Google Tag Manager events not registering in GA4 but do in GA

Question

I have several tags/triggers in Google Tag Manager( both script/non script versions - https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js and https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html) that clearly show up in the old version of GA (Universal Analytics) under Behavior>Events. These triggers have existed and worked for the past several years.

I migrated to Google Analytics 4 this past week, but none of the old triggers/tags are showing up under GA4. If I switch between GA4 and GA, I can clearly see the triggers firing in GA, but not in GA4. In GA4 I'm looking under Reports>Engagement and Realtime>Event section.

There's obviously several new events built into GA4 that are visible, but none of the custom tags I've been using.

Do these not migrate with GA4? I'm having similar issues migrating conversions that use RegEx.

Answer 1

You are correct, the UA tags and events will not migrate over automatically.

The answer here is to restructure your UA events to follow GA4's data collection model, then set up new GA4 conversion events.

However, you can also use the goals migration tool. Below are the steps to be taken in order to prepare existing UA events to be automatically ported over.

1. Create a new Google Analytics: GA4 Event tag in your Tag Manager container.
2. Set the value of the Event Name field to your Universal Analytics Event name.
3. In the Event Parameters section, click Add Row, and do the following:
   • Set its name to event_category.
   • Set its value to your Universal Analytics Category value.
4. Add a second event parameter:
   • Set its name to event_label.
   • Set its value to your Universal Analytics Label value.
5. Add a third event parameter:
   • Set its name to value.
   • Set its value to what your Universal Analytics Value is set to.
6. Click Triggering, and select the same events that cause your equivalent Universal Analytics events to trigger.
7. Save the tag configuration and publish your container.

Answer 2

That's definitely not how you debug analytics.

Last place you go is GA. Before you even publish your work, you test it in GTM preview. After testing and making sure that your GA4 tags are triggered, you go to the dev console with adswerve's datalayer inspector extension enabled and see if the events actually fired. Alternatively, you could inspect your Network tab, but it's not as pretty and easy to use.

Only after you confirmed you see the network requests to the GA4 endpoint, or GA4 events in the console through the inspector, you start going to GA interface -> real time and expect events.

Now reconduct the debugging and add screenshots of errors/oddities when you see any and we can proceed from there if that won't be enough for you do solve the issue.