Is duplicate Google Analytics Tag in Google Tag Manager a good idea?

Question

I have a dilemma. Ever since I migrated to Google Tag Manager, I am not able to trigger Google Analytics custom events the way I used to do.

If I choose Universal Analytics, it gives me a choice between track type (Pageview, Event, Transaction, Social, etc.). I do need to track Pageview as well as do Event tracking. But if a tag can not be both, what should I do in such case, setup additional tag with different Track Type and same tracking id?

If so, will it have to load Google tracking code with the same id twice which makes it a duplicate? Or there is another way to go about it?

Answer 1

To answer your question - no it wont cause duplicate tracking. Each GA tag needs to have the tracking ID associated with it. If you had two pageview tags for the same tracking id triggering for the same page.. then it would show two pageview hits being fired for the relevant page (duplicate tracking). GTM also allows you to setup trigger exceptions so some triggers only trigger in certain circumstances

Have you configured the Google Settings variable with the tracking id? Use the Google Settings variable to save having to manually enter tracking id, cookie domain etc for each GA tag (it can be overridden or have further configuration info added to an individual tag where needed eg custom dimensions or metrics and so forth) Then setup another tag with a different track type for the GA Event

More info on Google Settings variable:
https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/9207621?hl=en

Some handy free learning resources for GTM
Analytics Academy GTM course:
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/course/5
GTM Fundamentals
https://www.analyticsmania.com/post/free-gtm-fundamentals-course-is-live/