Case Study: 1st United Credit Union achieves accurate conversion tracking with SmartBug Media

1st United Credit Union closes reporting gaps with SmartBug Media after 3 years

1st United Credit Union faced a significant reporting challenge, as its industry-standard MeridianLink software could not be fully integrated with Google Ads to track campaign conversions. For three years, the marketing team was unable to tie clicks to successful outcomes like new account openings. They hired SmartBug Media for its technical expertise in paid media to solve this seemingly unsolvable problem.

SmartBug Media developed a solution by researching the coding limitations and working directly with MeridianLink to implement new tracking tags via Google Tag Manager. This successfully closed the reporting loop, feeding data into Google Analytics and Google Ads. The result was that 1st United gained access to true conversion data for the first time, allowing them to track specific applications by campaign. The executive team was thrilled with the outcome, and the partnership with SmartBug has since expanded to include a more robust SEO and SEM program.

1st United Credit Union