Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Tag Setup Guide

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This article describes how to set up the Google Analytics 4 tag (GA4) in your Tealium iQ Tag Management account.

In this article:

• Overview
• Automatic and Recommended Events
• Configuring the Google Analytics 4 Tag
• Page View Events with Custom Parameters
• Items Parameter for Recommended Events
• Custom Events
• Data Mappings
• Mapping Custom Events
• Mapping Form Submit Events
• Google Analytics 4 Variables Available for Mapping
• Standard
• Event
• Event Triggers
• Event-specific Parameters
• Event-specific Parameters
• User Properties
• Game
• App / Screen Tracking
• E-Commerce
• IAB Transparency and Consent Framework v2

Overview

The Google Analytics 4 tag can only be used with GA4 properties. You cannot use the GA4 tag with a Universal Analytics property. However, you can use both the UA and GA4 tags on the same website. Your new GA4 property won't have historical data, so it is recommended that you run both GA4 and Universal Analytics in parallel for a few months before switching to GA4.

GA4 has a different structure for events than Google Universal Analytics. GA4 is event-based with parameters and properties, and does not use event_category, event_action, event_label, or custom dimensions.

For more information on setting up a GA4 property and migrating to GA4 from Universal Analytics, see Next Generation of Google Analytics and Migrating from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

Automatic and Recommended Events

GA4 automatically generates some events, with no setup required, For more information on these automatically generated events and their parameters, see Google Analytics 4 Automatically Collected Events.

GA4 also has recommended events in the following categories:

• All sites and apps
• Retail and ecommerce
• Jobs, education, local deals, and real estate
• Travel
• Games

For recommended events, data must be mapped to the event parameters. For more information on recommended events and their parameters, see [GA4] Recommended Events.

Configuring the Google Analytics 4 Tag

Go to the tag marketplace and add the Google Analytics 4 tag. For information on adding a tag, see Tags.

After adding the tag, configure the following settings:

• Measurement ID
  • Measurement ID of the Google Analytics property for which you want to send data. The measurement ID begins with "G-". For example, G-12345678M.
  • Use a comma-separated list of measurement IDs to send data for multiple GA4 properties.
• Global Object
  • The name of the Global Object used for the event queue.
  • If not specified, gtag is used.
  • Not required for most implementations.
• Data Layer Name
  • By default, the data layer initiated and referenced by the global site tag is named dataLayer.
  • Rename the data layer only if your project requires a separate name.
• Send Page View
  • By default, Page View events are automatically recorded for each page on your site.
  • If you do not want to send Page View events to Google Analytics, set this option to false.
• Clear Vars
  • Clears items usually set for the lifetime of the tracker after each tracking request.

Page View Events with Custom Parameters

Page view events are automatically sent by the GA4 tag, which means no additional data can be sent with these events. However, you can set Send Page View to False, then map a page view event that is triggered when tealium_event = view and send custom parameters with that event. Other automatic events can be disabled in the GA4 interface.

Items Parameter for Recommended Events

Some travel events and retail and ecommerce events have an items parameter. For these events, the items array is automatically populated from E-commerce Extension values, such as product name, category, and price.

For more information, see E-commerce Extension.

Custom Events

If you are using Google Universal Analytics and have custom events and dimensions you want to use with GA4, these custom events need to be reconfigured for GA4 due to differences in the event structure for Universal Analytics and GA4. GA4 is event-based and requires data to be mapped to event parameters.

For more information, see Migrating from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

Data Mappings

Mapping is the process of sending data from a data layer variable to the corresponding destination variable of the vendor tag. For instructions on how to map a variable to a tag destination, see Data Mappings.

Mapping Custom Events

Before creating a custom event, make sure there are no automatically generated events or recommended events for your use case. If you create a custom event, it does not appear in the default GA4 reports. You need to set up custom reports that include custom events.

To create a custom event, you typically map a data layer variable that captures event names. The example shown here uses tealium_event. The Trigger is the value of that data layer variable that corresponds to the event you want to track. The Custom Name is the GA4 custom event name. For example, if your data layer has the following custom event:

var utag_data = { "tealium_event" : "my_event_name" };

Then the mapping for GA4 would look like this:

Mapping Form Submit Events

Mapping form submit events is similar to mapping a custom event. For example:

Google Analytics 4 Variables Available for Mapping

The following sections list the GA4 variables by the categories in the Data Mappings tab of the Tag Configuration dialog.

Standard

Variable	Description
measurement_id	Measurement ID
clear_global_vars	Boolean Clear Vars
cookie_domain (config.cookie_domain)	Cookie Domain
cookie_expires (config.cookie_expires)	Integer Cookie Expires
cookie_prefix (config.cookie_prefix)	Cookie Prefix
cookie_update (config.cookie_update)	Boolean Cookie Update
cookie_flags (config.cookie_flags)	Cookie Flags
send_page_view (config.send_page_view)	Boolean
config.allow_google_signals	Boolean Allow Advertising Features.
config.allow_ad_personalization_signals	Boolean Allow Advertising Personalizations.
config.transport_type	Transport Type
page_title (config.page_title)	Page Title
page_location (config.page_location)	Page Location
page_path (config.page_path)	Page Path
cookie_name (config.cookie_name)	Cookie Name
config.campaign.id	Campaign ID
config.campaign.name	Campaign Name
config.campaign.source	Campaign Source
config.campaign.medium	Campaign Medium
config.campaign.content	Campaign Content
config.campaign.term	Campaign Term/Keyword
config.optimize_id	Optimize Container ID
config.use_amp_client_id	Boolean Use AMP Client ID.
config.sample_rate	Sample Rate
config.site_speed_sample_rate	Site Speed Sample Rate
customer_id	User ID Overrides _ccustid.
config.client_id	Client ID

