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Transferring Analytics 4 Data to Google Tag Manager: How to Set Up the Integration?
Hey, I could really use some help with shifting my Google Analytics 3 and 4 to use Google Tag Manager. I had it set up the direct way, you know, where both my GA accounts work with the same UA tag – I kept that intact when I brought in GA4. But, I want to do fancy stuff like tracking custom events, say, part-way scrolls on the website; that’s where the Tag Manager comes in handy, right? Problem is, I don’t want to lose the previous data from my GA3 and GA4 accounts when I do this – got any advice on how to go about it?
Oh, and I tried setting up a Tag Manager account, but the ID isn’t the same as the one on my GA4 account. Maybe it’s important – another guy at our firm made the GA4 property. Any thoughts?
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2 Replies
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Sure, let me break it down for you. Your Google Tag Manager (GTM) ID is different from your GA3 or GA4 IDs. They’re not meant to be the same, so no worries there.
When you create tags in GTM for your GA accounts, you’ll need to use the specific measurement ID for GA4, or the property ID for UA.
Now comes the careful part: You’ll need to set-up your tracking in GTM the same way you had it in GA. To make sure you got it right, you can compare the network requests from your website sent by the GTM version with those from your current setup.
If everything looks good, you can go ahead, publish your container in GTM and then remove the old GA setup. This way, you won’t lose any historical data and you’re all set for your fancy tracking events!
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Yes, Google Tag Manager (GTM) can definitely help you track custom events like scrolls on your website. And you don’t need to worry about losing any previous data from your GA3 and GA4 accounts because migrating to GTM doesn’t affect your historical data. The past data will remain in your Google Analytics (GA).
You’re absolutely right about your GA4 property and GTM account having different IDs. That’s normal. GA and GTM are different tools with different purposes. GA is for tracking user interactions (like pageviews, events) while GTM is for managing marketing and analytics tags on your website. When you create these accounts, Google assigns different IDs to them to help you organize and separate your tracking tools.
So, what you need to do now is to configure your existing GA4 tracking within the GTM interface. Then you can start using GTM to deploy Google Analytics tracking on your website. Also, don’t forget to change the GA tracking code on your pages to the GTM code, and then remove the old GA codes.
Just make sure you set it up correctly, including setting up triggers (conditions for when tags should fire) and variables (additional information needed for the tag to work). If it’s done correctly, you can efficiently track custom events without losing past data and improve your future tracking system.
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