slides from MeasureCamp BRU, 2022/12/03

1. Feed The Beast!
Running GA4 without gtag.js using ssGTM + walker.js
Markus Baersch

2. Why Not GTAG.JS?

3. gtag.js
some issues
Source: in client-side setup likely to
be blocked by modern browsers
Heavy: does is all: GA, Ads, Optimize,
Badges and whatever
Complexity: Much stuff you might
not want
Control: let me define what is
“engaged”!
Consent: Consent Mode is a joke!
What to use (when running your own
endpoint for more than just GA4)?

4. gtag.js
… is odd!
Session Handling & More:
● control over “first_visit” and
“session_start”
● browser knows what is a
conversion, a referral exclusion…
● no way to hide your
measurement id
● much “serverside-stuff” has to be
handled by the browser

5. ● just “sending hits” is not enough
● GA4 Measurement Protocol is
no replacement
● tasks: knowing goals, send
created events, track time…
● ssGTM “sendPixelFromBrowser”
● (batching)
gtag.js
why replacing it is hard

6. ⛪
🙏?

7. Options:
● ga4mp.dev by David Vallejo (->
ssGTM)
● Build your own format and send
to own endpoint
● Use existing tools like CDPs,
Tealium
But:
● Blocking might still be a
problem
● Costs?
● Control?
Alternatives exist!
A perfect fit?

8. GA4MP
✓ allows using own endpoint
(✓) creates gtag.js like events
❌similar “control level” to gtag.js
if used with GA4 standard
clients & tags on ssGTM
-> build your own client

9. Feeding GA4 with walker.js

10. Open source: walker.js is a maintained
repo on GitHub
(Can) have all data you need: there
are timestamps, timings, hit
numbers…
https://github.com/elbwalker/walker.js
elbwalker
open source event tracker

11. Tagging
uses a command / event queue called
“elbLayer” (per default)
scans DOM for data-elb attributes and
builds events and parameters
alternatively push events to elbLayer
manually via JavaScript
can send events to several destinations
Destinations are consent sensitive
(walker.js can handle consent)
https://github.com/elbwalker/sgtm-client-template/tree/main/example

12. events have an “open” structure to contain
default attributes, custom attributes, session
state, user information, references… or
whatever
Send example:
elb('page view',
{id: '/test/virtual/path1',
title: 'Virtual Page 1'},
'click',
{some_property: 14}
);
Events

13. Session Handling
GA4 wants session handling
(simple) example…
- is only active if consent is
present
- uses localStorage /
sessionStorage - which is only
possible on a single domain
AND host
elb("walker user",
{hash: sD.sessionId,
device: sD.clientId});

14. Sending Stuff (1): walker.js Destinations
Every destination can handle events individually. We use it to send data to a ssGTM endpoint

15. Sending Stuff (2): Some Tips
Try beacons, then AJAX, then
an image pixel as last fallback
…and make sure that your
endpoint looks for get
parameters.
send events incl. consent
information to a custom
endpoint and resolve consent
there

16. Endpoints
Use ssGTM and translate walker events to ssGTM event model
trigger / fire any tags as if gtag.js had sent the requests
or build your own in Node, PHP or whatever and forward events to GA4
- Remember: CNAME is not an option
- cloud edge endpoints actually are an option ;)

17. experimental: use worker for receiving walker events
forward (few data) to GA4 using GAMP V2
think: add full event to a D1 cloud database ;)
Or build your endpoint as
- AWS Lambda,
- GCP Cloud Function or
- Azure Function
- in your local cloud / CDN architecture
Cloudflare Worker

18. use custom client for walker events
basic example and (beta) client template
available on Github:
github.com/elbwalker/sgtm-client-template
-> fork and build what you need (if you like)
ssGTM Example

19. send data to GA4 using
standard tag
enrich server-side
dimensions
add debug flag for better
debugging (kill before
publishing ;))
ssGTM Example

20. … or send data
(additionally or exclusive)
to Piwik PRO, Matomo…
no GA consent = no
tracking (but still
measurement?)
-> send directly to
BigQuery as event-level
raw data
ssGTM Example
markus-baersch.de/walker2bq

21. Demo
sending events from demo
HTML page in a browser
to ssGTM + forwarding to
GA4

22. Final Tipps
send base64 coded payload
… or even build your own
coding (or just do rot13 :))
Keeping your own format
makes you (somewhat)
independent
remember: a tracking server
has to handle a lot of stuff. Do
not use your website server
(unless you have low traffic
like me ;))

23. Can you see it?

24. Done!
Questions?

25. Game On!
download and play:
Client and Example Code:
github.com/elbwalker
Order:
markus-baersch.de/gtmbook
markus-baersch.de/walker2bq