PostHog GTM Events

This drill establishes a standard event taxonomy in PostHog that all GTM plays, drills, and tools feed into. Consistent event naming and properties are the foundation for every measurement, threshold, and dashboard you build.

Prerequisites

• PostHog account with project created
• PostHog tracking snippet installed on your website and product
• Understanding of your GTM motions (marketing, sales, product, etc.)

Steps

1. Define the event naming convention

Establish a naming scheme every drill and play follows:

• Format: object_action in snake_case (e.g., email_sent, meeting_booked, trial_started)
• Objects: lead, contact, deal, email, meeting, campaign, page, feature, subscription
• Actions: created, viewed, clicked, sent, opened, replied, booked, started, completed, churned, upgraded

Never use vague names like "event1" or platform-specific names like "instantly_webhook_fire." Events should be tool-agnostic — the same email_sent event fires whether you use Instantly or Smartlead.

2. Define standard event properties

Using the posthog-custom-events fundamental, attach consistent properties to every event:

• Source: Which drill or play triggered the event (e.g., "cold-email-sequence", "webinar-pipeline")
• Channel: The communication channel (email, linkedin, phone, in-app, ad)
• Stage: Where in the funnel this event occurs (awareness, consideration, decision, onboarding, retention)
• Campaign: The specific campaign or play instance identifier
• Level: The play level if applicable (smoke, baseline, scalable, durable)

Plus event-specific properties: for email_sent, include subject line, template ID, and sequence step. For meeting_booked, include source channel and prospect tier.

3. Implement person properties

Set person properties that accumulate over time:

• first_touch_channel: The channel that first brought this person in
• last_touch_channel: Most recent interaction channel
• lead_score: Current score from the enrich-and-score drill
• lifecycle_stage: prospect, lead, qualified, customer, churned
• total_emails_received, total_meetings_booked, etc.

These properties enable cohort analysis and segmentation across all drills.

4. Build the core funnels

Using posthog-funnels, create standard funnels that every GTM team needs:

• Acquisition funnel: page_viewed -> lead_created -> meeting_booked -> deal_created -> deal_won
• Activation funnel: trial_started -> onboarding_step_completed (x N) -> activation_reached
• Expansion funnel: feature_used -> upgrade_prompt_shown -> upgrade_started -> upgrade_completed
• Retention funnel: session_started (weekly) with dropoff tracking over 90 days

5. Set up cohort definitions

Using posthog-cohorts, create reusable cohorts:

• Active users (session in last 7 days)
• At-risk users (no session in 14+ days, previously active)
• Power users (top 10% by usage volume)
• Churned users (no activity in 30+ days, was previously active)
• Upgrade candidates (approaching plan limits)

These cohorts feed into drills like churn-prevention, upgrade-prompt, and winback-campaign.

6. Document and enforce the taxonomy

Create a reference document listing every event, its properties, and which drills fire it. Review the taxonomy monthly. New events must follow the naming convention. Retire events that no one queries. A clean taxonomy is worth more than a comprehensive one — if nobody uses an event, remove it.