google-analyticsgoogle-tag-managerdevelopment-environmentproduction-environment

Separate Google Analytics data based on dev environment

So I've found a few similar questions, but often either outdated, not exactly what I'm searching for or they don't use Google Tag Manager but write their tags in the <head>.

----------- Current situation -----------

We use Google Tag Manager to inject tags such as Google Analytics on our website. We use multiple tags depending on what needs to happen; such as:

All the data goes perfectly to Google Analytics

----------- The problem -----------

However, we also receive data from other environments such as localhost:3000 or https://dev.ourdomain.com, which can result in inaccurate data.

----------- What we want -----------

Is a way to separate that data. By either:

  1. Separating Google Analytics in data from production (domain A) and data from development (other domains)
  2. Separate the data before it reaches Google Analytics (like my suggestion below)
  3. Or maybe other suggestions

Between point 1 and 2, I'm more of a fan of the first way, as this would separate existing data into production and development data.

----------- Suggested solution -----------

I've been thinking about using a new property and then, using Google Tag Manager, I would return Google Analytics Settings depending on the current domain. Production would return UA-code-1 and development UA-code-2. The only issue however, is that every Google Analytics tag in GTM must be duplicated. With one containing the Google Analytics Settings for production, the other for development.

I was hoping there was a better way to tackle this, any suggestions?

Solution

  • You can still use single Google Analytics settings variable in your GTM and have a single instance of each tag but you can use some Lookup Table / custom JS variable inside your GA settings variable in place of tracking ID.

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    Update:

    Note that the GTM Environment variable is incompatible with the lookup method and debugging/previewing. When previewing, the value is something like Preview window 1121212. In order to workaround this, an easy lookup table based on production {{Page Hostname}} works well with a default value fallback to your staging tag value.

    enter image description here