Google Tag Manager Basics: Master Tags and Triggers

Learning Google Tag Manager basics begins with mastering tags and triggers. So let’s master the theory of how tags and triggers work and then walk through the process of setting up a GA4 event tag in GTM.

Once we set up our trigger and tag in GTM, we’ll send event data into Google Analytics based on the specific event parameters we specify.

What is a Tag in Google Tag Manager?

A tag is piece of code that can send data to a system such as Google Analytics. A tag could be something like the code for a Facebook tracking pixel, or the code snippet for Google Analytics. The screenshot below shows the two Google Analytics tags on the Root and Branch site (the GA4 property type and the UA property type) within the associated Google Tag Manager account. In addition to tags like this, we can create other tags to track a specific action on our website. You can see these other other types of tags in the first five tags below.

These actions are called “events”, which is why you’ve probably heard the phrase “event tracking” in terms of Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. We’re going to walk through an example of creating a tag and associated trigger for event tracking in the walkthrough below.

Explain These “Events” A Bit More

An “event” could be something like scroll depth tracking, or video plays, or page timer tracking, or link click tracking. In this case, the event we’re going to be tracking is a specific click from a specific page (the Root and Branch homepage) to a specific destination (the Root and Branch YouTube channel).

What is a Trigger in Google Tag Manager?

A trigger “listens” for certain actions (the aforementioned “events”) to take place. Those actions could be clicks, form submissions, pageviews, scroll activity, or video plays. For a tag like a Facebook tracking pixel, the trigger will be a pageview of any page of the website in question. That page loading (the trigger) will tell the Facebook pixel (the tag) to get to business and start collecting data. For a more specific action that we want to track like our example of tracking clicks from the homepage of this site to the YouTube channel, we’ll want to create more specific rules for our trigger.

On its own, a trigger can only listen. It needs help in order for data to be created and shared with an associated platform like Google Analytics.

How Do Tags and Triggers Work Together?

Within the Google Tag Manager platform, we will define our trigger and our tag. The trigger is specific action that we are listening for. The tag holds the data that we want created. When a tag is paired with a corresponding trigger, data will be sent through to Google Analytics as the trigger fires.

It looks like the diagram below.

If you want to skip the reading and jump to the video, check out the linked tutorial below. This has all the info you will need. Otherwise, read on below for more info.

Google Tag Manager Basics Video Guide: Setting Up a Tag and Trigger in 12 Minutes

The linked video explains the theoretical background of these Google Tag Manager basics. It also reviews a complete walkthrough of creating the tag and the trigger.

If you’d prefer the text version, please read on below.

Before We Begin: Here’s What We’ll Need

We’ll be working with Google Tag Manager and linked Google Analytics (GA4) property.

Google Analytics

It’s after July 1, 2023 which means that we should no longer have access to the old Universal Analytics property type in GA. So we’ll use the GA4 property type.

If you were a fan of the old version of Google Analytics and want to learn more about how the new version compares, you can check out this comparison of GA4 vs. UA.

Google Tag Manager

GTM is where we’ll actually be doing the work to create our trigger and our tag. If you are not currently using Google Tag Manager, you can check out this guide to set up Tag Manager on your WordPress site.

What Do Our Trigger and Our Tag Look Like in This Example?

Let’s check them out below.

Let’s Create Our Trigger

As you can see in the screenshot below, we’ve created a Link Click trigger. After we hit the “New” button to create a new trigger, we’re prompted to select what kind of trigger we want to create. The options we have for the type of trigger to create look quite similar to the different kinds of actions we can track. For example, there’s a timer trigger, a scroll depth trigger, and various click triggers. We select the link click trigger (called “Click – Just Links”) for our purposes.

We can set this trigger to fire on ALL link clicks or just SOME link clicks. We’ll configure it only for some link clicks. This allows us to specify the specific conditions that we want. As you can see below, there are two conditions for our trigger. The destination of the click must be to the URL of the YouTube channel (the Click URL) AND the user must be on the homepage when they make that click (the Page URL). So any clicks from this page to the YouTube channel, would not cause this particular trigger to fire.

