Google Tag Manager Tutorial for Beginners (2023)

✭ A step-by-step guide on how to get started with Google Tag Manager (and install Google Analytics 4)
WATCH THE UPDATED 2023 VERSION HERE • Google Tag Manager Tut...
If you are working with Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, or other analytics/marketing tracking tools, Google Tag Manager is a must. It lets you manage tracking codes much faster and easier.
If you are not sure how or where to get started, this Google Tag Manager tutorial is exactly what you need. In this 1 hour video, I'll show you how to:
- Create your first container
- Create your first tags in GTM (we'll use Google Analytics 4)
- How to make sure that your setup works properly
- And how to publish those changes (so that Google Analytics would start measuring your website traffic).
Additionally, some parts of the video will contain a quick introduction to Google Analytics 4 functionality.
=== TIMESTAMPS ===
00:00 - Intro
00:46 - What is Google Tag Manager?
04:14 - Create an account and container
06:30 - Account overview
10:17 - How to install Google Tag Manager
14:28 - Tags, triggers, and variables
18:07 - Quick introduction to Google Analytics 4
24:40 - Tags. Tracking pageviews with Google Analytics 4
29:24 - Testing tags
33:05 - Publishing tags
35:25 - Implementing custom scripts
38:43 - Quick introduction Google Analytics 4 event tracking
43:19 - Triggers
49:33 - Event tracking (with GA4)
01:00:56 - What you should do next
⭐⭐⭐ FEATURED RESOURCES ⭐⭐⭐
✭ Free E-book: Google Tag Manager for Beginners
www.analyticsmania.com/free-e...
✭ Course: Google Tag Manager Masterclass for Beginners
www.analyticsmania.com/course...
=== LINKS ===
Subscribe to our KZbin channel / @analyticsmania
✭ How to install Google Tag Manager
www.analyticsmania.com/post/h...
✭ Google Tag Manager Preview Mode not Working? Here’s how to fix it
www.analyticsmania.com/post/g...
✭ Video: Google Analytics 4 tutorial for beginners
• Google Analytics 4 Tut...
✭ Chrome Extension: Tag Assistant Companion
chrome.google.com/webstore/de...
✭ Documentation: Automatically tracked events in Google Analytics 4
support.google.com/analytics/...
✭ Documentation: Google Analytics 4 recommended events
support.google.com/analytics/...
✭ Documentation: Enhanced Measurement Events
support.google.com/analytics/...
📕 Free e-book: Getting Started with Google Analytics 4
www.analyticsmania.com/p/gett...
✭ Wordpress plugin: GTM4WP
wordpress.org/plugins/duracel...
=== CONNECT WITH JULIUS & ANALYTICS MANIA ===
✭ Facebook / analyticsmania
✭ Twitter / fedorovicius
✭ Linkedin / fedorovicius
Subscribe to our KZbin channel / @analyticsmania
#googleanalytics4 #googletagmanager

[@AnalyticsMania]

UPDATE: there is a newer version of this tutorial. Watch it here kzbin.info/www/bejne/epqkmHafna2Ka5o

[@LhFe16]

about a year ago i tried to research and understand google tag manager and analytics and i was truthfully reduced to tears multiple times because info was so scattered and hard to grasp no matter how many times i read the documentation i felt like it was hopeless so i payed lots of money for a developer to do it for me only to realise that they actually didn't implement anything correctly and i wasnt able to make sense of data at all. skip to meantime, i find this video and i understand all of it ! its clear, its simple, its precise, its USEFUL !!! i can't thank you enough for making this video !! you feel like my savior right now tbh no exaggeration im so lucky that i found this video

[@clintonisidore]

Big man, I have watched all your main analytics related course. Just today, due to the client I working with. I was just about to rewatch the Google tag manager video before starting. But lucky I just saw notification for this new one. Awesome content.

[@danielurespi]

El video más completo que he encontrado en youtube sobe GTM. Gracias por el video!

