Last year we published a Google Tag Manager Guide to help you start using Google Tag Manager for event tracking.  Since then, Google has upgraded all Google Tag Manager accounts to Version 2.  This updated Google Tag Manager tutorial contains revised information about how to use the new GTM v2 to track important events on your website like link clicks, downloads, and form submissions.

This tutorial assumes you already have a Google Tag Manager account, have created a Container, and have installed it in your website (if not, start with the Tag Manager Help).  You should also already have a Google Analytics account for your website, and have already installed the tracking code with one of the methods recommended by Google Analytics.  Start by opening up Google Tag Manager and clicking on your Container to begin.

Part 1: Tracking Outbound Links

Part 1 of this tutorial will show you how to set up Google Tag Manager to track outbound links.  It is very useful to know how often users click on links that take them away from your site, and which of these links they click.  Unfortunately Google Analytics does not automatically track outbound links.

Set up outbound link tracking by following the steps below. First you will enable a built-in variable that gets the URL of elements that users click on.  Then, you need to create the trigger that defines what an outbound click is. Then finally, you will create a tag that records these clicks as events in Google Analytics.

1. Enable the Click URL Variable

In Google Tag Manager Version 2, you can enable and disable a variety of built-in variables (previously known as Macros), as well as create your own custom variables if needed. This lets you reduce the amount of JavaScript running on your page, in order to optimize page load speed.