Let’s Create Our GTM Tag

We can create a tag in GTM by hitting the blue “New” button within the Tags menu (accessible from the left-hand navigation).

The next thing to do is select the type of tag we’re going to be creating. This tag is for event tracking for our associated Google Analytics (GA4) property, so we select “Google Analytics: GA4 Event” as our tag type.

Let’s now give our new tag a name. This name identifies the tag within the Google Tag Manager platform. It doesn’t affect anything outside of that.

We’ll give ours a descriptive name: GA4 Event – YT Subscribe.

After we name it, click Save.

Now it’s time to configure the event.

Configure The GA4 Event Tag

In the days of Universal Analytics, we created events by identifying specific event parameters. We identified a specific name for up to 4 parameters: category, action, label, and value. Only the first two were required with label and value being optional. Each parameter could be hard coded (manually typed in) or set up as a variable.

Here’s how that might have looked in the days of UA.

Event Parameters in UA

For example, we might have hard coded the category as link_click by typing that into the category parameter field. We might have used a variable for the action parameter so we could pull in the value of the link that was clicked.

The curly brackets {{ }} indicate a Google Tag Manager variable. A variable is something that has the ability to send different types of data based on the specific event action taking place. The name of the variable is contained within the curly brackets. So our {{Click URL}} variable means that every time the tag fires, the specific destination URL will be sent into Google Analytics in the Action event parameter. In our case, we’ve used our trigger to limit the click URL only to the YouTube channel, so that is the only URL that will populate.

In UA Event reporting, all event data is grouped by the parameters of category, action, and label as you can see below. If a specific value was passed (say a value of $50 for a specific event) that value would flow into the currency reporting area in UA.

Event parameters in GA4 look much different.

Event Parameters in GA4

Gone are category, action, label, and value.

In its place is a far more flexible approach to parameters. In GA4, you can set anywhere from 0 to 25 event parameters with each event.

You also have must give your new event a unique name. This event name is what will feature most prominently in your GA4 event reporting. Any parameters that you set with the event will be associated with that event and will provide additional context for the event.

Check out the event below. We’ve given it a name of youtube_subscribe_button. Every time the event fires, an event of the same name will record data and show up in our GA4 reports. You can also see that there has been a parameter called click_text set that will pull in a variable of {{Click Text}}. So if we look in our GA4 reporting we’ll be able to use the click_text parameter to see the specific text of the link that was clicked when the youtube_subscribe_button fires.

Note: If you’re going to be working with event parameters in GA4, you must know about the role of custom dimensions so you can actually access your data.

Finish Configuring Our Tag

The final item we see above is the “Configuration Tag” field. This is where we associate our GA4 Event Tag code with our Google Analytics property, so the event data goes to the right place. In this field, you can  type in your GA4 Measurement ID (from the admin section of your GA4 data stream). Or you can do what we’ve done here. That’s creating a separate tag in GTM for your GA4 configuration using the same Measurement ID and then selecting that in the drop down.

Our Tag and Trigger Together

The last step is to select a firing trigger for our brand new tag.

You’ll see a directive from GTM to choose “Choose a trigger to make this tag fire”. Click into that space and go find the Trigger you built above. Once you’ve selected it, you’ll have a tag combined with a firing trigger as shown below.

Last Steps

Congratulations! You (hopefully!) now know a bit more about GTM than you did before. Tag Manager can be confusing and overwhelming, but if you can grasp the concept of tags and triggers you can understand the primary way in which the platform works. Bravo!

You can also use Tag Manager to deploy other code-based tools on your website. You can find one example of that in this Microsoft Clarity set up guide.

If you’re interested in more digital marketing tips and guides like this, head on over to YouTube and subscribe to the Root and Branch channel. There’s normally at least few new analytics and SEO videos with tips and guides each month.

Final Thoughts

If you have questions about these Google Tag Manager basics or suggestions of your own tips to share, feel free to drop them in the comments below or share on LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading and have fun with those tags and triggers!