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How To: Set Up Google Tag Manager with your Community Site

By Cristy Zuazua posted Mar 27, 2018 05:03 PM

  
Hi, all - a common question we get from admins is how to set up Google Analytics such that it works with Google Tag Manager and sends analytic data back to Google so you can measure site traffic, bounce rates, and a myriad of other numbers. Below is a step-by-step guide to ensure your data is being measured properly.

  1. Set up a Google Analytics account.
  2. Take note of your Google Analytics Tracking ID. I'd recommend copying this into a Notepad doc or keeping the tab with it open off to the side somewhere.
  3. Go to tagmanager.google.com and sign in.
  4. Click on Google Tag Manager.
  5. Log in with the same credentials you use to get into your Google Analytics account.
  6. Click Create Account.
  7. Enter Account Name > Continue > Enter Container Name > select Web > Create.
  8. Click Yes in the upper right.
  9. This will pop up over to a modal titled, " Install Google Tag Manager." Click OK to get past it.
  10. Click on the Tags section of the menu on the left side of the page.
  11. Click on NEW to create a new tag.
  12. Click on the gray circle under Tag Configuration to configure your tag.
  13. Under Choose Tag Type, click on Universal Analytics.
  14. Under Google Analytics Settings, select New Variable from the dropdown menu.
  15. Paste your Google Tracking ID into the Tracking ID field and click Save.
  16. When the modal pops up to Rename Variable, click Save.
  17. Click on the gray circle under Triggering and select All Pages.
  18. Save.
  19. When the modal pops up to Rename Tag, click Save.
  20. Click the SUBMIT button in the upper right corner.
  21. Click PUBLISH in the upper right corner.
  22. When the Container Version Description, click Skip.
  23. Click over to the Workspace link in the upper left corner.
  24. Copy the GTM code in the Workspace area, here:


  25. Go to your community site and log in as a Super Admin.
  26. Go to Admin > Tools > Custom CSS/JS/Meta > scroll to the bottom of the page and paste that code into the Google Tag Manager section (or Admin > Pages > Design > Advanced Settings if you're in the New Admin).
  27. Click Save.

Whew - that was a lot of clicking! While it looks like a ton of steps, once you get in there, the process is actually fairly quick. Once all that's done, data from your community site will be sent to Google, and you'll be good to go!

Google Tag Manager on Select Microsites

If you're only looking to apply Google Tag Manager tracking to one specific microsite and not all of your sites, simply follow steps 1-25, then go into the first page of Site Setup. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see a field for your Google Tag Manager code. Paste it in there, then click Finish to save it.

The decision to segment out individual microsite data really varies by organization; if you want all the data in one bucket and find it more efficient to sort that way as one user, then that's the best way to go. If you'd rather have multiple accounts sectioned out and pull the data per microsite without mixing the data with other microsite data, that can be more effective based on your management setup. In this case, there is no set best practice, but rather the best setup is whatever makes you and/or your team most efficient.

Custom Google Tag Manager Configurations

For more ideas about what you can measure and accomplish with Google Tag Manager, I'd recommend checking out the official Google Tag Manager documentation section. Because this is a third-party software, a segment of our clients who are looking for increased customization have hired consultants to help them with more advanced Google Tag Manager configuration, and while we recommend this, we don't currently have any vendors we endorse for this service. If you're looking to know who other clients have used, I'd recommend posting to Online Community Product & Support community and asking around.

#ReportsandMetrics
#training
#how_to_tag
#trainin
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Comments

Nov 15, 2021 10:25 AM

Great additional post on this topic: https://hug.higherlogic.com/communities/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=697&MessageKey=4fbcda2d-06cf-4c0b-a9dd-60e0fc15e274&CommunityKey=8bbaa56f-925d-4dc9-baaa-9e7243121d90&tab=digestviewer

Mar 22, 2021 11:11 AM

Hi @ChristyZuazua Christy, can you point me to what I need to do to use Adobe products to track my community's web traffic?​

Nov 30, 2020 01:53 PM

@Catherine Hackney (she/her) ​thanks for bringing this to our attention. We are currently reviewing our current documentation on how to install Google Analytics/Tag Manager in Online Communities and make sure it is up to date with the recent release of Google Analytics 4 release from Google. We will let everyone know once that review is complete along with any changes (if any) to the setup instructions.

From my reading of Google's Product Release notes, Google Analytics 4 property is that you can use it for a website, an app, or both a website and app together. Universal Analytics properties only support websites. And I didn't see a mention of them sunsetting the Universal Analytics just yet. But please keep us posted if you hear differently. 

Here are some resources I found from Google that explains what Google Analytics 4 is and how to enable this new property.

Introducing the New Google Analytics

Installation Instructions 

Nov 30, 2020 12:23 PM

Will Higher Logic be creating resources for customers to switch to Google Analytics 4? It sounds like that is the new version we need to start using soon and eventually Google will get rid of the currently Google Analytics many of us are using on our sites.

Jun 27, 2018 12:13 PM

For @Pete Rendek and anyone else interested, this is a great thread to chime in on :)​

Jun 26, 2018 03:53 PM

@Pete Rendek Thanks, Pete! I can definitely see the value in having something like that, but I haven't seen it implemented on any current client sites that I'm aware of thus far. I'd recommend posting to the Online Community Product & Support community to see if anyone can point you in the direction of someone they can vouch for, though! (And if you do find a good vendor, I'd love to have someone to recommend to others in the future!)

Jun 20, 2018 01:53 PM

Very helpful - thank you!

Jun 18, 2018 03:49 PM

Very nice step-by-step Cristy. Thank you for documenting this. Google's tool logic isn't always the easiest to follow.

Have you ever pulled in username or email into a GTM user-defined variable? Our community is private, so everyone is known and logged in, and I'd love to see who is consuming what without adding Adobe Analytics to the site.

Apr 10, 2018 11:08 AM

Thanks for your feedback and questions, all - I've added some additional notes to the blog. Hope it helps! :) ​​​​​

Apr 10, 2018 10:46 AM

Wow, Cristy! This is awesome. Thank you for taking the time to share the steps.

Apr 04, 2018 07:43 PM

Very helpful, thank you! (+1 Ariel) Just curious if anyone can share how they would treat microsites/event sites with Google Tag Manager. Pros/cons in segmenting microsites per container or creating microsite tags under one main container i.e. main company. Does that make sense? Thanks again.

Mar 29, 2018 12:43 PM

This was so helpful, thank you! I'd love to see further posts along this topic, for instance, how to set up community specific dashboards, what the various tags/ triggers do within a community, and how to configure them to provide the most insight, if there are ways to map sessions in analytics to specific users (since individuals have to log in), etc.