Goodbye GA4 Configuration Tag, Hello Settings Variables! - Adswerve

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• But what is even more exciting is that you can now create an Event Settings variable and apply it to your GA4 event tags to automatically include a standard group of event parameters (and user properties) on every event.

• Regarding page_view events: The GA4 Configuration tag template had a checkbox to control whether this event was sent automatically when the tag loaded; however, the Google Tag template has no such checkbox. Instead, page view behavior for the Google Tag is governed by the send_page_view configuration parameter. The default behavior is to send an automatic page_view event when the Google Tag loads, but if the checkbox is left unchecked on the config tag, the migration process will automatically add a send_page_view configuration parameter to the Google Tag with the value “false”. Going forward, though, if you want to suppress the automatic page_view event when a Google Tag loads and instead send your own custom event, be sure to include the send_page_view parameter in your Configuration Settings and enter the value “false”, otherwise you may end up with duplicate page_view events.

• there is a new “Shared Event Settings” section on the Google Tag where you can set event parameters. As with the GA4 Configuration tag, the values of any event parameters set by the Google Tag remain constant until the Google Tag fires again, but the benefit of setting parameters on the Google Tag is that they will be applied to all events on the page,

• Finally, for those using Server-Side GTM, the GA4 Configuration tag template had a “Send to server container” checkbox that exposed a field for the Server Container URL when checked, but that checkbox has also gone away. On the Google Tag, you now specify the URL using the server_container_url configuration parameter. (This will automatically be converted if your config tag specified a sGTM URL.)

• Move all event parameters with static values from the new Google Tag(s) to an Event Settings variable and apply that variable to your Google Tag(s). Since the values set by the Google Tag will be static, best to name this variable accordingly (e.g., “Event Settings – Static”). Be sure you only include event parameters whose values will be constant for the lifetime of the page; if you identify any event parameters that may change values, move those to a separate Event Settings variable which you apply to your event tags. (More on that below.)

• EVENT TAGS Review your GA4 event tags and Google Tag(s) for event parameters that need to be applied to every event and move any parameters with values that may change to an Event Settings variable, then apply that variable to your event tags

• EVENT TAGS Review your GA4 event tags and Google Tag(s) for event parameters that need to be applied to every event and move any parameters with values that may change to an Event Settings variable, then apply that variable to your event tags. Since the parameter values in this variable will be dynamically recalculated each time an event tag fires, name this variable accordingly (e.g., “Event Settings – Dynamic”). After you make this change, the only event parameters you will typically need to enter directly on an event tag are those that are specific to that event. (Any shared event parameters with static values should be moved to the Event Settings variable applied to the Google Tag as addressed above.) Review your GA4 event tags and the Google Tag(s) that replaced your GA4 Configuration tag(s) for user properties and move all user properties to the “Google Analytics User Properties” section of the Event Settings variable that you applied to your event tags. By having all user properties in this one variable and applying it to all event tags, you can be sure that whenever a user property value changes, the new value will be included with the next event that gets sent.

• EVENT TAGS Review your GA4 event tags and Google Tag(s) for event parameters that need to be applied to every event and move any parameters with values that may change to an Event Settings variable, then apply that variable to your event tags. Since the parameter values in this variable will be dynamically recalculated each time an event tag fires, name this variable accordingly (e.g., “Event Settings – Dynamic”).

• those parameters would automatically be added to each subsequent event on the page, which saved having to configure them on every tag.

• Review your GA4 event tags and Google Tag(s) for event parameters that need to be applied to every event and move any parameters with values that may change to an Event Settings variable, then apply that variable to your event tags. Since the parameter values in this variable will be dynamically recalculated each time an event tag fires, name this variable accordingly (e.g., “Event Settings – Dynamic”).