Google Analytics vs. Google Tag Manager implementation

Optimizely Configured Commerce business users have the option to install Google Analytics 4 or a Google Tag Manager container on their various websites and domains using three simple settings. The advantages, disadvantages, and considerations for each are discussed below.

Using the basic Google Analytics implementation lets you provide a unique Google Analytics property ID (known as a Measurement ID) and the domains in which you want that tracker installed. Configured Commerce then places the Google Analytics tracking snippet with your provided ID in the correct location across on your site. If you are having trouble locating your Measurement ID, see Set up the Analytics Google tag in Analytics Help. 

While Google Analytics provides you with many reporting features out-of-the-box, you may want to use a Google Tag Manager implementation for more customizations and benefits.

Google Tag Manager (GTM), a free tag management solution from Google, allows users to install one singular code snippet across every page of their website, and use the GTM interface to push the various marketing tags needed, on the exact page in which they are needed. Not only does this clean up the amount of code your developers need to implement and change, but it also allows the code changes, additions, and removals to be in the power of the ever-capable marketer's hands. It also builds in protections, such as firing and blocking rules, as well as versioning controls, so that a marketer may roll back to the last stable version if a recent update is having adverse effects on the site.

Additional information on Google Tag Manager can be found on its official product page and support documents.

You can configure the Google Analytics normal pageview tag to fire across your websites pages with a built-in Google Analytics Tag template. However, you must complete additional configuration through the Google Tag Manager UI before information can be captured by Google Analytics.

Additionally, if you use Tag Manager, Configured Commerce exposes additional advanced data for Google Analytics use. This includes exposing two data layer variables: Authentication State and User ID. These variables could be used for a variety of situations, but most commonly they are collected as Google Analytics Custom Dimensions, allowing users to segment and compare nearly all metrics and KPIs against individual site User IDs and if the users were logged in or not.

The Google Analytics plug-in is also supported through Configured Commerce versions 4.2+ with the Google Tag Manager Implementation. Ecommerce tracking through Google Analytics allows the platform to capture transactional details (sale amount, products in order, and so on) to gain valuable insights into what online behaviors contributed to a transaction. You can then determine if certain blog posts contributed to a user buying or whether an email campaign or a Google search led a user to the site.

Besides the additional information and control you can gain with Google Tag Manager to set up Google Analytics with Configured Commerce, you can also allow users to add and adjust tags without any code deploys, including setting up additional Google Analytics events, adding a tracking code for your email platform, or measuring conversions of your digital ads via a conversion snippets. Google Tag Manager has a friendly web interface with rules to control when and where they fire. Google Tag Manager also has built-in tag templates for 26 separate products (including AdRoll, Marin, ComScore, LinkedIn, CrazyEgg, and more) and the ability to fire custom HTML tags.

*Additional configuration in Google Analytics (and Tag Manager, if applicable) required

Once you decide to use Google Analytics or Tag Manager, follow the guides on how to configure the appropriate settings in Configured Commerce and how to set up Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager for use with Configured Commerce tracking.