So is it okay to have If I place code in this order? I have checked the GTM Debugger that all of the values are being passed to GA (with the correct dimension indexes) and I can see "activity" in GA (so the GTM > GA passthrough is clearly working). “One of my favorites is content grouping in Google Analytics combined with Google Tag Manager. Or maybe you could ask a developer to push that variable to the data layer sooner? Remember, GTM works best when deployed alongside the data layer (in fact, broken data layer = severely crippled GTM). I'll be resuming my intermediate GTM course very soon! It might be a 3rd party plugin, some custom code created by your developer, even Google Tag Manager itself can push the information from the Data Layer. Hi Julius, great post on the data layer! Enter in an account name and click continue. So if a developer pushes data layer changes to the website, from the next pageload those changes will be applied to the visitors. We have a basic understanding of the tag manager lingoes. This data will be sent by way of a new Google Tag Manager custom template, and it will comprise statistics of all the tags that have fired on your site for any given dataLayer event. If you skipped to the summary without reading the entire thing, then I suggest you bookmarking this page so you can come back later. Surveys 360. Would they not yet propagate? Use Google Tag Manager Preview and Debug Console. All other cookie-setting tags must be handled as described below. But if you know how, it’s fairly simple to view what’s in it. So once you reach the point where a developer pushes the interaction data (together with the event key) to the Data Layer, the next step is to catch that .push and turn it into a triggering condition. Let's talk about the nuts and bolts of GTM. Then, we'll examine variables (aka macros). Whenever implementing tags via Google Tag Manager, it is of utmost importance to always test your implementations. If you already had a GA Pageview tag in your GTM container, there’s no need to create a new one. It can be placed anywhere in the code (above and below Google Tag Manager container) and it will not break the event tracking within GTM. Click Pinterest Tag when it appears below. Google Ads conversion tag), the interaction first must be pushed to the Data Layer. Push pricingPlan Data Layer Variable to Google Analytics, #6. After Installation, click the Tag Assistant icon in your browser. You need to align the implementation with whatever laws and regulations apply to your organization and the users that visit your site(s). In Preview and Debug mode, click the registrationCompleted event and go to the Data Layer tab. As we discussed, event tracking can help you use a data-driven approach to optimize your PPC landing pages, e-commerce product pages, blog posts, lead generation campaigns, and affiliate marketing. If the tag has not fired, check whether you have entered the proper event name in the trigger settings. . Check GA Real Time Events to see this event come send data to Google Analytics. Google Analytics can provide a lot of the important insights you’re looking for, but when used alone, it does have its limitations. Google Tag Manager uses the information (stored in the data layer) in two ways: We can achieve the first part with the help of the Data Layer Variable and the 2nd one with triggers. Since we are interested in tracking successful registrations, we need to tell GTM that registrationComplete events are important to us and we wish to use them as triggers. Check whether you also see the event there. In Google Tag Manager, go to Triggers and hit the New button. Save this variable, refresh Preview and Debug (P&D) mode, and refresh the website you’re working on. For example, I might want to tell GTM that the user is accessing my website while vital services are not working and that the user on the current page is not logged in. We’re going to go over to our tags, select our test tag. Click on the icon to further reveal what the problem is. You can ask a developer to activate the following code every time a user signs up. If you are still struggling with testing your tags in GTM, read this blog post with 30+ debugging tips. The entire concept of the event tracking in Google Tag Manager is based on the Data Layer. In Google Tag Manager, go to Variables > User Defined Variables > New > Data Layer Variable. Another example – transaction or product data. “Tags” help marketers to collect insightful data about their website audience and ultimately help webmasters and marketers to better understand and serve their audience. 17 Ways To Fix It. For enabling enhanced ecommerce tracking, open your wordpress dashboard and navigate to Settings >> Google Tag Manager. And don’t limit yourself only to those two tools. If the Data Layer already exists on a page, this container snippet will adapt to it and will continue using the existing layer. You can even see the dataLayer mentioned in the code. Here are a few techniques that will help you to check the GTM container. We are going to create a variable from GTM interface and see how it reflects in the Variables tab under Google Tag Manager. That’s how you can transfer additional data from Google Tag Manager Data Layer to Google Analytics. To use Google Tag Manager with your Shopify Plus online store, you do the following: Have access to the checkout.liquid file. Congratulations! So whenever you save this goal, complete another