Usage of Google Analytics library: gtag.js

[StefanLeever]

Hello,

We're wondering whether Tealium is making use or is going to make use of the gtag.js library for measuring Google Analytics.

If so, is this going to alter anything in the approach of implementation within Tealium (for example, products are measured differently: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gtagjs/enhanced-ecommerce).

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

[STerjeson]

Hi @StefanLeever, the new gtag.js will likely be a new tag template in Tealium like any other new tag format. The product code stucture in gtag.js should be part of that tag template, so it should ultimately work with extensions like E-commerce with built in mapping to the data layer.

[adrian_browning · Accepted solution]

@StefanLeever 

I would advise you contact your account manager or the support team to get a request for this new template.

Adrian

[StefanLeever]

Hello Adrian,

Thanks for your response. I have forwarded the request to our internal contact person so that it can be forwarded to the account manager.

Interested to see how fast this could be part of Tealium :)!

Best regards,

[loldenburg]

we also need this (actually any Google Analytics customer will need it) and have forwarded it to our Account Manager a while ago.

[steve_lake]

Hi @loldenburg - As I understand it, it's in active development.
If you need more information, please can you raise a support ticket and we will find out more detail for you. 

Many thanks

Steve Lake

[adam_wolfers]

@loldenburg

We are working to get this integration finalized as soon as we can.

For Apple's ITP, if you implement Option 2 on this page (https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7521212), you shouldn't need to make any changes to your Google Analytics or AdWords tagging. If you know of a use case where this doesn't work, please let me know.

[loldenburg]

AdWords is not the problem, for us it is DoubleClick Floodlight tags which supposedly suffer the biggest impact in terms of conversion Tracking. Floodlight is or will also run via gtag.js, so Tealium needs to support it soon.

[adam_wolfers]

@loldenburg

We have this near the top of our queue, so we'll be getting it added to the Tag Marketplace as soon as we can.

If you are running Google Universal Analytics (analytics.js) on your site, can you confirm that the "gclid" query parameter is NOT being picked up by Google Analytics and stored in a first-party cookie? From what I've read, DoubleClick clicks should have this query parameter. From what I've tested, Google Analytics should store this query parameter in a first-party cookie. The remaining thing to check is if the DoubleClick Conversion Tracking tag then grabs the value from the first-party cookie and passes it with the conversion call.

Thanks,
Adam

[loldenburg]

The "gclid"Parameter has nothing to do with DoubleClick. gclid is from AdWords, not from DoubleClick. I am a bit surprised that Tealium employees do not know this, it is one of the oldest and most popular advertising parameters out there imho.
But in case you are talking about AdWords, Google Analytics analytics.js picks up the gclid parameter indeed and stores it in a First Party Cookie _gac_[GA Property ID]. Just click on any AdWords links and check the cookies on the landing page.

DoubleClick (DBM&DCM) instead has a "dclid" parameter if you activate Autotagging in DBM/DCM, but many clients do not do that (we for example do not yet), and DoubleClick has further complications like Ad Impression Tracking which is more affected by ITP. That's why DoubleClick Floodlight tags are the main problem tracking-wise, not AdWords Conversion Tags. Google has advised its DoubleClick in September already to change their implementation. With Tealium however, we still cannot do this until now.

[joecbrown]

@adam_wolfers  Any new updates as to when this is going to be available in the marketplace?

[BrianTozer]

I'm really LATE to this party and just got notified that my Floodlight tag will not work with ITP 2.0.

I'm attempting to switch to the Floodlight (gtag.js) in Tealium.  It seems to be making a call to Google Tag Manager.

1) Do I need to activate Google Tag Manager (in addition to Tealium) for gtag.js to work properly?

2) Am I even on the right path?  If you've successfully migrated, what ended up working?

Thanks.

[loldenburg]

1) The gtag-based Google Tags all make calls to the googletagmanager domain. It is sort of an extra-GTM container just for these gtag-based google tags (Ads, Analytics, Floodlights). So don't worry about that. So you don't need to activate Google Tag Manager.
2) That's much more complicated to answer as it depends on the conditions (how to test whether it is working in a Safari with ITP enabled is something even the Google staff was incompetent at explaining. But in general, you should still see requests with the required floodlight parameters going out in your http debugging tool like before with the traditional floodlight tag.