Event

Variable	Description
event.event_category	Event Category
event.event_label	Event Label
value	Event / Timing Value
name	Timing Variable Name
description	Exception Description
fatal	Boolean Exception fatal
search_term	Search Term
method	Method
content_type	Content Type
content_id	Content ID
destination	Destination
start_date	Start Date. Date in [YYYYMMDD] format.
end_date	End Date Date in [YYYYMMDD] format.
event.custom	Custom Event Data
event.non_interaction	Non-Interaction
event.send_to	Override Default Routing
event.event_callback	Event Callback

Event Triggers

Variable	Description
exception	Exception
generate_lead	Generate Lead
join_group	Join Group
login	Login
page_view	Page View
screen_view	Screen View
search	Search
select_content	Select Content
share	Share
sign_up	Sign Up
timing_complete	Timing Complete
add_payment_info	Add Payment Information
add_shipping_info	Add Shipping Information
add_to_cart	Add to Cart
add_to_wishlist	Add to Wish List
begin_checkout	Begin Checkout
purchase	Purchase
refund	Refund
remove_from_cart	Remove From Cart
select_item	Select Item
select_promotion	Select Promotion
view_cart	View Cart
view_item	View Item
view_item_list	View Item List
view_promotion	View Promotion
earn_virtual_currency	Earn Virtual Currency
level_end	Level End
level_start	Level Start
level_up	Level Up
post_score	Post Score
spend_virtual_currency	Spend Virtual Currency
tutorial_begin	Tutorial Begin
tutorial_complete	Tutorial Complete
unlock_achievement	Unlock Achievement
customEvent	Custom Event

Event-specific Parameters

Event-specific Parameters

Variable	Description
exception	Exception
generate_lead	Generte Lead
join_group	Join_group
login	Login
Page View	Page View
screen_view	Screen View
search	Search
select_content	Select Content
share	Share
sign_up	Sign up
timing_complete	Timing complete
add_payment_info	Add payment information
add_shipping_info	Add shipping information
add_to_cart	Add to cart
add_to_wishlist	Add to wishlist
begin_checkout	Begin checkout
purchase	Purchase
refund	Refund
remove_from_cart	Remove from cart
select_item	Select item
select_promotion	Select promotion
view_cart	View cart
view_item	View item
view_item_list	View item list
view_item_list	View_item_list
earn_virtual_currency	Earn virtual currency
level_end	Level end
level_start	Level start
level_up	Level up
post_score	Post score
spend_virtual_currency	Spend virtual currency
tutorial_begin	Tutorial begin
tutorial_complete	Tutorial complete
unlock_achievement	Unlock achievement
Custom Event	Custom event

User Properties

Game

Variable	Description
achievement_id	Achievement Id
character	Character
group_id	Group Id
item_name	Item Name
level	Level
level_name	Level Name
score	Score
success	Success
virtual_currency_name	Virtual Currency Name
value	Virtual Currency Value

App / Screen Tracking

Variable	Description
screen_name	Screen Name
config.app_name	Application Name
config.app_id	Application ID
config.app_version	Application Version
config.app_installer_id	Application Installer ID

E-Commerce

Variable	Description
order_id	Order ID Overrides _corder.
order_total	Order Total Overrides _ctotal.
order_shipping	Shipping Amount Overrides _cship.
order_tax	Tax Amount Overrides _ctax.
order_store	Store Overrides _cstore.
order_currency	Currency Overrides _ccurrency.
order_coupon_code	Promo Code Overrides _cpromo.
product_id	Array List of Product IDs. Overrides _cprod.
product_name	Array List of Names Overrides _cprodname.
product_sku	Array List of SKUs.
product_brand	Array Overrides _csku.
item_category	Array List of Categories Overrides _ccat.
item_category2	Array List of Sub Categories. Overrides _ccat2.
item_category3	Array List of Sub Categories. Overrides _ccat3.
item_category4	Array List of Sub Categories. Overrides _ccat4.
item_category5	Array List of Sub Categories. Overrides _ccat5.
product_variant	Array List of Variants.
product_quantity	Array List of Quantities Overrides _cquan.
product_unit_price	Array List of Prices. Overrides _cprice.
product_discount	Array List of Discounts. Overrides _cpdisc.
product_promotion_id	Array List of Promotion Ids.
product_promotion_name	Array List of Promotion Names.
product_creative_name	Array List of Creative Names.
product_creative_slot	Array List of Creative Slots.
product_location_id	Array List of Location Ids.
product_index	Array List of Indexes.
product_item_list_name	Array List of Item List Names.
product_item_list_id	Array List of Item List Ids.
product_affiliation	Array List of Affiliations.

IAB Transparency and Consent Framework v2

Variable	Description
gtag_enable_tcf_support	Enable TCF Support. Values are true or false.