Is it possible to use Google Tag Manager to pass a user’s text input into a form field to Google analytics?
-
Hey Everyone,
I finally figured out how to use auto event tracking with Google Tag Manager, but didn't get the data I wanted. I want to see what users are typing into the search field on my site (the URL structure of my site isn't set up properly to use GA's built-in site search tracking). So, I set up the form submit event tracking in Google Tag Manager and used the following as my event tracking parameters:
Category: Search
Action: Search Value
When I test and look in Google Analytics I just see: "search" and "search value." I wanted to see the text that I searched on my site. Not just the Action and Category of the event....
Is what I'm trying to do even possible? Do I need to set up a different event tracking parameter?
Thanks everyone!
-
Hey Mike,
Thanks so much for the reply. I apologize for taking so long to respond! I have my Moz emails separated into a different email folder that I rarely check. We ended up abandoning GTM and coming up with a developer supplied solution, but I'd still love to try this out. We'd love to be able to do all of the event tracking without involving developers! I will try this out within the next few weeks on a new site and definitely respond back.
Thanks Mike.
-
Hi Melanie,
Definitely possible using GTM's Data Layer object, but it'll take a little work to make it happen.
Two resources I'd recommend a deep dive into to understand this logic:
- Google's Tag Manager Developer's Guide explains how to work with the data layer - I'd consider this mandatory reading as there are a few basic setup steps for utilizing the data layer object
- This great tutorial video from Eric Fettman at KISSmetrics (which I'm borrowing a bit from below) is a great, clear walkthrough - the whole video is solid, but if you're looking to jump right to the bit that applies to this case, go to 9:20
The following is my basic stab at what you'll need to do, but you should by no means consider this foolproof - testing and adjustment will be required.
You'll basically want to...
-
Use the dataLayer object in your form HTML to push an event with the search field value into the data layer upon the form's submission
For example: < form name="myform" onsubmit="dataLayer.push({event','search','eventLabel':[searchvalue]});" /> where search is the name of your new custom event, which you'll listen for with a new GTM event tag & rule combo (following steps), and you must replace [searchvalue] with the value of your search form field via JS or jQuery - that last bit is a little tricky and will probably require a separate function to parse the DOM and grab the value from the search field, but I'd look at the same basic functionality that JavaScript Form Validation uses as a starting point. Maybe someone with stronger JS skills than mine can help you sort that piece.
-
Create a new event tag in GTM with custom Category and Action static values (maybe "search" and "search performed"), adding a Macro with the type "Data Layer Variable," with a Data Layer Variable Name of eventLabel (which is what we used in the HTML code above - crucial that these match) and Data Layer Version set to 1
-
Create a rule for this new tag to fire when the Condition {{event}} equals search (or whatever you've specified as the event name in your form HTML above
It can be a little confusing wrapping your head around this combination of pushing a custom event along with a dynamic event label into the data layer and using that to trigger a rule+event combo to grab that data and push it with your custom event values into GA, but when you think through the logic a few times it becomes clearer.
I'd love to hear whether this did the trick or at least led you down the right track if you don't mind circling back in this thread.
Best,
Mike
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
I am tracking my domain e.g www.xyz.com to an existing google analytics account . I want to track www.xyz.com/blog separately in the google analytics account. How can I do that?
I am tracking my domain e.g www.xyz.com to an existing google analytics account . I want to track www.xyz.com/blog separately in the google analytics account. How can I do that?
Reporting & Analytics | | Windlass0 -
Universal Analytics & Google Tag Manager - Track URLs that include hashes
Does anyone have any experience tracking URLs that include hashes (#) using Universal Analytics and Google Tag Manager? Can it be done using GTM's container for UA, using the "more settings" options? Or building another tag to work with the GTM UA container? The fallback I'm considering is implementing the UA code in GTM for every page as Custom HTML with the "ga('send', 'pageview', location.pathname + location.search + location.hash);" solution, rather than GTM's specialized UA tag. I'm not yet sure what problems may arise from that, if any. Thanks in advance.
Reporting & Analytics | | 352inc0 -
How to better track subdomains in Google Analytics?
Hello Everybody! so I am setting up a website that will have several subdomains, based on the language of the site, for example: site.com; es.site.com; fr.site.com... How should I trace this is GA but having attention that I should be able to see visits as a whole and also if I want I should be able to see visits per subdomain, anything on specific I should do when creating the account? And after creating the account, how to separate that accordingly? 🙂 Thank you all!
Reporting & Analytics | | NelsonF0 -
How to filter many cities from Google analytics
I need to filter hundreds of cities from my traffic reports. I've been told that adding them all in this format: |Knutsford|Ripon|Cheadle Hulme|Congleton| and using the 'matching reg/exp from the drop down should do it... Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be working as I can still see cities like London in the results.... Any ideas?
Reporting & Analytics | | david.smith.segarra0 -
Google Tag Assistant for Chrome
I'm using the Google Tag Assistant for Chrome, and I noticed something really weird. No matter what pages I look at, the same two GA tags show up. It's weird. You can see the tag that is "working", and then there are two repeats. For example, when I look at this page, I see the GA tag that is working and then all the remarketing tags. Then I see UA-36732895-1 repeated twice. Anyone have any idea what this is? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | PGD20110 -
Google Analytics Goal Tracking Not Working
I am trying to install goal tracking for a client to measure leads from SEO, and I'm running into problems with the Google Analytics goal tracking not working. The only thing that I can think of that is preventing goal tracking from working is that the URL confirming page request URI looks like "contact/#contact-form-4475" and perhaps the hashtag is causing problems. I wanted to ask the community if any of you have run into basic conversion tracking problems like this, where you need to track form fills on a website via a confirmation URL/destination URL goal, and what you did to solve it? I appreciate any input on how to get data on conversions either by fixing the goal in GA or using a different tracking tool. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | williammarlow0 -
Testing IP Exclusion Filters in Google Analytics
(I hope I haven't missed something simple 😉 I have add IP exclusion filters in Google Analytics. What I haven't been able to determine is how to test to see if it is working. I'd imagine there would be a dip in traffic but if a site is low volume it might not even register. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | AUDigitalMarketing0 -
Google Maps not passing referral data
Google Maps is not passing referral data (URLs, not KWs). Google+ Local is referring, but nothing from maps. Maps referrals appear to be coming across as direct. Any ideas? We haven't found anything online, one of the guys at the office documented what we did find, using Chrome's debugger - http://manofactionmetrics.com/2012/11/02/google-maps-not-passing-any-referral-data/
Reporting & Analytics | | Danieljacobree0