How can I validate Google Tag Manager tags?

Introduction

By following this guide, users will be able to validate tags fired within Google Tag Manager (GTM).

When setting up tags within Google Tag Manager, we will need to test that the tags that have been set up, work as expected. This means confirming that the tags fired when intended and that they sent the correct information to the appropriate destination. 

There are a variety of tools that one can use to validate tags which include a range of platform-specific tools, and also Google Chrome Extensions. For this document, we shall focus on the platform-specific tools. However, a list of Google Chrome Extensions has been provided in the Appendix of this document. 

A very detailed article about the tool we’ll be using, Google Tag Manager Preview Mode, can be found in this article A Guide To Google Tag Manager Preview Mode.

Time Required

1 hour

Tools and Equipment Required

• Internet access
• Google Tag Manager account

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On this page:

  Preview Tags within Google Tag Manager

  Appendix

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Preview Tags within Google Tag Manager

• Go to your Google Tag Manager (GTM) container.
• We are assuming that the changes have already been made within the container. If not, please make the changes you wanted to make. However, the remaining instructions can still be used to validate an existing published setup. 
• At the top right of the GTM container, click on Preview.
  • Note, that if you do not see Preview as an option, you likely do not have sufficient permissions to the GTM container. 
  • Please ask the owner to provide you with additional access to continue these instructions. 
• A new tab will open up with a pop up window within it that prompts the user to enter the URL you want to check your GTM container contents on. 
• Enter https://booking.zerolatencyvr.com/book-now.
• Click Start.
• A new tab will open up showing the webpage of the booking portal.
• Select the location of the venue’s GTM container you would like to debug (validate tags). 
• Go through some of the booking process, at least until adding the product to cart to get some data. Alternatively, if you are testing for a specific event, such as a purchase, carry out that action from within the tab that opened up.
• In the panel on the far left, identify the event that you would like to validate the tags for and click on it. In this case, we shall review the Select Venue event.

• As can be seen in the screenshot above, for the Select Venue events, there are 4 tags that are listed within the Tags Fired section, whilst all other tags are within the Tags Not Fired section. 
• Furthermore, as we can see in the screenshot, all the tags that fired, have Succeeded  in the grey section within the tag’s box. This means that the tags fired, and fired successfully. 
• We can also check what information was sent with the tag by clicking on the tag that fired. 
• Below is a screenshot that shows the data sent with the GA4 - Select Venue tag.

• The information shown in the screenshot matches with the information selected within the booking engine. As a result, we can confirm that the tags fired correctly with the appropriate data.

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Appendix

• Tag Assistant Legacy (by Google)
  • Assists with tags for any Google Product (GTM, GA, Google Ads, Floodlight, etc).
• Google Analytics Debugger
  
  • This extension writes all events being sent to Google-owned properties (GA4, Google Ads, other gtag implementations) within the web browser console. 
  • This can also be left enabled, so it's by your side whenever you need it.
• GTM/GA Debugger
  
  • This can be used for GTM/GA4. While it's not perfect, it offers a cleaner user interface, which can be helpful when working with e-commerce events.
• Adswerve - dataLayer inspector +
  
  • This tool can inspect dataLayers.
    • To review a venue’s dataLayers, you will need to enter the appropriate dataLayer name. 
  • This tool also allows you to inject a GTM container onto a page:
    • Useful when you don't have access to a GTM container. You can create a test container, and test your tags by INJECTING your container on the site.
    • This allows you to test your setup, without affecting the live site itself, or any other user’s session.
    • Once you've completed making changes, you can export the tags from the container, and request to have these merged to their container.

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Article Keywords/Phrases: 
Google Tag Manager
GA4
GA 4
GTM
Marketing