[@OlenaNesteriuk]

Thanks for the perfect and clear English!

[@arturock8515]

incredible tutorial, 3 hours doing a lot of changes and finally understanding what im doing. I'll go for the complete master class. Thanks for your time and dedication.

[@janrc]

Thats the best explanation I have ever seen for GTM!!!! Thanks a lot!

[@stevenmuller7993]

Yet again you make complex GA issues easy to follow. Thanks

[@MrGmermigkas]

Thanks a lot man! Incredible walkthrough! Greetings from Greece

[@boomboom-pro]

Super technical, but amazingly explained. Thanks.

[@alejandrofreteszayas1299]

Always rocking Julius! Cheers up to you

[@VickyLashenko]

Thank you so very much for taking SO MUCH TIME and making this incredible step by step tutorial for FREE

[@amayah506]

Another GTMania night. Thanks For getting me thru. You are the best 🎉

[@vuthuybaoanh5878]

It's very clear and really helpful. Thanks from Vietnam🥰

[@jgni5715]

Legendary video! thanks a lot Julius!

[@Chatu-ey9uy]

This is the best tutorial so far, I was very confused about variables and did check multiple videos and nobody explained it so well as you did!!! Kudos!!

[@robertcook6653]

good answer

[@michal_kotarba]

Great introduction to GTM!

[@TheSlatonTeam]

Thank YOU this has been the most helpful video I've watched over the past few years! Yes YEARS

[@TIRehabs]

That was a gold and you are a saviour. Thank you so much

[@yuri_gommes]

Fantastic video, congratulations! Great explanation

[@dawid-dyrcz]

Thank you very much for this tutorial.

[@Eddietechpromos]

This guy has really mastered the game - I watched his videos and really got a lot from his tutorials

[@hasanshahrearnahid]

You're Great Julius!

[@xuxaale3469]

I've been following your step by step procedure. It's taking me a lot of time because I don't have the full access, I have to message back and forth their team to set everything. Honestly, this is very helpful . High five to you!

[@suleimanidris3812]

helpful indeed

[@fabianolmos737]

Many thanks for this uvaluable video and all related info

[@QuentonFlint]

thanks a lot man!

[@oluwasegunjamesilori6935]

it was so impacting. keep it up

[@jakesuli9983]

Thank you for the tutorial

[@laurarankin4663]

Thank you!

[@Thiegow]

What a great content!

[@mkamalkayani]

Amazing explanation.

[@Michael.........]

This is sooooo helpful! Thanks!

[@katef4]

Hi thank you for this, I have one question please? At 14:16 you said to add the GTM code to every page of the website. But what if it has hundreds of pages, is there a better way, like adding it to the of the header.php? Thanks!

[@DavidGluzman]

Thanks!

[@bagmanCF]

Thank you for such a useful tutorial. Now I am not so scared to implement GTM on my website.

[@anenetc]

I can't thank you enough for this!!!

[@Maxkuessner]

super good video

[@janrc]

Thanks

[@xinluo5792]

incredible vdeo, concis, clear ,logic. Really a great helper. Only 1 question, when to create the funnel and path exploration report at around 22 minutes, you said'' the GA4 does't automatically tracked but needs to send the event by developper or tag manager . but how to send the event exactly ? and for the other exploration reports(ex :path), Is the specific configuration in advance in GA4 a must in order to generate the exploration reports? Thanks a lot

[@tomyB86]

Amazing content! Thanks very much. I could set up my GA4 and also my Tag Manager properly with your help. Recently I tried to include a new tag that should fire, when someone clicks on the purchase link on our WP website which will direct him to our selling page (copecart). After a successful purchase he will be directed back to website to the thank-you page. But this will not be tracked. I think, the tracking is broken due to the redirection to copecart. What would you recommend to close that gap?

