I am using Google Analytics Custom Variables for a site I am working on. Here is the code snippet uploaded on the page.
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-xxxxxxxxx-1']);
//]]>
</script>
<script>
//<![CDATA[
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', 'searches/new/registration/complete']);
_gaq.push(['_setCustomVar', 1, "member type", "registered", 1]);
_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'registration', 'signup',,1]);
Although I am aware that the _trackPageview needs to be placed after the _setCustomVar call, I am still seeing numbers flow through into Google Analytics as 'member type=registered'. I do not want to dismiss these numbers and I want to make some sense of it before I amend this error in how the snippet was placed.
Any reason why I stil received visits for this Name-Value combination?
Thanks -
The Custom Var is set with a GA cookie, and is actually stored and sent on your next _trackPageview, that's why you can still see it, all you are doing to sending the data probably in a moment you don't want to (the next pageview).
Edit: Also as pointed out, it could go with your _trackEvent method, wich will end up doing the same thing, sending the data in a particular time you dont intent to, specially with events, wich are linked to interactions, so if no one triggers those in the page you are trying to set the customVar, it wont get set at all.
Because your custom variable's scope is set to 1, it'll still get fired by "trackEvent" (even without "trackPageview".
If your scope was set to 3 (page-level), it will then rely on "trackPageview" and will not register well with "trackEvent"
Related
I have started using Google Tag Manager recently and I don't understand why one of my variables remains undefined while everything seems to be set up correctly.
Here is first the code that I use to create my datalayer:
<script>
window.dataLayer = [{
'pageCategory': 'test1',
'Device' : 'test2',
'Manufacturer': 'test3'
}];
</script>
I have created custom dimensions based on those variables and I can find them in Google Analytics. So far, everything is all right.
I then want to track a click on a button that leads the users to an external link. I use the following code:
window.dataLayer.push({
'ShopURL': url,
'ShopName': shop_name,
'PriceOffer': price,
'event': 'ClickPrice'
});
I have checked the content of each variable with a console.log and they all display the correct values.
In GTM, I have created datalayer variable for each one of them, I have created a custom event to push them to Google Analytics. I have taken "ShopName" for event_category, "Device" for event_action, "PriceOffer" for event_label.
When I look at the data in Google Analytics I see that event_category is undefined while event_action has the correct value. It looks like the event is fired correctly because I can only see it in GA when I click on the button but somehow some variables are not populated correctly.
You can see it in action here: https://www.mobilemultimedia.be/en/nokia/price-nokia-8.1 (click on one of the "check offer" button to trigger the event)
With GTM preview in the browser I see all the correct values.
Any idea?
Additional info
Here is a screenshot of the variable configuration in GTM:
I'm sorry, it's in French but you can see the variable with the right name.
I believe you have your trigger set incorrectly.
I think it might be an element click trigger right now, but you need it to be a "custom event" trigger and you should have "ClickPrice" as the event name you use to trigger.
Like so:
I'm working on Google Tag Manager/Analytics for a site, here's an example page that a tag is being fired on:
https://www.forktrucktraders.co.uk/listings/refurbished-combilift-multi-directional-gas/
The tag is fired when the "Send Message" button on the contact form is clicked:
https://imgur.com/a/qTPb3Ci
Right now I've got the event's action returning the URL of the current page the form was sent from, but I'd like to know if it's possible to get the href from the "Visit dealer's website" link on the page, as it would give a faster idea of which dealer the listing is coming from. Probably a long shot to make this happen solely through Tag Manager (if not possibly just a hidden bit of data that just has the dealer's name in on the "Send Message" button) but I'd appreciate any input.
You most certainly can. Off the top of my head something along the lines of the following should work...
It depends on whether you prefer just having the url or breaking it down further.
Just the URL:
Create the following in a custom HTML tag within GTM
<script>
//This selects your desired href:
var dealerURL = document.querySelector(".stm-dealer-image-custom-view a").href;
//This pushes the value into the dataLayer temporarily for use later:
window.dataLayer.push({
event: 'formSubmit',
dealer: dealerURL
})
</script>
Ideally, this should be fired on page load of all your listings pages.
Next create a new User-Defined Variable of the dataLayer var type
within GTM corresponding to dealer, this will store the value to be
pulled through in your event.
Now just change your event action to {{dealer}} (or whatever you
ended up naming the datalayer variable), and this value should be
pulled through in your event.
