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What: The Google Tag Manager Connection can feed Segment or Profile information from BlueConic to Google Tag Manager (GTM) by pushing data into an existing data layer (JavaScript object), or creating a new data layer specifically for this purpose. The import and export work in real time.

About BlueConic: The BlueConic customer data platform harnesses the data required to power the recognition of an individual at each interaction, and then synchronizes their intent across the marketing ecosystem.

Why: Your marketing stack, or Google Analytics 4, is already connected to Google Tag Manager. Use this connection to share first party data out to the stack for your known and anonymous users, whether it was collected by BlueConic or integrated through another BlueConic connection.

Note: For the connection to work, you must have set up the Google Tag Manager tag on your pages.

Learn more about Connections

See the Introduction to Connections video in the BlueConic University.

When to use the Google Tag Manager Connection

If you are using Google Tag Manager but you are not using GA4 tags, note that you can use the BlueConic Data Layer Connection.

However, if you are using Google Tag Manager to serve GA4 tags, you need to follow the steps below to set up the Google Tag Manager Connection by following the steps below. 

Connecting with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) via the Google Tag Manager Connection

Note that there are differences on the Google Analytics side for how GA4 tags are set up in Google Tag Manager and in how you set up GA4 to receive the data from Google Tag Manager. To learn more about how to set up tags in Google Tag Manager for GA4, visit the Google Tag Manager documentation. 

Adding a Google Tag Manager connection

1. Click Connections in the Navigation bar.
2. Click Add Connection.
3. A pop-up window appears. Check the Show all box. Enter “Google Tag Manager” in the Search bar and click Google Tag Manager connection.
4. The Google Tag Manager connection page opens.

   You can expand or collapse metadata fields (favorite, labels, and description) by clicking the gray chevron at the top of the page. 

Configuring a Google Tag Manager connection

Setup

• Optional: Restrict the connection to be active only on specific channels or URLs.
• Set up the connection by confirming the name of the Data layer that Google Tag Manager is using. The standard name is dataLayer.
• Click Save to store the information.

Data exchange shows the total number of unique profiles that have been imported or exported via the connection. Note that these are unique profiles. If the same profile is exported multiple times, it is counted as 1.

To make the connection work, you have to add at least one goal and switch the connection on.

Import data from Google Tag Manager into BlueConic

To import data into BlueConic add an import goal and follow the steps laid out in the goal.

1. Select the BlueConic segment that holds the profiles that may be enriched with Google Tag Manager data. Only profiles in this segment will be enriched with data when they visit one of the channels selected at the setup page.
2. Map Google Tag Manager data to BlueConic.
   Map the Google Tag Manager data you want to import into BlueConic to the corresponding profile properties. Either add your Google Tag Manager variables manually by entering their names or add them straight from your webpage by using the 'Add mappings via visual picker' button. You can optionally add restrictions for picking up the value of the data layer variable.
   
   

   Select how to import the data from the drop-down list:

   • Set
   • Set if empty
   • Set or clear
   • Add the data field to the list of existing values
   • Sum a number with the existing values (if the data field is a number)

3. Optional: Import Timeline events into BlueConic.
   You can import events from the data layer to enrich BlueConic Timeline events. Either add the event mapping manually using the fields below or straight from your webpage by using the visual picker. NOTE: As you navigate through the site via the visual picker, new events will be automatically added to the data layer for selection, but you can only select one at a time.
   

Click Save on the top right corner of the screen to save your import goal.

Export data from BlueConic into Google Tag Manager

To export data into Google Tag Manager add an export goal and follow the steps laid out in the goal.

1. Select the BlueConic segment that holds the visitors that will be exported to Google Tag Manager when they visit one of the channels selected under Setup.
2. Map the BlueConic data that you want to export into Google Tag Manager. 
   Select BlueConic profile property by entering a search term and enter the data field value it should populate. Click Add mapping to add a mapping rule for a property, or click Add multiple mappings to add rules for a number of properties. 

   Click the BlueConic icon to open a drop-down menu where you can switch between the type of information you want to export. Pick one of:

   • Profile property: The value of a specific profile property
   • BlueConic profile identifier: The unique identifier for a profile
   • Associated segments: All segments, or a selection of one or more specific segments that the profile is associated with
   • Associated lifecycles: All lifecycles this profile is associated with. Learn more about Lifecycles.
   • All viewed interactions (all time): The interactions that the profile has seen
   • Permission level: The permission level set in the profile
   • Text value: Enter any static text
     
     Note: To be able to export interactions viewed and their associated segments, make sure to check both “External analytics” checkboxes in the privacy tab.
3. Set up the data configuration for the export format (as a single text string or as an array). Choose a value separator between individual values for single text export strings.
4. Define when BlueConic data should be pushed to Google Tag Manager:
   • Select the Push frequency you prefer.
   • Optional: Select a BlueConic event that should also trigger this goal - in addition to the push frequency above.
   • The BlueConic data will be pushed as events, and Google Tag Manager can identify these events by name. Enter the Event name BlueConic should use.
5. Optionally push advanced data:
   • Check the box for Push interaction viewed as separate events to Google Tag Manager if you want to send interaction view events separate from the push frequency defined in step 3. For example, if a lightbox pops up, it will immediately send an event.
   • Check the box for Push BlueConic events as separate events to Google Tag Manager if you want BlueConic events to also be passed to Google Tag Manager as soon as they fire, including BlueConic content meter events such as  last view, excluded view, bottom/middle/top range, already viewed, free view, last free view, and free view N (integer between 1-5).

Note that you can use the Add goal button to create multiple export goals for this connection.

Connection status

Once you've set up and saved your connection, the icon at the top will reflect the status of the connection.

There is an arrow going from Google Tag Manager to BlueConic, signifying that data is being imported. At the same time, the arrow going the other way shows data is also being exported from BlueConic to Google Tag Manager. Also, the arrows are green, which shows the connection is ready to be used.

Privacy management

Connections can be added to Objectives, allowing for privacy management of the information that is being picked up. The connection will only work if the visitor consented to at least one of the objectives that it is linked to.