Google Tag Manager Web Template - Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK

This is the client-side Google Tag Manager Template for Amplitude Analytics. The tag uses the Amplitude Browser SDK 2.0 for data collection.

Workflow¶

Container Setup¶

If you start from zero, you need to setup your container first. This Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK tag template can be found in Web target platform which for the uses on desktop and mobile web pages.

Add Template¶

Create a new tag template by searching the gallery. Choose Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK and click the add button.

Create Tags¶

Create tags for your amplitude browser SDK tracking. Click the New button to create your new tags.

Tag Configuration¶

Amplitude provides a list of tag types. You might also create a Custom HTML tag to do customization, like cross domain tracking or others. For successful tracking in Amplitude, ensure that the Amplitude tag loads before the Custom HTML tag, which is being used to call Amplitude. The sequence in which the tags load can significantly influence the outcome. Time sequence might be helpful in this case. Please check this section for accessing the amplitude instance in the Custom HTML tag.

Note: We do not recommend installing amplitude through a Custom HTML tag.

API Key¶

Copy your amplitude project API Key in the API Key field. For EU residency, your project API Key is under analytics.eu.amplitude.com. Each project has different API Key, please make sure you are copy the API Key from the right project. Go to Settings -> Projects -> click the right project name from the list to find your project API Key. Check here for more details.

Instance Name¶

If you plan on running more than one Amplitude instance, each with distinct API keys or initialization options, you'll need to assign an Instance Name to each one. Tags with the same Instance Name are linked together and use the API key of the Initialization tag for that Instance Name.

Access amplitude instance¶

If you have a Custom HTML tag, you might need to access amplitude instance in your script tag.

With default Instance Name¶

// For amplitude-js-gtm@3.1.4 and above
amplitudeGTM.getDeviceId();

// Others
amplitude.getDeviceId();

With customized Instance Name¶

// For amplitude-js-gtm@3.1.4 and above
amplitudeGTM._iq["yourInstanceName"].getDeviceId();

// Others
amplitude._iq["yourInstanceName"].getDeviceId();

Select a Tag Type¶

A tag type allows you to specify what kind of action or event should be tracked in your application. The following tag types are supported in Amplitude GTM template.

init¶

Cookies are generated at the initialization stage. For more information on managing cookies, please refer to our cookie management details. It is recommended to initialize after obtaining cookie consent. As we support deferred initialization, any event tracking that takes place before the init command will still be captured and won't be lost.

Track default Amplitude events¶

Check this checkbox to enable default event tracking and configure the following default tracking events

• Track Marketing Attribution

The following configurations are available attribution options. More details.

• Track Page Views
• Track Sessions
• Track Form Interactions
• Track File Downloads

EU Data Residency¶

For EU data residency, you must set up your project inside Amplitude EU and use the API key from Amplitude EU. You can configure the server zone by checking the checkbox EU Data Residency under Tag Configuration -> Initialization of the init tag. The initialization section only shows up when tag type is set to init. More details.

User ID¶

If the user ID is already available you can:

• Initialize the instance with it by inputting it in the "User ID" input box of the init tag
• Use the setUserId tag type to set the use ID at a later time. More details.

Configurations¶

• Use default values. The initialization is done with the default values.

• Set configuration manually. By selecting the corresponding option. The following configurations are the available ones with the value type in GTM template.

• Select a **GTM variable** from the list. It's necessary to return an object containing the key-value pairs you wish to use for instance configuration. Ensure that the keys are part of the available configurations.

(Legacy) Enable client side user agent enrichment¶

Starting with version 240a7 in Aug, 2023, we have upgraded this template to use the Amplitude Browser SDK 2.0 for data collection. In Amplitude Browser SDK 2.0, we have deprecated client-side user agent parsing in favor of server-side user agent parsing. More details.

To avoid breaking changes in chart analytics, we've added the option to enable client-side user agent parsing via the (Legacy) Enable client side user agent enrichment option. You can also choose which user agent field (OS name, OS version, device manufacture, and device model) you want to enrich by checking the checkbox accordingly.

If you are a new user, we highly recommend adopting server-side parsing by leaving this checkbox empty as the new enrichment strategy offers more accurate result.

Page View Tracking¶

Check this box to enable page view tracking. The following configurations are available page view tracking options. More details.

Sessions Tracking¶

Check this box to enable sessions tracking. More details.

Form Interactions Tracking¶

Check this box to enable form interactions tracking. More details.

File Downloads Tracking¶

Check this box to enable file downloads tracking. More details.

track¶

Events represent how users interact with your application. For example, "Button Clicked" may be an action you want to note. The track tag type is for tracking an event under a specific trigger.

