SIMON HARMS
FIELD REPORT 14TRACKING INFRASTRUCTURE

FIELD REPORT 14 · TRACKING INFRASTRUCTURE · NEWTON CRYPTO

Measurement from zero
in two months

Newton, a regulated Canadian crypto trading platform, had no MMP, no server events and no single source of truth when I joined. Two months later every channel ran on clean data, from the app SDK to one table everyone read.

2mofrom zero to a full
measurement stack
● WIRING MAP · BUILD ORDERWEEK 8 OF 8
SPEC SOURCES COLLECTION PLATFORMS ONE TABLE SIGN UP KYC STARTED KYC APPROVED FIRST DEPOSIT FIRST TRADE iOS APP ANDROID APP WEB BACKEND APPSFLYER SDK SKAN GTM WEB BROWSER TAGS SERVER GTM CONVERSIONS APIS META GOOGLE TIKTOK APPLE SEARCH ADS ONE SOURCE OF TRUTH SPEND + EVENTS · WEB + APP CHANNEL SPEND SIGN UP KYC DEPOSIT TRADE META GOOGLE TIKTOK APPLE SEARCH ADS SOURCES COLLECTION PLATFORMS ONE TABLE EVENT TAXONOMY · 5 EVENTS iOS ANDROID WEB BACKEND APPSFLYER SDK SKAN GTM WEB TAGS SERVER CONTAINER META GOOGLE TIKTOK APPLE SEARCH ADS ONE TABLE SPEND + EVENTS CHANNEL SPEND EVENTS META GOOGLE TIKTOK APPLE SEARCH
  • APP PATH
  • BROWSER PATH
  • SERVER PATH
  • INTO THE TABLE
  • NOT BUILT YET
21 / 21 WIRES LIVE

Build order is my reconstruction of the sequence. The two month total is the record.

WEEK 8 · ONE TABLESpend from every platform joined to app and web events under one taxonomy. Every channel review started from this table.

READ THE REPORT
01 THE BRIEF

Every platform was grading its own homework.

I joined Newton Crypto in June 2024 as Senior Manager. Newton is a Canadian crypto trading platform, regulated, with apps on iOS and Android and a web platform.

There was no mobile measurement partner, no server side events and no single source of truth. Each ad platform reported its own conversions, and nobody could line those numbers up against each other or against the business.

Consumer paid growth ran on Meta, Google, TikTok and Apple Search Ads at six figures a month. Before any of it could scale, the numbers had to be real. So the first job was the plumbing.

ROLESenior Manager, then Director, then VP of Marketing
CHANNELSMeta, Google, TikTok, Apple Search Ads
SPENDSix figures
a month
WHENNewton Crypto,
June 2024 to June 2025
The bet: an ad platform can only optimize on the events it receives. In a regulated funnel the events that matter happen after the app closes. Identity gets approved, funds settle, the first trade fills. Those had to reach every platform from the server, under one name each.
02 THE TAXONOMY

Five events, one name each, on every platform.

The regulated funnel from account to first trade: where each event fires and which platforms receive it. Colors match the paths on the wiring map.

● EVENT TAXONOMYFIRES IN · SENT TO
#EVENTFIRES INSENT TO
APP SDKWEB TAGSERVERMETAGOOGLETIKTOKAPPLE SEARCH ADS
01Sign upsign_upAccount created. Browser and server copies share one event_id.
02KYC startedkyc_startedIdentity check opened.
03KYC approvedkyc_approvedIdentity verified, often after the user has left the app.
04First depositfirst_depositFirst funds settled.
05First tradefirst_tradeFirst order filled.

Every event goes to Meta, Google and TikTok. Apple Search Ads is attributed through AppsFlyer and read in the table.

  1. 01
    Sign upsign_upAccount created. Browser and server copies share one event_id.
    APP SDKWEB TAGSERVER
  2. 02
    KYC startedkyc_startedIdentity check opened.
    APP SDKWEB TAGSERVER
  3. 03
    KYC approvedkyc_approvedIdentity verified, often after the user has left the app.
    APP SDK WEB TAG SERVER
  4. 04
    First depositfirst_depositFirst funds settled.
    APP SDK WEB TAG SERVER
  5. 05
    First tradefirst_tradeFirst order filled.
    APP SDK WEB TAG SERVER
  • APP SDK
  • WEB TAG
  • SERVER
  • SENT TO THE PLATFORM
  • ATTRIBUTED THROUGH APPSFLYER, READ IN THE TABLE
  • NOT FIRED HERE
COMPLIANCEREVIEWED ONCE, AT THE SPECLegal and compliance signed off on event names and parameters before any tag existed. Every tag after that inherited the approved spec.
IDENTIFIERSHASHED BEFORE SENDINGEmail and phone left the platform only as hashes, through the conversions APIs.
CHANGESONE SPEC, VERSIONEDA change to an event went through the same review and a version bump, so platforms and the table never drifted apart.

Illustrative spec. The funnel steps and the routing follow how the stack worked. Exact event names and parameters stayed with Newton.

03 WHAT I BUILT

Eight weeks, in the order the data needed.

