GA4 event mappings with default page view enabled

[philip-kanter]

I'm trying to work out why we're missing some data in GA4.

In the GA4 tag, we're mapping data layer properties to custom events in the format event.event_name. These events have been set-up correctly in GA4 itself, so it's not an issue with that part of the process.

However, when I look in GA4 most of these event properties have the '(not set)' value the majority of the time for page view events which is impossible in some circumstances. For example, we're passing over the Tealium profile where GA4 was fired and this will always be available.

In the documentation for Tealium it states 'Page view events are automatically sent by the GA4 tag, which means no additional data can be sent with these events'. 

I'm slightly confused by this statement, as it implies that the mappings section of the GA4 tag won't work unless I switch 'Send Page View' to false.

I can't believe that this is the case, as I'm sure Tealium would or should alert me to the fact that what I'm mapping won't actually work. Like I say, I'm slightly confused by this statement and unsure if it relates to event.event_name properties or some other additional data it's possible to send with a page view.

Even more confusing is that in both the network requests and Omnibug the event data is there, it just never gets into GA4. I've tried Google support but they feel it's a configuration issue rather than a platform issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jenniferkaye]

Hi Philip! GA4 data streams do have automatic events that are sent by the code. Since these don't run through Tealium's code and mappings, any data mapped to event params will not show for these automatic events. However, if a param is sent with the config it WILL be included in the automatic events, since config params apply to all events (standard and automatic). The mappings in the box would show as follows:

my_var --> config.my_var_param

If you need to send params with a specific "automatic" event (and not all events), the automatic events can be turned off in the "admin" section (click on the data stream, toggle off "Enhanced Measurement") and triggered through the Tealium tag. Params can then be mapped to send with that specific event (ex: scroll events).

This also doesn't cover the "page_view" event, as that automatic event can only be turned off with a boolean (set in the tag configuration for "Send Page View"). If this setting is set to "false", you can then map the "page_view" event and send the desired params with that event, as it would then pass through Tealium's code instead of coming from Google's code.

Hopefully this helps with your GA4 configuration.

[chrisb-seer]

Thanks for the details, Jen!

I think my question is similar.

I expected that config.-prefixed event paramters in the GA4/gtag variable mapping would show up in any page_view event that was triggered from utag.view; however, I only saw my user property in the GA4 network request.

(as an example, Simo Ahava passes a couple of readability parameters along with his test page_view here: https://www.simoahava.com/analytics/implementation-guide-events-google-analytics-4/#custom-parameter...)

So far, I can only get parameters to attach to the page_view network hit if I prefix my parameters with all_events. and abandon utag.view for utag.link({tealium_event: 'page_view'}) instead.

It seems that the built-in utag.view functionality is not compatible with custom page_view event parameters?