GA4 and Google
Tag Manager setup

What GA4 and Tag Manager do

Google Analytics 4 is the tool that records what happens on your website: where visitors come from, which pages they view and what actions they take. Google Tag Manager is the delivery system: a container on your site that loads GA4 and every other tracking tag, according to rules you set. Together they're the foundation of any measurement setup.

Out of the box, though, GA4 records only generic activity. It doesn't know which of those actions mean a potential customer. A proper GA4 and Google Tag Manager setup turns raw activity into business information: this many enquiries, from these sources, at this cost.

Deciding what to track

The first step isn't technical. It's a short conversation about what counts as a result for your business. For most small businesses that's a handful of actions:

• a contact or quote form submitted;
• a tap on the phone number on mobile;
• a click on the email address or WhatsApp button;
• a booking confirmed through your scheduling tool;
• a purchase, with its value, for online stores;
• a chat started, if you run a chatbot.

Those become key events in GA4 and conversions in Google Ads and Meta. Everything else, such as scroll depth or video plays, can be added if it helps a decision, but more tracking isn't automatically better. A short list of meaningful conversions is easier to trust and to act on.

Setting it up properly

The technical work includes details that defaults get wrong. Currency set to Canadian dollars. The reporting time zone matching your business, so a Tuesday is a Tuesday in Halifax or Vancouver. Your own office's traffic filtered out. Referral exclusions for payment gateways, so a customer returning from a payment page isn't counted as a new visit from a stranger. Forms that submit without reloading the page tracked through the right trigger, not a fragile workaround.

I also link GA4 with Google Ads and Search Console, and set up enhanced conversions in Google Ads where the form allows it. Enhanced conversions send a hashed version of the email or phone number, which helps Google match conversions more reliably as browsers restrict cookies.

Consent and privacy

Every tag in the container respects consent. With Consent Mode connected to your banner, Google tags adjust their behaviour based on what the visitor chose. This matters everywhere in Canada under PIPEDA and particularly in Quebec, where Law 25 sets stricter consent rules. Details are on the Consent Mode v2 page; for the legal background, read cookie consent in Canada.

Testing before handover

I don't hand over a setup I haven't tested. Every form is submitted, every number tapped and every booking made on both desktop and mobile, with cookies accepted and rejected. I check each conversion arrives in GA4, Google Ads and Meta once, with the right values. Only then does the setup go into a short document listing what's tracked and how.

Your accounts, your data

Everything is created in your name: the GA4 property, the Tag Manager container, the links to ad accounts. I'm added as a user and you can remove me at any time. If you change suppliers later, your history and setup stay with you.

When the basic setup isn't enough

For most businesses, this setup is all they need. Some need more: online stores with heavy ad spend benefit from the Meta Conversions API, service businesses that live on the phone need call tracking, and anyone with a CRM can connect leads to revenue. Those are quoted after a short call. If you're launching ads at the same time, the analytics setup pairs naturally with a Google Ads account setup.