Budget moved between brands on consent rates
A brand whose audience rejects the banner more often looks smaller and less efficient than it is. Shifting investment toward the brand that looks stronger can reward a banner, not a business.
Industry · Multi-brand retail
Each brand, its banner.
Each banner,
its own gap.
Your brands run different consent banners, GA4 properties, agencies and channel names, so a brand-against-brand report compares configurations as much as results. Sealmetrics measures every brand site on the same method, without consent loss, inside one group organization, with brand teams scoped to their own sites and one BigQuery dataset for the group.
One site per brand domain · per-site currency and timezone · shared channel rules · EU-hosted in Dublin
Quick answer
Analytics for a multi-brand retailer has to answer a question no single brand's tool can: which brand, market and channel is growing, measured on one comparable basis. When every brand runs its own consent banner, each GA4 property loses a different share of visitors, because rejection varies with sector, brand strength and traffic mix; the Sealmetrics documentation puts that loss at 15–60%. A comparison between brands then measures consent rates as much as performance. Sealmetrics counts visits without cookies, so rejecting a banner removes no visit from any brand. Each brand domain is a site inside one group organization, with its own timezone and currency, and brand teams can be limited to their own sites. Channel rules move between sites as CSV, and several sites can write to one BigQuery dataset for the group total. It does not follow a shopper from one brand's site to another.
Why brands cannot be compared today
Same group.
Five different rulers.
Brand reports disagree for reasons that have nothing to do with how the brands perform. Each difference below is set brand by brand, usually by a different team or agency, and none of it is visible in the report that suffers from it.
| What differs by brand | Effect on the report | Why the group does not see it | What makes it comparable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consent banner and rejection rate | Each brand loses a different share of its visits | A property cannot show the visitors it never recorded | Visits counted without waiting for the banner |
| Channel taxonomy | Paid Social in one brand is Social or Unassigned in another | Each property was configured by a different team or agency | The same channel rules imported on every site |
| Agency and ad platforms | Each brand's agency reports its own platforms | No neutral layer sits between the brands | Measured revenue per brand on one method |
| Currency and timezone | Days and totals do not line up across markets | Each property reports in its own settings | Per-site currency and timezone, joined in the warehouse |
| Links between brands | A shopper sent from one brand to another arrives as referral traffic | Untagged links carry no campaign | UTMs on every cross-brand link |
The loss is uneven even inside one store. At Incapto, GA4 did not record 29% of visits, and Sealmetrics recorded 11% more direct traffic than GA4 but 37–52% more from paid campaigns and 133% more from organic social. Across brands with different audiences, banners and channel mixes, the distortion compounds. How consent-based tools lose that traffic is covered under data loss in analytics.
What the group pays for it
Budget follows the banner,
not the brand.
When the comparison is biased, the group's decisions inherit the bias. It shows up in three places.
Group reviews spent reconciling brand reports
Brand teams, departments and agencies arrive with figures built on different settings. Palladium Hotel Group's starting point was exactly that: the same meeting, different numbers and different incentives.
Channel mix misread brand by brand
At Incapto, GA4 showed paid campaigns as 50% of traffic; measured without consent loss they were 62%. Repeat a twelve-point gap with a different size in every brand and the group media plan rests on none of them.
Setting up a group
One method.
Every brand on it.
The goal is not one dashboard but one ruler: every brand measured the same way, reconciled with its own orders, then added up. Why that matters for budget is argued on single source of truth.
Create one organization and one site per brand domain
Create a single organization for the group and add a site for each brand or country domain, with its own timezone and currency. Subdomains of the same domain stay on the same site; a separate domain needs its own site. Install the tracker and the purchase conversion on each.
Scope brand teams to their own sites
Keep group analytics as Owner or Admin, with access to every site. Invite each brand team as Member and assign only its brand's sites, as Editor to change configuration or Viewer to read the data.
Apply one channel taxonomy to every brand
Agree UTM conventions for all agencies. Build the custom channel rules on one site as drafts, test them with real source, medium and campaign values, and publish. Export them as CSV and import the file on every other brand site; the import replaces that site's custom rules, up to 100 per site. Tag links between brands with UTMs.
Reconcile each brand with its own orders
Before comparing brands, compare each site's measured orders and revenue with that brand's own order system for the same period and currency, leaving out orders with no web visit. At Incapto, Sealmetrics recorded 96% of real orders and 97% of revenue over 48 days.