01
WEEK 1 · AUDIT AND TAXONOMY

I listed every event the business cared about and every place it could fire, then wrote one spec: five funnel events, one name each, one set of parameters. Legal and compliance reviewed it once, before a single tag existed.

02
WEEKS 2 TO 3 · APPSFLYER, APP EVENTS, SKAN

I did the AppsFlyer integration myself: the SDK in the iOS and Android apps, the in app events from the spec, and SKAN conversion values for iOS mapped to the same funnel steps.

03
WEEKS 3 TO 5 · WEB TAGS, SERVER CONTAINER, CONVERSIONS APIS

Front end web events in GTM, a server container, and server side events for every advertiser. The backend fed KYC approvals, deposits and trades into the same container. Every event that could arrive twice carried an event_id from its first version.

04
WEEKS 5 TO 7 · POSTBACKS AND RECONCILIATION

AppsFlyer postbacks to each network, then the checks below. No number reached a report until its count reconciled with the source it came from.

05
WEEK 8 · ONE TABLE

One reporting table joined ad spend from every platform with app and web events under the same names. From then on, every budget call started from it.

APPSFLYERSKANGTM WEBSERVER GTMMETA CONVERSIONS APITIKTOK EVENTS APIGOOGLE ADSAPPLE SEARCH ADS

Week by week split: my reconstruction of the sequence. The two month total is the record.

04 RECONCILIATION

Three platforms can claim the same deposit.

One illustrative journey, default attribution windows. Every platform's own report counts the deposit. The table counts it once.

● ONE DEPOSIT, THREE CLAIMSILLUSTRATIVE JOURNEY · DEFAULT WINDOWS
WHAT THE PLATFORMS REPORT3 first depositsGoogle, Meta and TikTok each count the same one.
WHAT THE TABLE COUNTS1 first depositOne account, one deposit, one source credited by one rule.

Illustrative. Windows are each platform's defaults. Dots are clicks, the ring is a view, a coral diamond is a platform counting the deposit as its conversion. This is why the sum of platform reports is never the business number.

Four checks ran before a number reached a report.

01Installs

AppsFlyer against App Store Connect and the Google Play Console. A gap outside tolerance pointed to an SDK or attribution problem, fixed before anyone read the report.

02Sign ups and KYC

App and web events against accounts and verifications in the backend. When they disagreed, the backend won.

03Deposits and trades

Server events against the platform's own records. These were the events budgets moved on, so they got the tightest check.

04Spend

The table against each platform's billing, so cost per result used the same dollars finance saw.

05 THE RESULT

Two months to clean data. Nine months to VP.

What happened after the stack went live, in the order it happened.

M0M1M2M3M4M5M6M7M8M9 SENIOR MANAGER JOINED, JUNE 2024 MONTH 2 STACK LIVE MONTH 3 DIRECTOR MONTH 4 CREATOR CAMPAIGNS UGC + INFLUENCER, STRONG ROI PACING TOWARD THE BEST QUARTER IN COMPANY HISTORY MONTH 6 COMPANY MVP, 2024 MONTH 9 VP OF MARKETING
  1. MONTH 0Joined as Senior Manager, June 2024
  2. MONTH 2Full measurement stack live
  3. MONTH 3Promoted to Director
  4. MONTH 4UGC and influencer campaigns launch with strong ROI. On pace for the best quarter in company history.
  5. MONTH 6Company MVP award, 2024
  6. MONTH 9Promoted to VP of Marketing
2mozero to a full measurement stack
3moSenior Manager to Director
9moSenior Manager to VP of Marketing
2 to 7people on the marketing team, as I scaled it
MONTH 4 · CREATOR CAMPAIGNS

UGC and influencer campaigns launched with strong ROI and put the company on pace for the best quarter in its history. They were read off the same table as every other channel.

MONTH 6 · COMPANY MVP

Company MVP for 2024, despite joining halfway through the year.

MONTHS 3 AND 9 · PROMOTIONS

Director at month three. VP of Marketing at month nine. I owned consumer paid growth across Meta, Google, TikTok and Apple Search Ads.

ACROSS THE YEAR

I scaled the marketing team from 2 to 7 and built the SEO and ASO strategy that lifted keyword rankings and organic traffic. Legal and compliance were close partners throughout.

Dates, titles and the award are from my own records. Newton's volumes, revenue and growth multiples stay private. The week by week build order is my reconstruction; the two month total is the record.

06 WHAT CARRIES OVER

Write the names down before anyone opens a tag manager.

01 · TAXONOMY BEFORE TAGS

Name every event once, with its parameters, before the first tag ships. Every tag, postback and report after that inherits the same names.

02 · DEDUPE FROM DAY ONE

Any event that can arrive twice, from the browser and the server, carries an event_id from its first version. Retrofitting dedup means rereading months of doubled data.

03 · ONE TABLE EVERYONE READS

Spend and outcomes, web and app, one set of names. When two teams quote two numbers, the table settles it.

NEXT · FIELD REPORT 15 · TRACKING AND CAPIThe Server Side Signal RebuildServer side GTM and Meta CAPI rebuilt so the event the algorithm optimizes is the qualified lead the business counts.

Happy to walk through any of these live.

simon@twinsalesinc.com All field reports linkedin.com/in/simon-harms Resume (PDF)