Google Analytics 4 and GTM
What’s the difference between Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics?
- Google Tag Manager is used for storing and managing code.
- Google Analytics is used for data analysis.
Google Analytics 4
Google announced that Universal Analytics (UA) will be replaced with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) from 1 July 2023.
GA4 is less dependent on cookies and has more user-friendly privacy controls built in so you can remain compliant with GDPR. After installing the tags in your site’s code, you will also be able to track the following:
- Scrolls
- Outbound clicks
- Site search
- Video engagement
- File downloads
Currently, events in Universal Analytics look like this:
- Event Category – mandatory field, what the event is related to.
- Event Action – mandatory field, what the user acted upon.
- Event Label – optional field, an additional label.
- Event Value – optional field, if the event had any monetary value.
In GA4, there is only 1 mandatory field for events, which is the “event name”. GA4 events also have optional fields called “parameters”. These can be used to add additional fields with information and context for your events. An event in GA4 may look something like this:
- Event Name: Click To Call
- click_url: tel: 01202 677277
- page_url: https://dental-design.marketing
- click_element: phone_header
GA4 automatically tracks certain events. Here is the list of default events below:
- Page View
- First Visit
- File Download
- Session Start
- Video Start
- Video Progress
- Video Completed
- View Search Results
There are 4 event types in GA4:
- Automatically collected events – Triggered by basic interactions with your site.
- Enhanced Measurement events – Let’s you measure interactions with your content by enabling options (events) in the GA interface.
- Recommended events – Events that are recommended by Google. They do not automatically get triggered and logged unless you manually implement them.
- Custom events – An event with a name and set of parameters that you define yourself so you can collect information that’s specific to your business.
To begin creating events, make sure you have Google Tag Manager installed. Read more about setting this up below.
Events tracked via Enhanced Measurement:
When you configure a web data stream in Google Analytics 4, you have the option to enable “Enhanced Measurement”. Enhanced Measurement Events help you get as many events in the reports as possible without the need to configure Google Tag Manager.
If you go to Admin > Data Streams > Select the web data stream, the following window will open below.
By default, this feature is enabled and will automatically track the following events:
- Page view
- Scroll
- Outbound link click
- Site search
- Video Engagement
- File Download
- Form Tracking
If you want, you can disable/enable events individually, and you can do that by clicking the gear icon in red below:
And then click the toggle buttons below to switch them on/off:
If you want to track a specific interaction on your site, for instance, someone clicking on your online booking button, then you would need to set up a “custom event” which can be a little more complex. Here is Google’s guide on setting them up.
Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a powerful tool that lets you add and edit tracking codes (tags). It’s a much more convenient way to control all your tags in one dashboard than across your website’s source code.
The most popular use of GTM is for Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Facebook Pixel.
There are three main parts to GTM:
- Tag: A snippet of code that’s pasted into the pages of your site.
- Triggers: Defines when and where tags are executed.
- Variables: Used to receive or store information to be used by tags and triggers.
Getting Started With Google Tag Manager
To begin recording basic data such as page views, scrolls and outbound clicks, you will need to set up the “GA4 Configuration tag” on every page that you want to measure.
Unlike Universal Analytics, this one tag will set Google Analytics cookies for your property and send automatic measurement events to GA.
- Log in to https://tagmanager.google.com
- Create an account
- Install the container – This is where you store all your tags, triggers and variables
- Add your tags
- Verify that your tags work
- Publish your tags
(More details in the article here)
- Variables: There are two categories of variables: Built-in variables (cannot be customsied) and user-defined variables (custom created). Set up variables using the guide here.
- Triggers: The trigger tells the tag when to fire. Set up triggers using the guide here.
- Tags: The tag will send data to Google Analytics for reporting. Universal Analytics only has one tag type (UA), whereas Google Analytics 4 has two tag types: GA4 Configuration and GA4 Event. The GA4 Event tag relies on the GA4 Configuration tag to be set up and the GA4 Configuration tag must fire before the GA4 Event tag. Set up tags using the guide here.
Don’t worry, as part of your ongoing management, we will help you through the migration to Google Analytics 4. If you have any questions then please contact your account manager on 01202 677277.
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