Overview

We support connection of your ACME environment to your GA4 and/or GTM account(s). The process will change slightly depending on if you are only using Google Analytics (GA4) or if you are also using Google Tag Manager.


This applies to all pages in ACME Online Checkout (B2C) website. If you have implemented a custom API site, you do not need to configure these tracking variables in ACME.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager is a tool that helps you manage tags (e.g. tracking pixels for marketing) without having to touch the source code. You are in the driver seat and can manage your own tags without needing ACME development. In addition, you can configure the ACME user-defined variables to send product and revenue information from ACME Online Checkout to Google Analytics. 


What is the Difference Between Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager?

  • Google Analytics - Tool for collecting, processing, and analyzing website data, such as:
    • Who is visiting your website?
    • Which pages do they view?
    • What hardware are they using (e.g. Mobile phone or Desktop)


  • Google Tag Manager - Tool that enables you to configure tags to track/collect additional data without needing ACME development, such as:
    • Which Event did the visitor purchase?
    • Did the user come from your website and finish their purchase?


What Types of Tags can be Configured on Google Tag Manager?

  • GA4 Event Tag
  • Facebook Pixel
  • Google Ads Conversion Tag
  • Google Ads Remarketing Tag


Note: Due to changes to Apple's User Privacy and Data Use policy, Facebook is now limiting the number of conversion events per domain. This will affect any clients using the ACME Online Checkout website that have configured a Facebook conversion pixel through their individual Google Tag Manager (GTM) account. As ACME holds the domain for any clients using the ACME Online Checkout website, any individual domain verification requirements cannot be met. Clients with a custom API website should be able to complete domain verification. See more about When to Use Domain Verification to Verify Your Business in Facebook's Business Center.

You can read more about this change on Facebook's Business Help Center:
Facebook Pixel Updates for Apple's iOS 14 Requirements
How Apple’s iOS 14 Release May Affect Your Ads and Reporting

Step 1: Link your Google Account in ACME

You have two options:

  • Option 1: Connect GA4 directly in ACME (recommended if you do not use GTM, which is totally fine!)
  • Option 2: Connect via Google Tag Manager (GTM)


Note: We do not recommend doing both, as this could result in data doubling up. You just need one way!


Option 1: Connect GA4 directly with ACME

  1. Log into ACME Backoffice
  2. Navigate to the "Themes" section on the left hand pane. 
  3. There are two variables you can include in your Theme:  
    • "google-analytics-ga4-tracking-code-test": "G-XXXXXXXXXX",
    • "google-analytics-ga4-tracking-code": "G-XXXXXXXXXX",
  4. Paste your Measurement ID for your GA4 stream into the variable.
  5. Update and wait for the success confirmation to show and dismiss.


Note: You can find your Measurement ID in Property › Web stream details Google Analytics 4:


Option 2: Connect via Google Tag Manager (GTM)

  1. Log into ACME Backoffice
  2. Navigate to the "Themes" section on the left hand pane. 
  3. There are two variables you can include in your Theme:  
    • "gtm-tracking-code-test": "GTM-XXXXXXX",
    • "gtm-tracking-code": "GTM-XXXXXXX",
  4. Paste your Measurement ID for your GA4 stream into the variable.
  5. Update and wait for the success confirmation to show and dismiss.


Note: For more information on obtaining your GTM tracking code, see Google's documentation to Set up and install Tag Manager.


Things of Note

  • Test codes will be triggered via sandbox interaction, and the others via production.
  • If you had previously implemented Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) with ACME, remove the following variables, as they have been deprecated: "google-analytics-tracking-code" and "google-analytics-tracking-code-test". If these are left in place, they may prevent GA4 data from flowing through as expected. 

Step 2: Track GA4 Events

Currently ACME's data layer supports tracking of a purchase event.


Refer to the ACME Mappings: ACME Google Analytics Mapping to see the standard parameters included in the ecommerce object and the values mapped to each.

Note: For those who previously migrated from Universal Analytics, a tab is included in that document with the original fields that would have been used before UA was replaced with GA4.


Option 1: GA4 connected directly with ACME

For those who opted to connect GA4 directly with ACME, you are done! Head on over to your Google Analytics account and you'll start seeing data flowing (give it ~30 min if you just completed setup). Look for the 'purchase' event for when orders are successfully completed.


Option 2: GA4 connect via Google Tag Manager (GTM)

For those using Google Tag Manager, you have some additional set up for GA4. 


Initial Setup

Google has a variety of resources to support this setup:

Measure Ecommerce Events with the GA4 Event Tag

With the purchase event, you'll want to send Ecommerce events and parameters to your Google Analytics property. You can configure this in two ways:

  • Option 1: "Send Ecommerce data" (see documentation from Google ›)
    • Check the box for “Send Ecommerce data” under More Settings
    • Select “Data Layer” as the Data Source

  • Option 2: Set up your own GTM variables for event parameters › simply prepend “ecommerce.” to the Data Layer Variable Name for the variable configuration. For example, for the currency parameter, “value” should be “ecommerce.value”. Refer to the ACME Mappings: ACME Google Analytics Mapping to see the event parameters for the GA4 purchase event.  


Note: For the purchase trigger, be sure that the Event name is "purchase", as that is what is sent in the data layer.

Testing

Navigate to your ACME Online Ticketing site, such as:

You should now switch over to your Real-Time tab in Google Analytics for the Production or Sandbox  and see the data flowing. 


Note: It may take a moment the first time but it will speed up thereafter. If you are not seeing data flowing then you can use the tool below to debug and see if and why the data is not propagating.

Custom API eCommerce Sites

The Google tracking codes configured in the ACME Theme simply trigger the necessary scripts to be placed on all ACME Online Checkout website pages. If you have implemented a custom API site, you do not need to configure these tracking variables in ACME.


For those implementing a custom eCommerce site with the ACME APIs, refer to the Google Tag Manager documentation to implement this on your end.