wiki/knowledge/wordpress/cordwainer-gravity-forms-migration.md · 583 words · 2026-02-19

Cordwainer Gravity Forms Migration

Overview

The Cordwainer site was running an unreliable third-party form platform that was silently dropping lead submissions. Combined with a broken SMTP configuration, the site had logged 14 failed email deliveries in the last 30 days — meaning form submissions may have been received but never forwarded to the client. This is a critical gap given that the Google Ads campaign was being evaluated on conversions.

The fix: replace the existing form platform with Gravity Forms and repair SMTP delivery immediately.

Problem

Unreliable form platform: The existing forms were not Gravity Forms. They were installed as a temporary measure during site build and were never replaced post-launch.
SMTP misconfiguration: 14 failed outbound emails in 30 days confirmed that even successful form submissions were not reaching the client inbox.
Conversion tracking gap: The broken form pipeline meant Google Ads conversions were almost certainly undercounted. The campaign showed a strong 7% CTR on $300 spend but only 1 reported conversion — likely a direct result of this failure.

"There's been 14 failed emails in the last 30 days. The SMTP's not set up properly. So we need to fix that because that means that they may be getting forms, but they're not getting them sent to them." — Mark Hope

Resolution

1. Replace Forms with Gravity Forms

Owner: E-Shock (via Sebastian)
Priority: Immediate

E-Shock had previously committed to migrating the forms to Gravity Forms after the site went live but had not completed the work on the production site. Sebastian is to follow up directly and require completion without further delay.

Gravity Forms is the team's standard WordPress form plugin. It integrates cleanly with:
- Google Ads conversion tracking (via thank-you page or AJAX event)
- SMTP plugins (e.g., WP Mail SMTP)
- CallRail (via dynamic number insertion on confirmation)

2. Fix SMTP Configuration

Owner: E-Shock / Mark
Priority: Immediate

SMTP must be configured and verified so that all form submissions trigger a successful outbound email to the client. After fixing, confirm zero failures over a 7-day window before considering it resolved.

WP Rocket / GCLID race condition: Mark identified and fixed a separate issue where WP Rocket was firing before the Google Click ID (GCLID) registered, causing missed conversion attribution in Google Ads. This is now resolved, but the fix only captures future conversions — historical data remains incomplete.
CallRail implementation: Once forms and SMTP are stable, ^[1] is to be implemented to capture phone call conversions, which were also going untracked.

Why This Matters

The Cordwainer Google Ads campaign had strong engagement metrics (7% CTR, $2.98 CPC) but appeared to have almost no conversions. The root cause was not campaign performance — it was a broken conversion pipeline. Fixing forms and SMTP is a prerequisite for:

Accurate conversion reporting to the client
Google Ads smart bidding working correctly
Demonstrating ROI and retaining the account

Action Items

[ ] E-Shock (via Sebastian): Replace current form platform with Gravity Forms on production site — immediately
[ ] E-Shock / Mark: Repair SMTP configuration; verify zero delivery failures over 7 days
[ ] Sebastian: Confirm Gravity Forms is live and test end-to-end form submission → email delivery → conversion event

^[2]
^[3]
^[4]
^[5]