Install Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager
In this blog, I'll guide you through the process of adding Google Analytics to your Google Tag Manager account—in less than 30 minutes. Let's dive in!
If you prefer a video tutorial, you can watch my 5 minute Google Tag Manager tutorial video at the bottom of this blog post. The video shows how to add Google Analytics on a Squarespace website, but the tips will work on all CMSs.
Step 1: Add a New Google Analytics Tag to Your GTM Container
The first step is to add a new Google Analytics tag to your Google Tag Manager workspace. Click on choose a tag type and choose the "Google Analytics Universal Analytics" tag.
Click into the tag configuration section and keep the track type set to "Page View" as we want to track page views in this instance.
Don’t have Google Tag Manager on your website? Read this guide on how to add GTM to your website.
How to Create a Google Analytics Settings Variable
To create a new Google Analytics settings variable, click on new variable. Then select Google Analytics Settings as the variable type.
The value of this variable is your GA tracking ID, which you can find in your Google Analytics account. Copy the tracking ID from your GA account, paste it into the variable.
Now we'll need to name our variable (I just name mine the tracking ID), and click save.
Name and Save Your Google Analytics Tag
Now we'll need to name our tag—I prefer a {{Tool Abbreviation}} - {{Tag Type}} - {{Trigger}} naming convention— so I named mine GA - PV - All Pages. Now click save.
Step 2: Add a Trigger to the Google Analytics Tag
Add a trigger to your tag. In this case, choose "All Pages" to ensure that Google Analytics fires every time a user visits any page on your site.
Step 3: How to Check if Google Analytics Is Working
Now that you have successfully created the Google Analytics tag and Google Analytics settings variable, you may be asking yourself: “how do i know if my Google Analytics tag is working?”. Fortunately, Google Tag Manager makes it easy to validate our tags are working correctly
To validate your implementation, go into preview mode in Google Tag Manager, enabling it as a native debugger. Refresh your website to ensure the Google Analytics tag is firing as expected. You can watch my 5 minute Google Tag Manager tutorial video below to see how I debug my tags in GTM.
To double check that my tag is actually sending data to GA, I'm going to go into my Google Analytics account and look at the real-time data. I'm expecting to see one user on the home page and I'm hoping this will say Dallas which is my location.
As you can see in my screenshot, everything's working as expected 🥳.
Step 4: Publish Your Google Analytics tag
Before publishing, write a detailed version name and description. I also recommend including initials in the description to help your team members or future you easily identify who made what changes.
Click publish to make the tag live on your website.
Congratulations! You've successfully integrated Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager.
Until next time!
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GTM is the easiest way to install GA without the help of a developer. Watch this video to learn how to add Google Analytics to your Google Tag Manager account in under 5 minutes!
