Google’s new tag types in Tag Manager: GA4, Google Ads, Floodlight and Merchant Center

Google Tag Manager no longer builds a Google setup around one Google tag. Each Google product now gets its own tag type, called a Destination tag: Google Analytics, Google Ads, Floodlight and the new Merchant Center tag. The settings they share moved to the container itself. Your existing setup keeps working, but how you add, read and audit Google tags changes, and one default deserves a deliberate look.

What changed

Before, a web container had one or more Google tags, often one for GA4 (a G- ID) and a separate one for Google Ads (an AW- ID). Each loaded gtag.js and carried its own configuration, with event tags hanging off it. Now there is one Destination tag per Google product, each with its own ID:

• Google Analytics for your GA4 property (G-).
• Google Ads for conversion tracking and remarketing (AW-).
• Floodlight for Campaign Manager 360 and Display & Video 360 (DC-).
• Merchant Center, new, for sending your shop’s data to Merchant Center (MC-).

The event tags do not change: a GA4 event tag, a Google Ads conversion tag, remarketing and Floodlight counter and sales tags work as before and keep their triggers. The Conversion Linker is the exception: Tag Manager now marks it as legacy, because the Google Analytics and Google Ads tags store ad click IDs themselves.

The new tag types are available in every container. What differs between containers is only whether their tags were converted: through the optimize banner Tag Manager shows, by hand, or not yet. A container that still uses the old Google tag keeps working.

What it means for your setup

No separate gtag.js request

A Destination tag does not load gtag.js on its own. Its code ships inside the container script, so a page makes one request fewer and your hits keep arriving as before. Anything that looked for a gtag.js request to prove the Google tag was live, such as a checklist or a monitoring script, now finds nothing; look at the hits themselves instead.

Shared settings live on the container

Settings that used to sit on the Google tag now sit in the container’s Google tag settings: automatic event detection (scrolls, outbound clicks, form interactions, video, page changes) and user-provided data. They apply to every Destination tag in the container.

User-provided data can switch itself on

When Tag Manager adds the shared settings, for example while converting a container or with its first Destination tag, automatic collection of email, phone and address can come along switched on. That data is hashed before it leaves the browser, but collecting it still needs a legal basis and, in the EU, consent. Decide on it deliberately rather than inherit it.

Server-side routing stays where it was

To send GA4 through your tagging server, set server_container_url in the Google Analytics tag’s configuration settings (or in the shared settings), pointing at your tagging subdomain. A converted tag keeps the setting; a Google Analytics tag you add by hand needs it again.

1See what your container has

Open Tags in your web container and sort by type. Old-style Google tags show as Google tag; the new ones as Google Analytics, Google Ads, Floodlight or Merchant Center. Note each Google tag’s ID and the configuration settings on it, especially server_container_url.

2Convert, or add the new tag by hand

The quickest route is Tag Manager’s optimize banner: it converts your Google tags into Destination tags with their settings. By hand works too: Tags → New → Google Analytics, enter the Measurement ID, fire it on Initialization – All Pages, copy the configuration settings over, then delete the old Google tag so the two never run side by side. The version history keeps it if you ever need it back.

3Add the other destinations you use

Add a Google Ads tag with your AW- ID if you advertise, a Floodlight tag for Campaign Manager 360, and a Merchant Center tag with your MC- ID if you run a shop. Your existing conversion and remarketing tags keep working next to them. A Merchant Center tag is only useful when your purchase events carry item details.

4Review the container’s Google tag settings

Open the shared settings and check whether user-provided data collection is on, and if so whether that matches your consent setup. While you are there, look at which automatic events are on: if you also have your own GA4 event tags for the same thing, such as a scroll tag, GA4 receives both, so keep one of the two.

5Preview and publish

Preview the container: on a page view you should see the Destination tags fire and, with server-side tagging, the hits go to your tagging subdomain rather than straight to Google. Then publish. The version history lets you roll back if something looks off.

Common mistakes to avoid

Most problems after a switch come from a handful of things. Worth a look before you publish, and again a few days after.

• Running the old and the new tag side by side. A Google Analytics tag next to a live Google tag for the same Measurement ID sends everything twice. Delete the old one in the same version that adds the new one.
• Forgetting the server container URL. A Google Analytics tag you add by hand starts without server_container_url, so its hits go straight to Google and bypass your tagging server. Set it again, or put it in the shared settings.
• Inheriting user-provided data collection. If automatic collection of email, phone and address came along switched on, decide whether you want it and whether your consent setup covers it. Switch it off if not.
• Firing the tag later than Initialization – All Pages. Event tags rely on the Destination tag having run. On a later trigger, events that fire early on the page can miss their configuration.
• Checking for gtag.js to see whether it works. Destination tags do not load gtag.js, so its absence says nothing. Check the hits in Preview, or in your tagging server’s request log.
• Adding a Merchant Center tag without item details. The tag is only useful when your purchase events send their items. Without them it fires but gives Merchant Center little to work with.

How Measurebase helps

The tracking audit reads Destination tags as well as old Google tags. It suggests converting an old Google tag and can do it in place for you, every setting copied. It flags automatic events that duplicate your own GA4 event tags, user-provided data collected without a matching consent setup, a Merchant Center tag without purchases or without item details, and a Conversion Linker that is no longer needed, which it can remove for you. It also checks that your Google Analytics tag sends to your tagging server.

Frequently asked questions