registration on your website, go to real-time reports > Conversions, and check whether it was displayed there. How Google Tag Manager Works. One of our sharpest web analysts, Andy Gibson, recently wrote a blog post about Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics Premium for Enterprises on a high level and the value behind these tools, especially when used together. Businesses of any size can potentially benefit from GTM. It enables us to capture interactions (+ use them as triggers) and get some additional data about the interaction or the context (+ use it with the help of Data Layer Variables). This console window will appear only on your computer as you preview the site, and is not visible to your … Only then Google Tag Manager can catch it and use it as a triggering condition. However, if you indeed want to use some custom information, continue reading. If you could have a mention in the article, it would be great. The best way to check if custom dimensions are properly passed is to use GA Debugger Chrome Extension. Check the website’s source code. UPDATE: Google Tag Manager has updated their debugger, allowing you to see both Names or Values being passed into GTM. Let’s pull out the gender from the contact form. Read this useful blog post. In my other blog post, I have shared how to access various data structures in the Data Layer. The following guide will explain how to track each step of the booking process and also then how to set up both Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel tracking tags Ensure you’re in preview mode inside Google Tag Manager. It’s impossible to gain any insights … You need to create a custom dimension pricingPlan in order to inform Google Analytics about this new parameter. Manage all your tags in one place for a smarter, simpler way to oversee your marketing. … What is Google Tag Manager? Let’s take a look at the example. You’ll become better with time. I don't understand the example "using data from the Data Layer in GTM and GA". Visit your homepage (or any page on your website) Right-click … In your Google Analytics property, go to Admin and in the “View” column of your GA property go to Goals. For the purpose of reporting ecommerce information to Google Analytics, the data layer tag will work hand in hand with a Google Analytics ecommerce tag. But for the sake of science, let’s take a look. It is a good idea to use optional parameters as well as required ones. Granted they are static values, but you get the idea. That wraps up the basics of using Google Tag Manager for event tracking. This means that 5 registrations of the same user during the same session will be counted just as a single goal. This data powers vendor solutions like Google Analytics and can be a point of departure for data-driven initiatives. Reload your website and ensure the Google Tag Manager debug console loads at the bottom of the page. The data layer is a piece of script that contains any information or variables that you want Google Tag Manager to read, and then report to Google Analytics — including ecommerce data. This data powers vendor solutions like Google Analytics and can be a point of departure for data-driven initiatives. Take a closer look at the second line of code and you’ll see dimension3. Blog. So far so good. I have already asked my developers to add static information to the Data Layer when the page loads. Now, let’s check whether the developer passed an additional key you asked for, plan. A data layer is an JavaScript object that contains all of the data that you want to pass to Google Tag Manager from your web page. Modify your Google Tag Manager tag “UA – Is Incognito Browser” to include a Custom Dimension and set its value equal to {{DLV – Is Incognito}}. For example, if someone submits a form, a developer can activate the following code: Since the code above contains the event key, this dataLayer.push can be used as a triggering condition in Google Tag Manager. Look at the status of the Google Tag Manager container. Just use the existing one because the most important part (where you need to enter the Custom Dimension) is hiding within the GA Settings Variable. Is there any kind of "lag" before your custom dimensions appear in Google Analytics? If you prefer video material over lengthy blog posts, some of my Google Tag Manager courses go deeper into the Data Layer: Before we continue, a quick note: in this article, I will interchangeably use dataLayer and Data Layer. We can keep this private, you are free to send the information to julius[at] analyticsmania.com. All other cookie-setting tags must be handled as described below. Click Network Required fields are marked *. Look at the status of the Google Tag Manager container. There are templates for Google services such as Analytics and AdWords. In the Data Layer Variable Name field, enter the key exactly as it was written in the code, e.g. If you feel that this concept is difficult to master, you’re not alone. To use certain pieces of data (in the shape of variables). Google Tag Manager heavily relies on what is within that bucket. Because by default, if it is created, Data Layer is just an empty bucket. Test variations of your sites and apps with advanced tools for enterprise marketers. I am about to migrate all my hardcoded tags to GTM and find myself a bit confused with the google ads tags already implemented. The key deliverable of this little project is a BigQuery view that collects