Update about events with Google Analytics and WhatsApp Widget (please read)

As Google has started discontinuing Universal Analytics (UA) 2 years ago, and finally fully transitioned to GA4 in July of 2024, all setup was prepared to work with GA4 from the beginning in order to ensure no tracking data is lost.

We recommend utilization of Google Tag Manager to ensure tracking. The reasons why we are working this way are:

1. Simplicity: as a novice user, anyone can just place GTM on their website, and use our predefined recipe for tracking to adapt to their needs, following the user guides.

2. Reliability: the GTM code is a simple embed, which makes it less possible for your developer to remove it during website updates. And also, you will most likely notice if it is gone, because there are often other dependencies inside of it, that might cause you to notice that it is broken. For example, Facebook tracking.

3. Information distribution: the GTM is a great way to allow tracking across different system. Mainly, PPC like Google ads and Facebook, but also, with using it to capture the information, custom 3rd party integrations are possible.

4. Regarding GA4, the new tracking system utilizes different formatting for tracking of events, and even when you send UA events from the code directly (like it was done before in ChatWith), there are very few options to format and organize the information as desired in GA4, as it is precoded. With GTM, the information is captured there, and can be reformatted to the user’s liking prior to passing it on to the GA4, Facebook and other tracking systems.

This relates to media buying, affiliate marketing, internal CRMs, mailing systems, etc.


Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Tracking with GTM and tochat.be

Step 1: Set Up Google Tag Manager

  • Create a GTM Account: If you haven’t already, sign up for Google Tag Manager at tagmanager.google.com.
  • Install GTM on Your Website: Place the GTM container snippet in the <head> and <body> of your website’s HTML.

Step 2: Configuring tochat.be for Event Tracking

Integrate tochat.be Widget: Navigate to your tochat.be dashboard, select your widget, and configure it to send interaction events to your site’s data layer. This is usually found in the widget settings under analytics or events.

Data Layer Events: Ensure your widget is set up to push events to the data layer. The ChatWith widget, for example, can send events like “chatwith” for interactions.

Step 3: Setting Up GTM Tags and Triggers

Create Custom Variables: In GTM, you’ll need to create variables to capture the event details like event_category, event_action, event_label. These should match the data layer variables pushed by tochat.be.

Define Triggers: Set up triggers in GTM to fire when specific data layer events occur. For instance, a trigger for when the “chatwith” event is pushed.

Create Tags:

  • GA4 Event Tag: Configure a tag to send these events to GA4. Use the GA4 Configuration tag, select your stream ID, and map the event parameters (Category, Action, Label) to your custom variables.
  • Google Ads Conversion Tag: If you’re running ads, you might want to send these events to Google Ads for conversion tracking. Follow the guide on setting up conversion linker and Google Ads tags in GTM.

Testing: Use the GTM preview mode to test your setup. Click on your WhatsApp widget to initiate an event, then check in the GTM debug view if the tags are firing correctly.

Step 4: Publish and Monitor

Publish Changes: After testing, publish your GTM container to go live with the tracking setup.

Monitor in GA4: Check your GA4 dashboard to ensure events are being logged. Remember, there might be a delay of up to 24 hours before events show up in GA4.

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