Google Tag Manager auto-event tracking – useful Tags, Macros and Rules for Google Analytics events

The recent introduction of auto-event tracking for Google Tag Manager was a welcome piece of news for many of us keen to remove custom jQuery from within the container. But it quickly became apparent that, to make real use of the auto-event tracking feature, a few hoops needed to be jumped through – to get things just as one might expect. Over the last few weeks, we’ve started to repeat certain implementations – particularly for GA event tracking – and so I thought I’d share these here. The three common GA events being – outbound link tracking, file download tracking and form submission tracking. In putting together these, I came across  a similar recent post from Rachel Sweeney (thanks Rachel!) – you will notice some overlap:

Macros

Macro Name: getDomain
Macro Type:  URL
Component: hostname (tick strip “www”)
What this does:  Returns hostname without www (there’s already a default one called “url hostname” – leave this as it will also come in handy, although you might want to rename it to getFullDomain or something)

Macro Name: getFilename
Macro Type:  Custom JavaScript
Custom JavaScript:

function() {
    var fileName = {{gtm.elementUrl}}.split('?').shift().split('/').pop();
    return fileName.toLowerCase();
}

What this does:  Removes query strings, searches for the last slash, keeps everything after it. Returns a clean document filename and extension.

Macro Name: getFiletype
Macro Type:  Custom JavaScript
Custom JavaScript:

function() {
    var extension = (/[.]/.exec({{getFilename}})) ? /[^.]+$/.exec({{getFilename}}) : undefined;
    return extension;
}

What this does:  Uses our getFilename macro and some regex to grab file extension and return.

Macro Name: isOutboundUrl
Macro Type:  Custom JavaScript
Custom JavaScript:

function(){
    return ( ({{gtm.elementUrl}}.match(/^https?\:/i)) && ({{gtm.elementUrl}}.indexOf("{{getDomain}}")<0) );
}

What this does:  Returns true if link starts with http or https AND link does not contain current hostname (sub-domains included) – otherwise returns false.

Macro Name: gtm.elementUrl
Macro Type:  Auto-Event Variable
Variable Type:
Element URL
What this does:  The value is determined by reading the ‘gtm.elementUrl’ key from the data layer. If populated by an Auto-Event, the result will be the ‘href’ or ‘action’ attribute of the DOM element that triggered the event, depending on the type of element.

Macro Name: gtm.elementId
Macro Type:  Auto-Event Variable
Variable Type:
Element ID
What this does:  The value is determined by reading the ‘gtm.elementId’ key from the data layer. If populated by an Auto-Event, the result will be the ‘id’ attribute of the DOM element that triggered the event.

RULES

Rule Name: event is form submit
Conditions:
{{event}} equals gtm.formSubmit

Rule Name: event is link clicked to download file
Conditions:
{{gtm.elementUrl}} matches RegEx (ignore case) \.(txt|svg|png|jpg|eps|vsd|mov|avi|wmv|zip|rar|exe|pdf|doc*|xls*|ppt*|mp3)$
AND
{{event}} equals gtm.linkClick

Rule Name: event is link clicked to outbound
Conditions:
{{event}} equals gtm.linkClick
AND
{{isOutboundUrl}} equals true

TAGS

Tag name: GA auto-events – Form submitted
Tag type: Google Analytics
Track Type: Event
– category: Form
– action: submitted: {{gtm.elementId}}
– label: on: {{url}}
Firing rules: event is form submit 

Tag name: GA auto-events – Download links
Tag type: Google Analytics
Track Type: Event
– category: Download
– action: type: {{getFiletype}} 
– label: file: {{getFilename}}
Firing rules:  event is link clicked to download file
Notes: bug in GTM currently prevent these macros from being used on their own in event tracking fields. Adding a string prefix (like “type: “) seems to fix that

Tag name: GA auto-events – Outbound links
Tag type: Google Analytics
Track Type: Event
– category: Outbound
– action: link: {{gtm.elementUrl}}
– label: on: {{url}}
Firing rules: event is link clicked to outbound