[@aasthagoel6336]

Hey, thanks for the vid. I have a question- none of the data layer variables show similarity so how should i create the trigger?

[@wolverine4208]

brother i mm from pakistan and i have been searching for this particular topic video . i have visited about hundred channels but all of them were waste of time but m curious to see those fuckers have thousands Likes beacause of there shit and You my friend have 500 only ...!!! you know people come, watch and leave without liking your video because they begin to think waooo such an amazing Video and the Way HE tried to explain.......... whyyyyyyyy we can not make such a beautiful content . and finally when they their ass burning they just run .You deserve millions of like for your effort! Dear keep it up. 😘😘😘

[@NicolasCage88]

Hey, firstly thanks for keeping up the good content. One question: do you know if GA4 has (or applies) Session Unification, as was a toggle option in UA. I've noticed I can make it have multiple User IDs with the same ga_session_id in the Debug when testing something. I'm currently struggling with suspicion on bloated user count and am testing my brains out trying to make some sense. Thanks!

[@ChrisHirlemann]

Hi Nicolas, I agree Julius shares such high quality and easily understood content. I hope you do not mind me jumping in here. There is no toggle on for session unification, if you are using User ID this will be managed by GA4. GA4 will use a probabilistic algorithm to try and determine the most likely user ID for the session.It's worth noting that session unification is not always perfect and may have limitations based on the available data. It's always a good idea to monitor your data closely and look for any inconsistencies or gaps in your analysis. In an ideal world, you would not have any user/session with multple User IDs. The blended reporting identify will prioritise User Id over other identifiers, so it is quite possible that multiple User IDs will cause bloating in your User counts. The best way to see this would be digging into the user explorer reports to see how GA4 is counting these users. The Reporting identity can be chnaged, so you could enable the Device Based reporting identity for a few days (it will retrospectively update all data using that model, which you can then change back). While it will not be concusive (especially if you have Google Signals enabled) it will give you some idea what the user numbers would be based on Client ID/ Device ID only). Just remember to take a download for a date range before making the change (as it is retrispective you need the data downloaded to compare). Good luck

[@NicolasCage88]

@@ChrisHirlemann Thanks man, will try fiddling with Reporting Identity to get a better insight into User counting in specific situations. Cheers.

[@mohamedZ91]

Great tutorial! you said that the "item_view" event is not sent automatically to GA4 and indeed in my product view report, the count is always 0... Confusing cause its a recommended event from google.. does that mean we need to create a custom event in GTM with the same name and send it and does thtat mean we need to add the event in the website code?

[@user-cj9tb1zb3u]

can you make a video tuturial in Event Tracking for Key Interactions? ive been watching ur videos it helps me a lot hope you notice,

[@rariboys8366]

Is it possible to get a GA4 report that shows a table, which shows the links that where clicked the most to visit a particular internal url, so I could see what links are most effective at taking users to a particular page.

[@JulianaJackson]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@mett978]

Does the Google Site Kit plugin replace the Tag Manager one?

[@fkhruschov]

I have multiple events with different set of variables, is it possible to send all within single tag or should I create separate tag for each event ?

[@equiposInn]

Hi, I´m checking a booking app that I want to embed in my website as an . Vendor says that I can track scheduling transactions with Google Analytics. But actually what I´m looking for is that it would be traceable with Google Tag Manager so I can set up Facebook Conversions API. Is there a way I can set up Facebook Conversions API if the app and Google Analytics are integrated?

[@nmg2023nmg]

To add all the codes, its easiet to use Google Site Kit? There I can connect Analytics and Google Tag manager that will inject the code?

[@sundramshukla5625]

👌💓

[@user-gr1rd9ct3h]

Can you set up a tag without a container?

[@tobiascarrier]

Google seems bent of making all of their products painfully convoluted, while constantly changing names of things and methods they offer.

[@sonusaha9052]

Please create a video on Google Tag Manager from Basic to Advanced. I will look forward to your video.