data from your website. . function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} The product info it pulls is visible in the gtm debug tool. Security — Learn about additional features of Google Tag Manager that may help site-owners with advanced security concerns. - It would also help if you could share the access to that GTM container (with "read" permissions). After that, you’ll need to wait a few hours for Google Analytics to gather your website’s data. Go to Tags and click New: Enter the name for the tag – GA pageview (actually, you can name it whatever you want). Before we end this section, here’s a Pro Tip … Google Tag Manager can only report the User-ID to Google Analytics if it knows the User-ID. The Data Layer snippet looks like this: The code (between tags) is our static Data Layer information. This recipe is for creating Universal Analytics Event Tags in Google Tag Manager when customers view a shopping cart page. If you don’t have one, let’s create it. If click information is added to that bucket, GTM can use it as a triggering condition. Since we want to pass this dimension with every Google Analytics hit, go to Variables (in your GTM container), find the Google Analytics Settings Variable, and open it. Here, we would name it something like DLV contact form gender. It can enhance your goals, conversions, and reporting in ways you only wish you could have before. Just beware that usually, this is the developer’s responsibility. Automate and integrate Tag Manager with your favorite Google apps — like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, … I cannot explain a particular reason for such delay, but in the end, the data found its way to the reports. Click [looking glass icon] in the top-right corner of the page and start typing Pinterest in the search bar. tracking, remarketing, and CRO tags) into webpages. This is the Data Layer code that must be added above the GTM container: If you’re not comfortable with touching the website’s code, a developer should do that (and in most cases, he/she will, in fact, have to do it. And it’s really weird that Data Layer declaration is still mentioned in the official Google Tag Manager documentation. Hi Julius, thanks for the awesome article! Tag managers use a single JavaScript container tag to inject various different tags (e.g. 2. pricingPlan is a custom parameter that was defined by you (or your developer) so Google Analytics will not catch it by default. Here’s a look at an architecture diagram showing the Google Tag Manager Monitor Tool integrated with Google Analytics: The Secret Sauce. It can help you gain insight into places where users get stuck, or drop out. If the snippet is placed after the GTM container code, Data Layer’s data won’t be fetched by Google Tag Manager. This virtual layer uses a JavaScript object or another piece of code to collect and send various data points when a user meets the conditions you set. It’s perfectly fine to be confused at the beginning. Or you would not recommend it. Google Tag Manager Masterclass for Beginners. Once you have connected Google Tag Manager to your Timely account it is important to set a few things up to make sure you are tracking each step of the booking process accurately.. In order to create a variable, you’ll need to specify the Data Layer key of which value you want to retrieve. Step 1 − In Google Tag Manager Interface, go to Variables. If pricingPlan is undefined, you should double-check whether you have entered a correct Data Layer Variable name in GTM’s admin panel (by the way, it’s case-sensitive). I understand "Data Layer" script should be placed before GTM code. Learn how to track website calls in Google Analytics with the help of Google Tag Manager. images, videos, length, title length) lead to the most conversions, longest time on page, etc. After you complete these steps, you will start sending user’s pricing plan name with every Google Analytics hit (pageview, event, etc.). If you want to capture interaction and fire a particular tag (e.g. Google Tag has a number of preset variables that can be utilized. Step3: Verify Data is Pushing to Data Layer 1. In this example, I will not go into detail on how to create a tag, I will only demonstrate how to pull the author data from the Data Layer and turn it into a variable (within Google Tag Manager). Click it and check whether your GA Event tag is fired. What I did: I checked Debug Console Mode. Let’s go ahead and call this view services button click. We’re going to come back over here to Google Tag Manager. 200 is an indication that the response is good. In our Google Tag Manager for Beginners course, we are going to slowly introduce you to this powerful Tag Management tool. How Google Tag Manager Works. Tag Manager 360. The purpose of this blog post (and entire analyticsmania.com) is to educate non-developers, how they can master GTM, have quite extensive control of Google Analytics, Google Ads, or other implementation. I suggest starting with a few events and then scale up. Click on Console to see if there are any JavaScript errors Here’s how GTM and Data Layer work in a nutshell: In many cases (at least from my experience), Data Layer is not commonly known among developers. Once a developer confirms that the above code is implemented, it’s time for you to check whether that’s true. To use Google Tag Manager with your Shopify Plus online store, you do the following: Have access to the checkout.liquid file. , 3)