Installing Google Tag Manager (GTM) on Your SHOPLINE Store

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tag management system from Google that allows you to deploy and manage marketing and analytics tags—such as GA4, Google Ads, and third-party tracking scripts—without modifying your website’s source code.

This guide explains what Google Tag Manager is, how to create a GTM account, and how to install GTM on your SHOPLINE store. By using GTM, you can centralize tag management, improve tracking accuracy, streamline ad setup, and enhance integration capabilities across your marketing tools.

Introduction to Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tag management system provided by Google that lets you deploy and manage marketing and analytics tags on your website or mobile app—without modifying your site’s source code.

Traditionally, adding tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads conversion tracking, or Meta Pixel required manual code updates. With GTM, you can manage all these scripts in a centralized interface, improving efficiency and reducing the need for development support.

In e-commerce, GTM is widely used to:

• Data Tracking & Analysis: Easily deploy tracking tags such as GA4, Google Ads, Meta Pixel, and other analytics tools to collect insights on traffic, conversions, and customer behavior.
• Ad Placement & Optimization: Use GTM to install conversion tags, remarketing tags, and event triggers to better measure and optimize ad performance.
• Website Performance & Testing: Deploy scripts for analytics, heatmaps, or third-party A/B testing tools. Centralized tag management helps improve load speed, reduce script conflicts, and enhance user experience.
• Advanced Features & Integrations: GTM supports variables, event triggers, templates, and integrations with a wide range of tools, helping merchants expand business capabilities without coding.

In summary, GTM provides flexibility, easier tag management, streamlined workflows, and improved tracking accuracy, making it an essential tool for e-commerce businesses.

Creating a Google Tag Manager Account

Follow the steps below to create your GTM account and container:

1. Go to Google Tag Manager and sign in with your Google account.

   

2. Click Create Account in the upper-right corner.

   

3. On the Add a New Account page, configure the following:
   • Account Setup:
     • Account name: Typically your company or brand name
     • Country: Select your business location
     • Share data anonymously with Google and others: Enable this option if you agree to share anonymized performance data to help improve Google products.
   • Container Setup:
     • Container name: Usually your website domain (example: www.example.com)
     • Target platform: Select Web

4. Click Create. 
5. Review and accept the Terms of Service and GDPR Data Processing Terms if presented.
6. Your GTM account and web container will be created successfully.

Connecting GTM to Your SHOPLINE Store

To connect your GTM container to your SHOPLINE store, follow the steps below:

1. In your GTM workspace, locate and copy your Container ID (format: GTM-XXXXXXX) at the top right of the interface.

   

2. In your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Channels > Google > Data tracking and click Start tracking (or Manage if any data tracking has been configured).

   

3. Scroll to Google Tag Manager and click Add.

   

4. In the pop-up window, paste your GTM Container ID, then click Complete.

   

Your SHOPLINE store will now be connected to Google Tag Manager.

Verifying Your GTM Installation

The recommended way to verify whether Google Tag Manager has been correctly installed is to use GTM Preview Mode (Tag Assistant):

1. In Google Tag Manager, click Preview in the upper-right corner.

   

2. Enter your website URL to open Tag Assistant.

   

3. Tag Assistant will display:
   • Whether GTM is installed correctly
   • Which tags fire
   • Trigger and event information

This is the official and most accurate GTM verification method.

Embedding Third-Party Tools with GTM

If you wish to install third-party tools such as pop-up services, chat widgets, or additional analytics scripts, you can add them through GTM using Custom HTML tags or available tag templates:

1. In Google Tag Manager, click Tags > New.

   

2. Give the tag a descriptive name and click the pencil icon in the Tag Configuration section.

   

3. Choose Custom HTML (or another applicable tag type) as the tag type.

   

4. Paste the script provided by the third-party tool.

   

5. Set up an appropriate Trigger (e.g., All Pages).

   

6. Once everything is configured, click Save > Submit to apply the settings.