Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Tag Setup Guide
This article describes how to set up the Google Analytics 4 tag (GA4) in your Tealium iQ Tag Management account and considerations to be aware of during implementation.
Overview
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the new version of Google Analytics. One of the differences between GA4 and Google Universal Analytics is that GA4 uses a different reporting method. If your site is currently running Google Universal Analytics, it is recommended that you run both Google Universal Analytics and GA4 concurrently for a few months before switching completely to GA4. This approach allows historical data to continue to be collected in Google Universal Analytics while you gain familiarity with the reporting in GA4.
Note that Google Universal Analytics will stop processing data on July 1, 2023 (October 1, 2023 for 360 accounts).
Google Universal Analytics has several hit types, including event tracking, pageviews, timing events, and social shares. GA4 is completely event-based, meaning that there are only event hits. GA4 does not have the event categories, actions, labels, and values used in Google Universal Analytics. Instead, the data sent with GA4 events includes an event name and customizable event parameters that contain contextual data for the event.
For more information about migrating to GA4 from Google Universal Analytics, see Migrating from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.
Configuring the Google Analytics 4 tag
Navigate to the Tag Marketplace to add a new tag. Read the Tag Overview article for general instructions on how to add a tag.
When adding the tag, configure the following settings:
- Measurement ID
- Measurement ID of the Google Analytics property for which you want to send data. The measurement ID begins with “G-”. For example,
G-12345678M
. - Use a comma-separated list of measurement IDs to send data for multiple GA4 properties.
- Measurement ID of the Google Analytics property for which you want to send data. The measurement ID begins with “G-”. For example,
- Global Object
- The name of the Global Object used for the event queue.
- If not specified,
gtag
is used. - For most implementation, the default is used.
- Data Layer Name
- By default, the data layer initiated and referenced by the global site tag is named
dataLayer
. - For most implementation, the default is used.
- By default, the data layer initiated and referenced by the global site tag is named
- Send Page View
- By default, Page View events are automatically recorded for each page on your site.
- If you do not want to send Page View events to Google Analytics, set this option to false.
- Clear Vars
- Clears items usually set for the lifetime of the tracker after each tracking request.
GA4 event types
GA4 is event-based and provides the following types of events:
- Automatically Collected Events
- Enhanced Measurement Events
- Recommended Events
- Custom Events
The following diagram shows how to determine which type of event you need for your use case:

Automatic events
GA4 automatically generates some events, with no configuration required. For more information on automatically generated events and their parameters, see Google Analytics 4 Automatically Collected Events.
Enhanced measurement events
You can enable enhanced measurement options (events) in the Google Analytics interface to measure interactions with your content. No configuration in Tealium iQ is required. When you enable enhanced measurement options, additional events are sent that provide information on user activity such as file downloads and searches. For more information, see the GA4 documentation for Enhanced Measurement Events.
Recommended events
GA4 provides recommended events, including events recommended for all sites, as well as events specific to online sales and to games. Each recommended event has one or more parameters that provide additional context for the event. For more information on these events and their parameters, see the Google Recommended Events documentation.
Custom events
If your event does not fit one of the three event types described above, send a custom event. For more information, see GA4 Custom Events.
Event mapping examples
This section provides mapping examples of event mapping for two events that will be sent to GA4:
- Visitor logs in
- Visitor clicks a contact us link
To map an event in Tealium iQ, map a data layer variable value that specifies when an event should be fired. These examples use the tealium_event
variable to identify the event to be sent.
Login event example
For the login event, the following data is sent to Tealium iQ in a utag.link
call:
utag.link({
"tealium_event" : "sign in",
"signin_method" : "email"
});
Login is one of the GA4 recommended events, and has one parameter, method
, that indicates how the user logged in. When you configure the GA4 tag, use the mapping toolbox to map the tealium_event
and signin_method
variables, as follows:
tealium_event
– Select Event Triggers for the Category, and then entersign in
in the Trigger field and selectlogin
for Event.
signin_method
– Select Event-specific Parameters for the Category, and then entermethod
in the Event parameter field and selectlogin
for For event.
For more information on mapping variables, see Data Mappings.
Contact Us link event example
For the contact us link event, the following data is sent to Tealium iQ in a utag.link
call:
utag.link({
"tealium_event" : "contact us"
});
This is event is not one of the GA4 recommended events, so it’s mapped as a custom event, as follows:
tealium_event
– Select Event Triggers for the Category, and then entercontact us
in the Trigger field. SelectCustom Event
for Event and entercontact_us_click
in the Custom Name field.
For more information on mapping variables, see Data Mappings.
Tracking e-commerce events
GA4 has ecommerce events that are equivalent to the enhanced ecommerce events for Google Universal Analytics. The differences in the GA4 ecommerce events are as follows:
- The
checkout_step
andcheckout_options
events have been replaced with theview_cart
,begin_checkout
,add_shipping_info
, andadd_payment_info
events in GA4. - The
product_click
andselect_content
(with anitems
array parameter) events have been replaced with theselect_item
event in GA4. - The
promotion_click
andselect_content
(with apromotions
array parameter) events have been replaced with theselect_promotion
event in GA4.
Items parameter for recommended events
Some ecommerce events have an items
parameter. For these events, the items
array is automatically populated from E-commerce extension values, such as product name, category, and price.
For more information, see E-commerce Extension.
Custom dimensions
Currently, GA4 has two scopes for custom dimensions:
- User Scoped
- Event Scoped
Google Universal Analytics has four scopes:
- Hit (similar to Event in GA4)
- Session
- User (similar to User in GA4)
- Product
When translating requirements from Google Universal Analytics to GA4, consider passing session scoped variables as user scoped variables where it makes sense. GA4 does not currently offer an alternative for product scoped events.
Validating a GA4 implementation
Event batching
In Google Universal Analytics, one network call is made for each hit that was triggered. GA4 is different in that it batches events that occur within a few seconds into a single call. When investigating network calls to validate the implementation, be aware that multiple events may be sent with a single network request.
Reporting latency
Per the Google documentation, it can take 24-48 hours after the call is made for GA4 reports to be generated. You can use Realtime reports and Debug View in GA4 to verify that data is being sent to your GA4 property.
This page was last updated: September 19, 2022