How to create a GA4 event tag in Google Tag Manager?

A GA4 event tag is a piece of code used to track a specific event on your website or app and report it to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This allows you to gather valuable information about your users' behavior and their interactions with your website or app.

In the case of server side tagging, GA4 event tags are not sent directly to GA4, but first to the server container. Thereby bypassing ad blockers and tracking prevention mechanisms of browsers. In this blog, we will explain you step by step how to create a GA4 event tag in Google Tag Manager.

Curious about the entire GA4 Server Side Tracking setup? Then check out this page.

We assume that you have already created a Google Tag Manager account. If you are looking for a description of how to create a Google Tag Manager account, check out this article. In addition, we assume that you have already completed parts 1 and 2 of the GA4 server side implementation series.

GA4 event creation in Google Tag Manager

Step 1: Create new tag

Within your workspace (client side), go to 'Tags' and click on 'New'.

Step 2: Create new tag

Click 'Tag Configuration' and choose 'Google Analytics: GA4 event' as the tag type.

Step 3: Set Tag

Don't have the GA4 configuration set up yet? Then check out this blog on setting up GA4 in Google Tag Manager. Next, enter your measurement ID. Once you've done this, under 'event name' select {{Event}}. Next, open the 'More settings' tab . Here, check 'Send e-commerce data' and select 'Data Layer'.

Note! In this way you automatically send the data layer parameters along to GA4 (or to the server container in our case). If you want to do this manually, for example for more control, you can add them to event parameters in the GA4 event tag one by one. In doing so, it is essential that you first create the variables in GTM, as described in Part 2 of the implementation series.

Step 3: Set Trigger

At 'triggers' enter the events that you want to measure. You can add multiple E Commerce events at once here, if you added {{event}} at event name in step 3.

Not created any events yet? Then check out our blog on creating Events on Google Tag Manager. Once the trigger is set up, name the tag and click 'Save'.

You have now created a GA4 event tag for the e-commerce events you would like to measure! In parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, you learned how to set up GA4 via GTM client side. This is the setup that most web shops currently use. The next step is to install this setup server side via GTM. We will do this in the next blog.