I've created a view in Analytics that filters based on dim1 being "true". For context, the trigger in GTM fires when the window is loaded since the dimension value is being set by a custom JS variable that needs the page to finish loading.
In tag manager assistant I receive no errors and I can see that my custom dimension is set but it doesn't show in Analytics when I filter based on the value.
I read elsewhere that sometimes custom dimensions can take a day in Analytics to show. It's been a couple of days though and I am at a loss. What else could I be doing wrong?
Related
pls help my case. I need to track goals submit form from which reference code with support from GTM and GA
my current solution:
I create universal analytics tag with track type page view and custom dimension(ex firstColumn) get value from query key.
I create custom html tag then push event and data layer with value I get from form.
I create universal analytics tag with track type event and custom dimension(I call secondColumn) get value from data layer value above.
when I create custom report with first dimension is firstColum, and second dimension is secondColumn and metric is event hit but no result. do I done anything wrong?
if you have any other solution to archive my expect. pls give a guide. Thanks!
If the custom dimensions are at the hit level and you are sending one with the first hit and one with second hit, you get no result because there are no event hits with both dimensions.
I am working on one project which needs to fire same GTM tag to for two different GA account is this possible? or should I have duplicate all the same tags for two GA accounts?
There is no standard way to fire multiple properties in one tag. However I can think of two possible workarounds.
(Updated: The same questions came up on the GTM forum and naturally Simo Ahava had a solution).
One would be to create the tracker object manually in a custom html tag (the actual pageviews happen still via Ga tag templates). This would allow you to use Google Analytics plugins and there are plugins (e.g. here or here) that send hits to multiple properties.
The other workaround is to use a feature called tag sequencing. This has the advantage that you do it with "pure" GTM instead of GA plugins. I will first show the steps and explain what happens later.
The Setup
First you need to set up your tracking id as a variable of the datalayer type. As default value you set your first tracking id:
Next you create a custom html tag that will later set the second tracker id. This also sets a custom event necessary to fire the second tracker. Note that there are no triggers attached to this tag, and that it is set to "fire only once per page" (the last thing is very important! You can set this in Advanced Settings -> Tag firing options).
Then you create a trigger that uses the custom event from the previous step:
Now comes the magic with the GA tag. You use the variable for the tracking id that you have created earlier. Then you go to "Advanced Settings", expand the "Tag Sequencing" options and check the mark before "fire a tag after fires". You select the custom html tag from above (named set2ndId in my example). Then you attach a pageview trigger and the custom event trigger (called 2ndTracker in my example).
The sequence
GTM is loaded and evaluates the tracker id from the default value of the datalayer variable
The pageview trigger fires the GA tag
The tag sequencing setting fires the custom html tag that sets the datalayer variables for event and tracking ind
Since we have an event the datalayer is re-evaluated, and the new value with the second tracker id from the custom html tag is set
The custom event trigger fires the GA tag with the second tracker id
Since the custom html tag was set to "fire once per page" it is not fired again (else you would end up in a loop)
A word of caution: This is somewhat clever, even if I say so myself, but at the moment it is a bit "proof of concept". I use it without problems for pageview tracking, but I'm still working the kinks out for event tracking etc, so you have to decide for yourself if this is useful for you.
But at least it answers your question: yes, it is possible to send to multiple properties without duplicating the GA tags, but it takes some additional setup so you have to decide if this actually saves you work.
yes it is fine to fire multiple GA properties in single GTM.
Maybe this tutorial will help you:
http://www.kristaseiden.com/step-by-step-adding-a-second-ga-property-via-google-tag-manager/
I hope this helps.
I've created a new view in Google Analytics with everything set up the same as a currently functioning one, only with the addition of User ID tracking turned ON. It's using the same property so the UA code has not changed.
I've copied over everything that I can think of from the current view to the new view. At first glance everything was working fine, page views were coming through via Real-Time correctly and matched up with the values seen in the current view.
For some reason though, the new view is not listing ANY actual events in Real-Time, however the events graph is being populated.
The current view IS tracking all the events correctly.
We use Tag Manager to handle all our events among other things, and using the debug mode, all events were also being triggered correctly. Finally, I've also used the GA Debugger chrome extension, which again is not showing any issues. The new User ID property is being passed through to analytics as I'd expect.
I've tried searching for any issues related to User ID views and tracking events, but came up blank, presumably because there is no inherent issue with this set up.
Any suggestions?
I found out that the reason that the events were not tracking is because the user id was not being sent along with every event.
I believed that once it was set on page load every analytics interaction after that would use that user id. This was not the case. In Tag manager I added a 'Field to set' property for all relevant tags like so;
For example, if I have a news page that's already being tracked via GA and I add a javascript event to capture clicks on a specific link to the news page (e.g. navigation) am I then 'double counting'?
If a fake pageview is not beneficial in this situation, and from your description that you're looking to track an engagement click on your page, use Event Tracking instead of Pageviews.
Tracking a click/event is easy (especially if you're already using Javascript). The best part is that this event is not considered a page view, keeping those stats safe.
The implementation is simple and allows for quite a bit of customization:
_trackEvent(category, action, opt_label, opt_value)
Below is an example of a link that's been encoded with an event tag:
Play
Here's the Google Analytics resource page on Event Tagging:
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/eventTrackerGuide.html
Well it's not a real page view, but Google Analytics thinks that it is--i.e., it shows up in your pageview counts.
Fortunately, it's easy to filter those so they don't contaminate your pageview data.
So for instance,
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', 'unique_virtual_pagename']);
So in your GA Browser, you'll see the number of clicks actually shown as the number of pageviews of *unique_virtual_pagename*, which is not good.
There are a two ways to fix this (that i am aware of): (i) set a temporary filter at the bottom of the pageview table; or (ii) set a persistent (c*ustom*) filter in your Admin Panel (which i think is best) to remove pageviews having only the name *unique_virtual_pagename*, or whatever name you've chosen. This will of course take up to 24 hours to set, so the best plan is to set the filter first, then add the javascript to your page. so the filter is active when you begin collecting clicks.
But that just solves the problem of disaggregating these virtual pageviews from your real pageviews, you still need a way to count/record them.
I prefer to create a separate profile in these cases. So first, i filter the virtual pageviews from my actual pageviews using a custom filter, then i create a new profile which has another filter excluding everything but these virtual pageviews. I usually give that profile a name based on the event.
What you're doing is registering what's called a 'virtual page view'. To GA it's seen as a real page view and shows up in your content report's and page view counts etc. This is often useful if you want to show a page view for media that GA can't track. It's also commonly used to count an event, such as a button click, as a goal conversion.
If you just want to record the event and not count a page view you should look at using GA event tracking instead.
I am using the async version of Google Analytics along with custom variables and events. I have placed the tracking script (cut and paste from google) at the end of the section.
The custom variable is set above the tracking code in the head section. I'm assuming that Googles Analytics will send the data including the custom variable on page load. What happens if I have onclick triggered events? Will the custom variable in the head section get sent along with each event that is triggered as well?
I'm not sure how this plays out with javascript.
Thanks!
It depends on the scope of the custom variable. Page view scope will only send/report the first time. You will have to include it in the onclick code that is triggered to get it to count each click.
If you have it as a visit/session scope, in the reports, it will associate itself for each click event for the duration of the visit/session.