Happy Monday!

Ever stared at your analytics dashboard, puzzled by missing data points? You're not alone. Today, we're diving into fixing your event schema, a critical step toward more accurate tracking and better customer insights.

Here’s what you'll find in today's email:

• What is an event schema

• Why your event schema matters (and what happens when it breaks)

• A simple framework to fix event tracking

• Lifecycle Marketing quick hits

Today’s read time is 3 minutes

👉 Click here to let me know you're reading below the fold!

Map your event schema like this and stop losing customer data

Deep Dive

"Where are all the checkout events?" I said, staring at our analytics dashboard.

Our tracking showed plenty of shoppers adding items to cart, but almost no completed purchases. Yet our revenue numbers told a different story, people were definitely buying.

After some digging, I found the issue. We were tracking the start of checkout, but not the actual purchase confirmation. One missing data point created a blind spot in our entire customer journey.

Sound familiar? Let me help you fix this common headache.

What's an event schema (and why it matters)

Your event schema is simply the blueprint for how you track customer behavior in your marketing platform:

1. What actions you track (like page views, email opens, purchases)

2. What details you collect with each action (like purchase amount or product name)

3. How consistently you name these events across your systems

Think of a purchase event in your schema:

• Event name: "purchase_completed"

• Properties: order_id, amount, products, coupon_code

When set up properly, this structured approach ensures you can see exactly how customers move through your experience. When incomplete, it creates frustrating blind spots that limit what your marketing automations can do.

The framework that fixed our tracking

You can use this simple framework for mapping customer events. Let's break this down into practical steps you can apply today.

Step 1 - Actions That Matter

First, map all customer touchpoints that indicate meaningful behavior. Check your platform, are you tracking?

• Acquisition Events: Page/screen views, first visit, signup/registration

• Engagement Events: Product views, searches, feature usage

• Conversion Events: Add to cart, begin checkout, purchase

• Retention Events: Return visit, repeat purchase, feature adoption

Step 2 - Consistent Naming

Next, establish a simple naming pattern and stick to it. I recommend:

• Use snake_case for all events (product_viewed not ProductViewed)

• Keep names in past tense (checkout_completed not complete_checkout)

• Be consistent across platforms

Step 3 - Thorough Properties

Each event should carry properties that give you full context:

• For all events: timestamp, user_id (if known), source (web, iOS, Android)

• Specific event details for personalization

Step 4 - Implementation Testing

This is where I've seen many teams stumble. Define events and verify them:

1. Perform each key action yourself

2. Verify events fire correctly

3. Check all expected properties

4. Test on different devices

Step 5 - Ongoing Monitoring

Event tracking breaks… very often. Set up monitoring:

• Weekly event volume checks

• Monthly sample journey tests

• Critical event alerts

Step 6 - Necessary Documentation

Document everything:

• Event purposes

• Required properties

• Implementation ownership

• Last verification dates

Your 30-minute event schema checkup

Ready to improve your tracking? Start with this quick audit:

1. List your 5 most critical business events.

2. Verify you're tracking these events in your platform.

3. Test a complete core flow (like signup-to-purchase).

4. Identify your biggest tracking gap.

The results you can expect

With complete, reliable event data, you can:

• Build accurate segments

• Trigger timely automations

• Personalize effectively

• Quickly identify conversion barriers

After fixing our event schema, targeted improvements increased our conversion rates by 15% in just two months.

Start with your most important journey

Pick your most critical triggered journey, audit it, and make improvements. Small fixes here can have substantial impacts on your revenue.

Which customer journey will you audit first? Your acquisition funnel? Onboarding sequence? Renewal process? Pick one path and dive in!.

Improving your event tracking today means better marketing results tomorrow.

Well, that’s all for today, folks. See you next Monday.

Feel free to discuss these ideas in your weekly team standup or in a 1-1 with your manager.

If you found even a tiny bit of value from this email, I’d appreciate sharing it with your team or on LinkedIn. You’ll get access to some Good karma if you do so 😇 

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