[@AnalyticsMania]

From beginner to advanced are explained in my courses www.analyticsmania.com/courses/ I am not planning to create an equivalent tutorial on KZbin

[@laztheripper]

What if I'm the main dev and I want to have complete control over tracking, should I even bother with GTM ? Seems like the no-code solution they offer for middle management and not devs.

[@lcmolds]

Something blocked the GTM code when i used wp-rocket, I except all cache js files for gtm4wp and elmentor custom code also, but when i open the tag assistant, conetct failed, i'm confused google analytics is still working and the ecommerce data working also.

[@spadesofnintendo6213]

So @17:00 the conversion tag triggers when page URL contains /purchase-successful/ but what if the Thank You page doesn't load? Will the conversion be lost if the page doesn't load?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Yes. In that case you would need to find another way to track the form

[@spadesofnintendo6213]

@@AnalyticsMania do you have any recommendations, tactics or strategies on how to more reliably track conversions?

[@scutaripavel3772]

I have a question please. Im just curious about it so please feel free to answer. I thought by copying the code from google tag manager to your site header and and site body ( so one of the initial steps ) you automatically start collecting data to your data stream aka URL stream. Why do we need to copy measurement ID code and paste it in tag manager and also fire it on all pages? What is the point of that? Isn't that GTM code which we copied in the first steps responsible for that>?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Because just by adding GTM you are not automatically sending data to your measurement id. You are confusing google tag with google tag manager. Two different things.

[@scutaripavel3772]

thanks!@@AnalyticsMania

[@kristisimonson1543]

Why would I have multiple "Container Loaded " tabs displayed in the sidebar? I've only connected GA4, and only one says a tag fired, so what are the other two? Thanks.

[@AnalyticsMania]

Difficult to say. Maybe GTM was added multiple times to the website.

[@chadaravalliuttej6095]

In the video at 28:13 minutes you added Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration. while i am trying to add I cannot find. it shows Google tag is a replacement for GA4 Configuration. correct me if I am incorrect

[@AnalyticsMania]

Check the first link in the description or the link in the pinned comment. There is an updated GTM tutorial

[@chadaravalliuttej6095]

@@AnalyticsMania Thank you

[@binsong3482]

Hi I have google tag, but my website Admin Smugmug don't have HTML let me to add it, this case what can i do ？thank you for sharing!

[@AnalyticsMania]

Contact smugsmug support. If they say that you cannot add it, then you're out of luck

[@binsong3482]

Thank you for the message, I contacted them they said no to me , do you have any good website can recommendations, maybe I have to change it . Thank you for helping!

[@shrinikannan3463]

wordpress cache plugin results inaccurate results i.e analytics ?

[@user-dy2oj3gy5l]

How do i use this with google ads?

[@kikideng3943]

Why can't I find the GTMcourse in my GTM account? I can't find the link1and link2.......😭

[@nataliaforato4694]

I have an existing Google tag, but it's not linked to a GTM account. Is there a way I can create a new GTM account based on the existing tag?

[@AnalyticsMania]

GTM does not care if tag is existing or not. Just create GTM, install it on a site, and then create GA4 tags inside GTM. When you decide to launch GA4 tags in GTM, ideally you should get rid of a GTAG (ga4 tracking code) from the source code of the website

[@nataliaforato4694]

@@AnalyticsMania thanks so much for taking the time to answer my comment. That really helps!

[@saadmaster3288]

Hello, I am unable to find WP plugin

[@user-wp3jq9kk2y]

why is it necessary to create custom link click tags when GA4 has those by default in "enhanced measurement"? Isn't that doubling up and creating more noise?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Enhanced measurement cannot track those particular links that I showed

[@user-wp3jq9kk2y]

Thank you for clearing that up!@@AnalyticsMania

[@user-qb2bi4qh3o]

Need help with GA4 Event Tracking. Tag is not Firing correctly, in the Firing Triggers section, under Filters "_event: equals gtm.linkClink is X'd out. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I've been following your video step by step. Please help :/

[@AnalyticsMania]

Sounds like you selected the wrong event in the preview mode.

