Google Analytics and Tag Manager: track ads and conversions

Your site already has analytics. Every Eat Fresh site comes with Fathom Analytics, switched on from day one: visitors, top pages, where people come from, all in a simple dashboard with no setup. See Fathom Analytics: your site traffic, built in. Add Google Analytics when you want to go deeper, for example to track ad campaigns or connect Google Ads.

Where do your customers come from? Which page makes them order? Did last week's Instagram post bring anyone in? Google Analytics answers those, and Google Tag Manager is how it connects to your site.

How it fits together

Your site connects to Google Tag Manager (GTM). Inside Tag Manager, you add Google Analytics and any other Google tags you use, such as Google Ads conversion tracking. One ID on your site, everything else managed in Google.

Connecting it

  1. In Google Tag Manager, create a container for your website. Its ID starts with GTM-.
  2. In Tag Manager, add a Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration tag (or "Google tag") with your GA4 measurement ID, set to fire on all pages. Publish the container.
  3. In your admin, go to Manage Site > Integrations and click Manage Google Analytics.
  4. Paste your GTM ID, tick Active, and click Update.

The change needs a site publish; the page tells you, and the publish runs on our side. Refresh your site afterwards and check Tag Manager's preview mode or GA4's Realtime report.

What your site sends

Tag Manager loads on your customer pages, not on your admin pages. On top of the usual page data, your site sends these events for you to use in Tag Manager:

  • pageView, with the page, every time a customer moves to a new page. Your order page changes pages without a full reload, so this event keeps the counts right.
  • addToCart, with the item name, price and currency, when a new item goes into the cart. Raising the quantity of an item already in the cart does not send it again.
  • checkoutButton, when a customer clicks the button to submit their order, with the button text and the cart total. Saving a plan order sends it too.
  • checkoutComplete, when an order goes through, with the order ID, the total and the currency. Use it as your purchase conversion.

Gift orders carry an is_gift flag, so you can see gift sales on their own.

Ideas

  • Mark checkoutComplete as a key event in GA4 to see which traffic sources turn into orders.
  • Tag your Instagram, email and flyer links with UTM parameters to compare them.
  • Pair it with your site's own sales reports; GA shows the journey, your reports show the money.

Keywords: ecommerce tracking

Related

Was this helpful?