GA4 and Matomo tracking

Each website is set to one tracking method: GA4, Matomo, or Pertento native. The choice decides how conversion events reach the platform and whether variant exposure is pushed into the analytics you already run.

On the GA4 path the runtime hooks the data layer and reads the events already flowing through it, which means the conversions Pertento measures are the same ones your analytics counts. There is no second definition of a purchase to keep in sync, which is the usual source of the argument about whose number is right.

That hook is more careful than it looks, because a real page is hostile to it. Tag managers replace the data layer push method when they initialise, and consent tools reassign the array wholesale. Both are detected and re-hooked, and a backstop sweep catches anything that bypassed the method entirely, so entries are delayed rather than lost. Purchases and configured goal events are sent in the same tick they are pushed, because during a wallet app switch on a phone there may never be another moment.

Native tracking is the third option, for sites that would rather Pertento stayed out of their analytics entirely. In that mode the data layer is left alone and conversions are reported through a function the site calls itself.