[@user-qb2bi4qh3o]

@@AnalyticsMania hmmm sorry can you explain? I messaged you on facebook about it. Sent you screenshots to go with it as well.

[@VoxerGaming]

At 14:08 you mention that the developer must add the snippet to each page. Does it mean I have to add a snippet on each page even if the wordpress site has a Google Site Kit plugin? Can somebody help?

[@AnalyticsMania]

If you are using wordpress, I recommend using gtm4wp to install gtm (instead of google site kit). And then it's enough to just add the container id in the plugin. It will handle the rest)

[@VoxerGaming]

And one more question. At the Publishing Tags section, do the new changes reset the previous collected Google Analytics data? Is it safe to apply new changes without losing old data?

[@VoxerGaming]

For me the debug_view doesn't show anything even if the measurement ID is correct and the tag is fired successfully :(((( HELP

[@VoxerGaming]

Fixed the problem -- I used the preview mode on GTM while logged-in to my Wordpress site and the GA4 debug view wasn't showing any activity. I logged-out of my Wordpress site and GA4 debugview started showing the device and all of the proper events.

[@air2ear]

13:00

[@Sempai-kp8hv]

I still don't get why I can't track "Google Ads Conversions" it works perfectly in Preview Mode but the data never loads on my Google Ads Dashboard.

[@AnalyticsMania]

You need to click an actual ad before the conversion

[@user-tq8vf5fu8f]

15:29

[@cloflojim2002]

I dont see the "Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration" in the featured section (28'15" of your video). I only see "Google Analytics" . Then when I click on it I only see "Google Tag" and "Google Analytics: GA4 Event". I am stuck there

[@AnalyticsMania]

Read the top comment under the video

[@cloflojim2002]

@@AnalyticsMania I am not sure what I am supposed to see. Still stuck on these and I still get no reading "No google tag found in this container"

[@user-ow8eu3of6w]

I don't have a New button in my tags - help

[@AnalyticsMania]

You don't have enough permissions in the container. Ask the admin of the container to give you more permissions.

[@Thesocialmediapath]

Can I start learning this skills without been an digital marketing analyst

[@AnalyticsMania]

Yes

[@anossolodeck8873]

why my tag invalid or missing id? help me

[@AnalyticsMania]

Missing or invalid where?

[@parmeshchopra]

This guy is very knowledgeable but his courses are out of budget for a common man

[@mcnutley]

there is no "Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration tag anymore

[@AnalyticsMania]

Read the top comment under the video

[@mcnutley]

Thank you@@AnalyticsMania

[@user-xn2ze7cc3b]

Cant Find Google Analytics: Configuration

[@AnalyticsMania]

Read the first pinned comment below the video

[@dtps_champion6016]

"Just links tracks... just links" lol

[@hammadmunir9607]

Please change the position of the mic, or wear a different shirt. something very different is visible in the video.. great video though🤭

[@azgaonkarrohid9670]

I don't think this is for beginners in this video your showing how much you know rather than explaining about the importance and it's features your making it more complex to get more views, Not professional at all.

[@stevensheffey3814]

Wow am I glad I found you. Question. I have two elements that I've set Visibility triggers on. I am looking to have a tag return the time difference between when element1 became visible and element2 became visible. I am assuming I would want to use: gtm.visibleFirstTime. I assume I need to have the tag be a Custom HTML or Custom JS elment. How can the Tag code access the gtm.element and get it's gtm.visibleFirstTime so I can return the calculation?

[@shrinikannan3463]

during debugmode I dont see "gtm_debug=xxxxxx" in my url but everything working perfectly, even clicking sharable I dont get those gtm_debug parametter in my url ...... any wrong am I doing ?