Getting the dealer name:
Now presuming the href format is always the same across the site you could split this by a delimiter instead:
var dealerURL = document.querySelector(".stm-dealer-image-custom-view a").href;
var dealerSplit = dealerURL.split("/");
var dealer = dealerSplit[4];
The above would leave you with a variable containing the string 'hitec'.
This however is quite prone to breaking if the page path does not always follow the same format, as such it would be better to use RegEx instead.
To answer your specific question, you would need to create a variable to target that specific link element that contains the dealer's website's url. The simplest way is probably to add an id to the <a> element and create a variable in GTM to track it.
I had a quick look at your site and I think you have more problems with the form.
Your even triggers without validating the form, this would lead to extra events.
The event category, action and label could use some work in organizing it to help you analyze the data
You also have a mix of gtag.js and GTM snippet on the page, I would say this is not normal practice, usually, GTM is enough. You can contact me through my profile if you'd like to chat more about it.
I've got a fairly simple Tag Manager/Analytics set up (firing events on clicks/visibility) and it's working as expected for the tags I've set up myself. However when I check the Analytics page there are thousands of "undefined" tags.
I've had a look at all of the tags I created and none of them should be returning "undefined" as the category/action (the label is "(not set)")
All I need is for the undefined events to be ignored (or even better to stop firing) in Google Analytics, as it's getting in the way of the client analysing the data.
Any help is appreciated
EDIT:
As suggested, here's the only User-Defined variable on the Tag Manager:
https://imgur.com/a/flcCpGo
Here's an example of one of the tags:
https://imgur.com/a/eWM22FB
and here's a tag being fired in the preview mode:
https://imgur.com/a/0ipwqhr
May be some other (hardcoded) event returns 'undefined'?
Try to check in Chrome using «Dev Tools», tab «Network», filter google analytics calls.
And I notice you send 'gtm.click' (string) in field 'Value' that must contain integer.
Turns out this was simply just due to a tag not having a category/action/label that had been paused a while ago, the Analytics timeframe was covering from before when this tag was paused, leading it to show the undefined tags.
I am experimenting with getting datalayer variables into GA. I am just experimenting so the values are just for testing.
So I paste this link with a datalayer push onto a page:
<a href="http://www.google.com"
onclick="dataLayer.push({
'test': 'okay'
});">Customize Color</a>
I do the necessary configuration in GTM as well as GA.
However, in the debug console of Chrome I get this into the datalayer:
However, this doesn't come into GA custom dimension as you can see below:
One small note, if I paste the datapush directly under the datalayer script, I get the datalayer variable in the custom dimension. However, in that case I do not have a onclick with the URL.
What I suspect could be happening is that there is a misalignment when that dataLayer push is being made, and when you are grabbing the value to populate your custom dimensions. You should push an event ALONG with the CD value:
dataLayer.push{(
'event': 'someEvent',
'test': 'okay'
})
and then you should trigger your event tag to fire on the someEvent trigger, and at the same time, populate your CD with the test value.
EDITS:
Your trigger should be simply this:
There is absolutely no need to define an event variable that's used in an eventTrigger that fires on someEvent. I believe doing it that way causes issues.
Nyuen, great, that was exactly the issue! I didn't see the VALUE of the first declared variable of the datalayer_push also having to be the name of the custom event. I was constantly pairing it in the condition section.... I still don't see the logic of it, but ey, it works! Many thanks!
I am making the change from the basic analytics code to google tag manager since I need it to track impressions for certain elements. While testing when the pageview fires, I get this warning :
"This page took a long time to send a pageview hit to Google Analytics. Users could be clicking away from your site before it records a pageview."
Google tag manager requires adding the code at the beginning of the body (I tried adding it in the header just in case it helps with that warning, but that didn't work).
Probably GA is not the best choice for such task. GA is well-tailored for pageviews, but not for custom actions.
I solve similar issue with http://www.devmetrics.io analytics. To track impressions for certain elements on my page: 1) add for each of this elements trackvisible css class 2) using setInterval check visibility every few seconds.
Example code using jQuery and devmetrics analytics:
$('.trackvisible').each(function( index ) {
if ($(this).visible()) {
var tag = 'element.' + $(this).attr('id');
devmetrics.userEvent('impression', [tag]);
}
});