and that they persist all the way through to conversion. They’re also important for matching on-platform behaviour with raw media data when working with it.
Thanks to the entire uLab team for putting up with us all day. They still have a GA4 workshop for PPC specialists and the technical training mentioned above to look forward to.
Working on the go has its benefits, but also a few practical challenges. I’m sharing the setup I’ve fine-tuned over the years that lets me work comfortably from anywhere – from connectivity and a second monitor to ergonomics.
What should a PPC specialist know about analytics and data collection? In our workshop for uLab, we covered the entire chain, from the technical components of tracking and media platforms to collecting and activating first-party data.
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Vojta works at MeasureDesign on developing technical and data solutions that are not only functional, but also practical and easy to use. He enjoys combining web development, automation, and data work to create solutions that make sense both from the user’s perspective and in terms of the technical foundations behind them. What he finds most rewarding is turning a more complex problem into a clean and reliable solution.
Jirka has been working in marketing for over 10 years, and if there is anything he enjoys more than numbers themselves, it is connecting them. He loves mathematics and data analytics, and thanks to his interest in exploring source code, he can easily communicate with developers in their own language. At MeasureDesign, he specializes in connecting new data sources - building custom connectors in Python, testing data quality, and exploring which data combinations make the most sense from a business perspective. He is completely at home in Looker Studio and also has extensive experience evaluating PPC campaign performance.
Lenka joined MeasureDesign at the end of 2025, bringing extensive experience from PPC marketing, where she spent many years working with Google Ads, Meta Ads, and other advertising platforms. While managing campaigns, she repeatedly ran into the same issue - poorly set up or insufficient web analytics, which made effective optimization nearly impossible. This challenge initially led her to analytics out of necessity, but over time she discovered that she enjoyed it even more than advertising itself. Today, she focuses primarily on implementing web analytics and data solutions that provide companies with high-quality, reliable data for strategic decision-making and performance marketing. She continues to work on selected PPC projects as well - not only because she still enjoys them, but mainly to stay closely connected to the reality of media platforms and the real needs of clients.
Marťa helps integrate AI into everyday work—making it faster, more efficient, and accessible to every team member. What excites her most is finding practical ways to use AI and turning new technologies into useful tools.
Anička has over 7 years of experience in the agency world, where she has managed social media ad campaigns for clients, and especially for content-driven websites, her favorite. Wanting to broaden her perspective beyond campaign data, she gradually shifted her focus toward web analytics. She joined our team in 2022 and now specializes in data analytics, using GA4, BigQuery, Looker Studio, and other tools to connect and dig deeper into data — delivering insightful analyses and valuable input for business decisions. Anička was a member of our team until 2026.
Zuzka's career path led her through corporate innovation and research management, running word-of-mouth projects, and later to a digital agency, where she managed website development projects. However, Zuzka is naturally curious and wanted to understand how a website actually works once it is launched into the world. That curiosity led her to study web analytics — and eventually to a key collaboration with Vašek. In 2019, they founded the company together.
Vašek has been working in digital analytics for over 15 years — from setting up tracking to data storage, visualization, and interpretation. He helps companies keep their data in order and make full use of it. He focuses primarily on data from digital platforms such as websites, apps, and client zones, and on connecting that data with other business data like media and customer data. After years of freelancing, he co-founded the analytics studio MeasureDesign, where, in addition to working on analytics projects and bespoke training sessions, he also mentors and educates new analysts.
Blanka joined our team in 2024 and has been responsible for back-office operations, including invoicing and administrative tasks, ever since. She draws on her experience from the Czech Post and her background in financial management to keep everything running smoothly. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her two children and finds relaxation in working in her garden.
Markéta started out in marketing, but then came maternity leave — and with it, total chaos. In an effort to hold on to the last bits of sanity, she turned to data. After all, numbers don’t yell, spill cereal into your keyboard, and at least they make some sense. She completed a data analytics course at Engeto Academy, where she bonded with SQL, Power BI, Excel, and Python, and started looking for patterns outside the bounds of children’s coloring books. Today, at MeasureDesign, she helps clients understand what their numbers are really saying.
She joined MeasureDesign in 2023, specialising in measurement implementation and reporting. Her favourite moment is when, after all the setup and testing, the first data finally starts flowing in. Her biggest challenge? The unexpected (and often undocumented) changes from Google – those are the times when every analyst turns into a paranormal behaviour expert. 👻 She was a member of our team until summer 2026.
Klára has been with the company since 2019. She focuses mainly on web analytics but is not afraid to dive into data work in BigQuery. What she enjoys most is guiding clients through the entire process — from defining their needs to implementing tracking and creating the final data visualizations. She gets an almost suspicious amount of joy from a clean and well-organized GTM container or a report full of useful data.
