Paid media · Attribution · Regulated categories
Most ad accounts are reporting numbers nobody has checked.
I run paid media in categories where the tracking breaks and the platforms won't tell you. Twelve years in, six of them in cannabis and hemp.
One quarter · cannabis retailer · Minnesota
The conversion action was firing on an age gate. Every bid decision for the quarter was made on that number.
What I do
Three things, and they're really one thing.
Measurement that holds up
GA4 and GTM builds, server-side tagging, Meta CAPI, consent mode, cross-domain and iframe checkout tracking. Reconciled against the system that actually takes the money.
Paid media in hard categories
Google Ads, Meta, and programmatic where policy, geography, or missing signal decides the outcome. Cannabis and hemp, home services, DTC.
Compliance built into the account
State-level cannabis advertising frameworks, creative review that doesn't stall the calendar, and tooling that recommends rather than auto-publishes on restricted accounts.
Selected work
Client names are withheld. The numbers aren't.
The conversion count that meant nothing
307 reported conversions, 2 real orders. Rebuilt the measurement layer through an embedded menu iframe and gave the account a number it could bid on.
97% of the leads were unservable
Location settings were buying Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey for a Westchester contractor. Fixed the targeting, then rebuilt search-to-revenue with server-side CAPI.
Programmatic where the big platforms say no
Compliant display and video across fourteen state markets, each with its own advertising statute, held to a return the client could verify against store data.
ClearLeaf
When a project needs more than one person, it runs through ClearLeaf.
ClearLeaf Digital is the agency side. Same work, more capacity, built for regulated brands that need paid media, attribution, and programmatic under one roof. It's also where the products live: a compliance tool for cannabis creative, and Cultivar, an education platform that teaches people to read a label past the THC number.
Start here
If your reported conversions look too good, they probably are.
Tell me what the platform says and what your back end says. If those two numbers disagree, that's the whole conversation.