Build the group total in BigQuery
Point the brand sites at the same BigQuery project and dataset; they share the fact tables and each row carries its site's account ID. Join the accounts table for name, timezone and currency, convert currencies with the group's own rates, and report brands side by side. The Batch API is the alternative: up to 50 queries per request, each in its site's timezone.
Who reads it in the group
One ruler,
four levels.
The group and the brands keep their own tools and agencies. What changes is that their numbers are built the same way.
Group CMO / eCommerce director
Allocate budget between brands on figures that can be compared.
Revenue by brand and channel on the same method, reconciled with each brand's orders before it is added up.
Single source of truthBrand manager
Run the brand's own channels without seeing other brands' data.
Member access limited to the brand's sites, with the same reports and channel rules as every other brand.
Analytics for eCommerceGroup data and BI
One dataset for every brand, in the group's warehouse.
Brand sites writing to one BigQuery dataset, with site, timezone and currency on every row's account.
BigQuery connectorGroup DPO
One analytics setup to assess, not one per brand.
No cookies, no IP stored, processing in Dublin and a DPA. Exemption from consent still depends on configuration and each national authority.
GDPR analyticsMeasured in practice
“The data Sealmetrics delivers is agnostic, unbiased and neutral. There's no black box.”
Toni Andújar · Digital & Direct Sales Director · Palladium Hotel Group
There is no published multi-brand retail case yet. The evidence comes from a hotel group whose brand teams, departments and agencies now work from one reference, and from an eCommerce store measured side by side with GA4 for 48 days.
of inbound traffic had no source or medium before the neutral layer
Palladium Hotel GroupRead the case
of visits GA4 did not record in a 48-day parallel run
IncaptoRead the case
of visits with no usable origin, GA4 against Sealmetrics
IncaptoRead the case
What it does not do
Comparable brands.
Not connected shoppers.
A group view built on aggregates has clear edges. Attribution is last click within each session, on each site.
— No journeys across brands
Separate domains are separate sites and Sealmetrics does not track across sites. A shopper who moves from one brand to another is a visit on each, with nothing linking them.
— Currencies stay per site
Each site records revenue in its own currency. A group total in one currency is converted in the warehouse with the group's own rates.
— Channel rules do not rewrite history
Rules apply to traffic received after they go live. Import the shared taxonomy before the comparison period starts.
— Orders without a web visit stay outside
Store, phone and marketplace orders have no session on the brand site to attribute.
— Last click per session, nothing more
No multi-touch model and no view-through. Earlier influence belongs in a marketing-mix model fed with the group totals.
— Ad pixels keep their own consent
Sealmetrics sets no cookies, but the ad pixels and tags each brand runs still need consent, and exemption depends on each national authority.
Questions retail groups ask
Before you compare
your brands again.
How should a multi-brand retailer structure Sealmetrics?
One organization for the group and one site per brand or country domain, each with its own timezone and currency. Subdomains of the same domain stay on one site; separate domains need separate sites. Every plan includes unlimited websites and users.
Can each brand team see only its own brand?
Yes. Invite brand teams with the Member role and assign only their brand's sites, as Editor or Viewer. Owners and Admins see every site in the organization.
Why do our brands' GA4 numbers not compare?
Because each property loses a different share of visitors to its consent banner, and each was configured with its own channel names and agency. Rejection varies with sector, brand strength and traffic mix, so the brand whose audience rejects more looks weaker than it is.
Can we see a group total across brands in different currencies?
Build it in BigQuery. Several sites can write to the same dataset, each row carries its site's account ID, and the accounts table holds each site's currency and timezone. Convert currencies there with the group's own rates.
Does Sealmetrics follow a shopper across our brands' websites?
No. Separate domains are separate sites and Sealmetrics does not track across sites or identify visitors. A shopper sent from one brand to another is counted as a visit on each; tag links between brands with UTMs to see how much traffic they send.
How do we keep the same channel definitions for every brand?
Build the custom channel rules once, test and publish them, export them as CSV and import the file on each brand site. The import replaces that site's custom rules in one step, with up to 100 rules per site, and applies to traffic received afterwards.
Can brands keep their own agencies and ad platforms?
Yes. Sealmetrics does not send conversions to ad platforms, so each agency keeps optimising in its own tools. What the group adds is revenue per brand measured the same way, which is where budget between brands is decided.
Group measurement review
Bring two brands.
See where the comparison changes.
Thirty minutes: we look at how two of your brands are measured today, their banners, properties and channel rules, and set up a comparison on one method against each brand's orders.