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.
Related
When using the Google Tag Manager, is it possible to track some things the old way in addition to using the GTM?
For example, I use GTM in order to fire a page view.
However, I want to fire another page view, when a user clicks a button, also known as a virtual page view.
The button in question doesn't have an ID and I don't trust the othet agency, which handles these buttons to consistently keep the same IDs for these elements. So I would rather have them be responsible for these types of page views.
The code for the virtual page view would look something like that:
ga('send', {
hitType: 'pageview',
page: 'button2'
});
Since the tracker is already initialized by GTM, I would only have this code outside GTM.
Would this work if all other google analytics related things run over gtm and where should I put this code in this case? Somewhere after the GTM code on the page I'd imagine?
Google Tag Manager (GTM) by default uses a random name for each tracker, generated for each Universal Analytics tag. There is a possibility to use fixed name for trackers, which is highly discouraged. This means, that you might have difficulties to identify the proper tracker to use, when sending your additional pageview data.
There are however other methods to send virtual pageviews using GTM, where you can benefit from your existing Analytics settings, defined in Google Tag Manager. (Preferably by using Google Analyitcs Settings variable.)
As far as I understand, you have control over the code, to run some JavaScript on the relevant click event.
So instead of directly invoking the ga object, you can send the desired data to GTM, with a call like this:
dataLayer.push({
event : 'virtualPageView',
virtualPagePath : 'button2'
});
Obviously, there are a couple of things you need to set up in GTM, which will be able to act on this event, and send the pageview to Google Analytics.
Create a variable that points to virtualPagePath dataLayer variable, so the newly pushed value could be reused
Create a custom event trigger, that can be used with one or more tags. The event name should match your given event name, virtualPageView in my example.
You need an Universal Analytics tag, which will send the pageview. This tag should be fired by your new custom event trigger, and should have an extra setting compared to your regular pageview tag. Namely, page variable within the Fields to set block should point to the newly created dataLayer variable, that contains your virtual page path.
This way, Google Tag Manager will take care of creating the tracker for you, sending the hit to Google Analytics, and using the virtual page path variable provided by you, instead of the URL in the browser address bar.
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'm trying to integrate Google Tag Manager with my Ember app. I'm having a hard time understanding how to notify GTM that the page changed, and send a page view event.
I've read a lot of things online, mostly working around creating a new variable for a "virtual page" or something, but obviously this is far from ideal.
I'd like to be able to just use dataLayer.push to notify the page actually changed. Is there an easy way out I didn't find or is it really a pain to track with GTM on SPA?
This was asked quite a while ago. With the current feature set of GTM, you can easily set up SPA page tracking without much trouble.
First, go to Triggers and create a new trigger. Select History Change as the trigger type. This will create a trigger that fires every time the location history changes.
Then create a new Tag of Universal Analytics type and set it up as per the screenshot below.
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As for the trigger, set the previously defined History Change trigger, and you're done. Every time a navigation occurs in your SPA, a page view event with the proper page path will be triggered.
EDIT: as trognaders pointed out in a comment, this does not track the initial page view. To remedy, simply add an additional trigger for your tag that fires on the Page View event (All Pages). See screenshot below.
You definitely need to push events into the dataLayer which you can then trigger a GA page view tag in GTM. So to push an event into the DL:
dataLayer.push({'event':'virtualPageView'});
Then setup a trigger called 'vpv' which fires on a custom event called 'virtualPageView'. Add that trigger to a GA tag.
The best thing to do is also send through the details of the virtual page when you send the event. This way you can set up variables that pull these dataLayer property values into the page view call. So you might do this:
dataLayer.push({
'event':'virtualPageView',
'page':{
'title':'contact us',
'url':'/contact'
}
});
So you'd setup a variable called 'DL- page title' (for example) which is a dataLayer value of 'page.title' and another variable called 'DL - page url' which is a dataLayer value of 'page.url'.
You then setup a new Universal Analytics tag which has all your usual pageview settings but with 2 'Fields to Set' (under More Settings). Set 'title' to {{DL-page title}} and 'page' to {{DL - page url}}
Finally set the trigger to 'vpv' and you'll find everytime you push the event + data into the datalayer you'll get a pageView fired off with your virtual page's title and virtual url.
First of all I am new to GTM. I am trying to implement GTM video tracking on one of our site which is using JW player.
I have followed couple of articles as follows:
https://www.thyngster.com/jwplayer-video-tracking-using-google-tag-manager/
In the above one I was clueless what to do after putting the tag code as I couldn't find how to trigger that.
I also followed this link, but it didn't work either:
http://ecommppc.com/2014/11/30/track-jw-player-videos-on-gtm/
I believe I know what is going on. The code/tag, trigger, and variable he has set up in the tutorial is only what pushes the information to the dataLayer itself. The final step would be to add another variable, a tag to capture it, and a trigger to send it.
The variable you need is the dataLayer variable (Available in GTM under Variables > User Defined Variables > New > Data Layer Variable). You then give it the name of the variable in the dataLayer you want it to capture. Specifically, any of the variables in the dataLayer.push action (i.e. video_url, duration, etc).
The trigger to use in this case is the Custom Event trigger. This trigger will specifically wait for an object to be pushed to the dataLayer with the "event" variable in it. In this case, you need a trigger to wait for an event with the name "video". You can also add filters, i.e. this trigger will only fire on specific URLs, or when other conditions are true.
Finally, you need another GA Universal Analytics tag, set up to track events i.e. Track Type: Event. In this tag, set the trigger to the Custom Event trigger you made earlier, and then click into "Configure Tag". Under "More Settings", click "Add Custom Dimension". Make sure the index you are using to send it to Google Analytics is not in use in your property already; other than that it doesn't matter what index you choose. Finally, add the variable name in the "Dimension Value" field in this format: {{video_url}}. Instead of "video_url", include the name of the dataLayer Variable you created earlier.
This should get GTM to grab the variable out of the dataLayer and push it to Google Analytics every time that "event" variable is seen in the dataLayer object.
Hope that helps!
Where should I put dataLayer creation code in the page? Is it mandatory to put it above the GTM snippet?
Where should I call the dataLayer.push() function? Should it always be put in the code were the dataLayer creation code is placed like below?
<script>
dataLayer=[{‘Pcategory’:’login’,‘Pno’:1}],
dataLayer.push({‘Pcategory’:’login’,Pno:1});
</script>
Is it mandatory to declare an event for each dataLayer we push?
Is it mandatory to declare the dataLayer before we call dataLayer.push() function or does GTM provide a built in dataLayer?
Where should I put the code below? If I want declare it, how can I do it?
Click Here...
You need to initialize the dataLayer above the GTM snippet. You need to put all information there that is supposed to be available on page load (the GTM snippet on page load can only access stuff that preceded the tag managenemt script). If you do not need custom data on page load the dataLayer might be empty. You still need to declare, else the push later on will fail.
You use a push when you want to add data after page load, e.g. if you want to respond to user interactions.
You do not need to add custom events to clicks or form submissions, since GTM has what's called auto-eventhandlers (i.e. the necessary javascript to respond to clicks is already part of the GTM script).
You need a custom event if you want to trigger tags on user interactions that are not clicks or form submits (or timers). E.g. if you run a javascript function and you need to trigger tags dependening on the result the function can push a custom event per possible result to the dataLayer, and you can fire tags accordingly.
For your example you might, for example, set up a click based trigger; if the link text is unqiue you could set the a pageUrl Variable based on the link text (which is automatically available via the {{Click Text}} variable if you use a click trigger). So for that example you would not have to use any custom code at all, you can simply use what GTM provides.