Event Type¶

Event Properties¶

Custom Timestamp¶

Track Groups¶

Set event level groups. With event-level groups, the group designation applies only to the specific event being logged, and doesn't persist on the user unless explicitly set with setGroup. More details.

identify¶

Add individual user property operations each as its own row in the table. You can add as many as you like, but note that you can only include a specific User Property in a single operation. The operations are executed in order. More details.

setGroup¶

Amplitude supports assigning users to groups and performing queries, such as Count by Distinct, on those groups. If at least one member of the group has performed the specific event, then the count includes the group. More details.

groupIdentify¶

Use the Group Identify API to set or update the properties of particular groups. These updates only affect events going forward. More details.

revenue¶

Tracking the revenue event for a user. Revenue instances store each revenue transaction and allow you to define several special revenue properties (such as 'revenueType' and 'productIdentifier') that are used in Amplitude's Event Segmentation and Revenue LTV charts.

flush¶

The flush method prompts the client to instantly send buffered events. There's no need to manually call the flushtag type, it will automatically be triggered based on either flushIntervalMillis or flushQueueSize, whichever comes first. To avoid event loss due to browser closure, consider enabling the sendBeacon transport in the configuration options, or set the transport type to sendBeacon when pagehide. Alternatively, you could reduce the flushQueueSize and flushIntervalMillis according to your event traffic load, ensuring events don't get stuck on the client.

setUserId¶

If you want to reset the userId and deviceId after logout, please check reset tag type instead.

setDeviceId¶

If you want to reset the userId and deviceId after logout, please check reset tag type instead.

setSessionId¶

Session logic is auto handled by Amplitude. You might need to set the sessionId to -1 if you want to out of session control. Please make sure the value is in milliseconds since epoch (Unix Timestamp) or -1. More details.

reset¶

reset will be commonly used when a user has been logged out. It includes 2 operations which are setUserId(undefined) and setDeviceId(UUID()). More details.

setOptOut¶

Check the Opt current user out of tracking checkbox to opt user out of tracking. More details.

Define your trigger - Triggering¶

All tags fire based on events. Anytime Google Tag Manager registers an event, event triggers are evaluated and tags are fired accordingly. Please check here for available triggers in GTM.

Common Issues¶

These are common issues encountered with the GTM template. For further troubleshooting of your GTM instance, please refer to the GTM Help Center.

• Troubleshoot issues
• Preview and debug containers

Does Amplitude GTM template support React Native (Android or iOS) apps?¶

No. The Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK only supports the web container, designed for desktop and mobile browsers. Amplitude does not provide support for GTM templates for mobile apps at this time. To request this feature, please submit a feature request here.

Can we add some logic to Amplitude template?¶

Yes, but it's not recommended. Modified Community Gallery Templates will no longer receive updates provided by the developer but you can always restore the template to start receiving notifications again.

Missing events?¶

• Please check if you have multiple versions of Amplitude browser SDK installed. There may be collision between different versions of SDKs. Please try giving a different instance name for your GTM instance.
• If your website blocks script that our Template is trying to inject. Check your website’s Console or Network tab to see if any scripts are blocked or if you are getting any errors through right click -> Inspect:
• Init web attribution event is missing. If you have installed cookies consent, please check if the value of document.referrer has been updated to your current domain. The campaign from the current domain won't be tracked.
• Ensure that you have selected the appropriate Tag firing options. Choosing Once per event will cause your tag to fire each time a Trigger event is performed. On the other hand, selecting Once per Page will fire your Tag just once. This discrepancy could lead to events not being sent as expected.

Overall user counts to increase?¶

Verify whether cookies have been altered or removed inadvertently. Cookies store critical user session data and marketing campaign information. If these cookies are deleted, it triggers a reset of user identifiers (such as user ID and device ID), invariably leading to a surge in the user count. Additionally, the erasure of last-viewed campaign parameters can result in an increase in organic/direct traffic, among other effects.

Cross Domain Tracking?¶

To retain user identification across different domains, a custom HTML tag must be created to attach the user's deviceId to the domain link you wish to track. By appending deviceId=YourDeviceId to the URL, the Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK will utilize this deviceId from the URL parameter rather than generating a new one. Due to certain limitations in GTM, the workaround is available to illustrate how to append URLs in the GTM template.

How to pass other types for identify/groupIdentify value¶

If you hardcode the value in your tag, the input will be forced into a string type. To use other types such as number or boolean, please create a GTM variable, specifically a Data Layer Variable. This will accurately capture the types you've specified.

Video Tutorial¶

This video tutorial walks through the implementation basics.

Breaking changes checklist¶

Page View event's name and properties¶

The new template changes the default page view events to include [Amplitude] prefixes. If you want to continue using the older page view events check Use legacy page view properties checkbox. See full details in table.

Subdomain attribution tracking¶

Traffic from one subdomain to another (ie analytics.amplitude.com to experiment.amplitude.com) is not tracked by default. If you want to exclude the attribution tracking on location.hostname, but not other subdomains, add the string value of location.hostname in the Exclude Referrers input under the Track marketing attribution section. See full details in table.

User agent parser¶

The new template changes the way to parse the device related info which might affect the value of OS, Device Type, Device Family (event.os_name, event.os_version, event.device_model, event.device_manufacturer), and related properties. If you want to continue using the older way to parse user agent, check (Legacy) Enable client side user agent enrichment checkbox. See full details in table.

Here are the related settings in the GTM template:

Legacy page view properties checkbox	Exclude referrers input	User agent parser checkbox