Explainer · Fix #5 — the cross-device bridge

How we catch the client who
clicks on their phone and
books on their laptop

Right now, changing device breaks the ad tracking — the click gets lost and the client looks organic. This is the plain-English version of how Fix #5 stitches them back together, using something we already collect but never use.

The problem

The tracking only remembers one device

Today, the way we remember an ad click is a note saved in the browser (a cookie). That note lives on one device. So the moment someone switches, the trail goes cold.

📱
Monday · phone
Clicks a Google ad, has a browse, doesn't book
— ✕ —
💻
Two weeks later · laptop
Comes back, books a call, buys sessions
→ ?
🏷️
Filed as "organic"
The laptop never saw the phone's click note
This is a big chunk of the leak. Therapy is a slow, considered decision and people research on their phone then commit on a laptop. Every one of those looks free when it was actually a paid click.
The lucky part

We already keep a second copy — we just never look at it

Here's the good news. When someone clicks an ad, we don't only save the note in their browser. We also save a copy on our own server, filed under an anonymous ticket number. We've just never used it to reconnect anyone.

What actually happens

A cloakroom ticket

On the ad click, the browser is handed an anonymous ticket number (we call it an mca_uid). We file the Google click id in our "cloakroom" (a server table) under that ticket number. The browser keeps a copy of the ticket; we keep the coat.

The gap today

We only check the pocket

When the person comes back to book, we only look for the paper ticket in their pocket (the browser cookie). Different device = no ticket = we shrug and file them organic — even though their coat is still hanging in our cloakroom the whole time.

The whole fix in one line: start actually using the cloakroom. Look the person up by their ticket number — and give logged-in people a way to prove which tickets are theirs, even from a new device.
The bridge

Three small moves

None of these collect anything new. They just connect dots we already have.

1

Staple the ticket to their membership card

When someone is logged into their UKTG account, we save their ticket number(s) onto the account itself — not just the browser. One person can collect several tickets (phone, laptop, work computer); the account holds them all.

So the account "knows": this person = ticket A (phone) + ticket B (laptop).
2

On booking, check the cloakroom — not just the pocket

When a booking or purchase comes in with no ticket in the pocket, we don't give up. We gather every ticket number linked to that person (from their account, and their current browser), and look up the cloakroom for any of them. If any ticket has a Google click filed under it, we've found the original ad.

Laptop booking, no cookie → look up tickets A + B → ticket A has the phone's Google click → attributed.
3

Write down "this ticket belongs to this email"

Once a booking tells us the email, we permanently link every one of that person's ticket numbers to that email. So the next time — even a different device, even a different email that shares a ticket — we resolve them instantly, no detective work needed.

Now stored: ticket A, ticket B ↔ jane@email.com — reusable forever.
Worked example

Jane, start to finish

Monday — phone
Jane clicks a Google ad. We file the click in the cloakroom under ticket A. She browses, doesn't book. Today this is where the trail ends.
Two weeks later — laptop
Jane logs into her UKTG account on her laptop. Her laptop browser gets ticket B. Because she's logged in, we staple ticket B to her account (Step 1).
Same session — books a call
No click note in the laptop's pocket. So we gather all her tickets — A and B — and check the cloakroom (Step 2). Ticket A has the Monday Google click.
Result
The booking is correctly credited to the ad. And we save ticket A + B ↔ Jane's email (Step 3), so her next booking never needs looking up. Today: lost to "organic". After Fix #5: recovered.
How it fits with Fix #4

Two ways to catch the same client

Fix #4 (Enhanced Conversions) and Fix #5 (this) both recover cross-device clients — but they lean on different things, and having both is belt-and-braces.

Fix #5 · our own bridge

Our cloakroom + accounts

First-party and fully ours — no dependency on anyone else. Strongest when the person logs in (that's what links their devices). Weaker for a pure guest who never signs in on the second device.

Fix #4 · Google's graph

Google's identity match

We hand Google the buyer's hashed email/phone; Google matches it to the click using their logged-in-everywhere identity graph. Catches cross-device even when the person never logs into our site — but relies on Google.

Together they cover each other: Fix #5 catches the logged-in UKTG users on our own terms; Fix #4 catches the rest through Google. Neither alone is complete — both together close most of the cross-device gap.