GA4 Click tracking with Google Tag Manager

Estimated time to complete: 20 minutes
Requirements: The Call Now Button WordPress plugin, GA4 implemented through Google Tag Manager

Keep reading if you’ve implemented Google Analytics 4 (GA4) via Google Tag Manager. This article describes step by step how to set up Event Tracking with Google Tag Manager to reveal in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) how many people click the button on your website.

High level overview of the steps involved

Step 1

Enable Click tracking in Google Tag Manager

Step 2

Creating the Trigger in Google Tag Manager

Step 3

Creating the Tag in Google Tag Manager

Step 4

Publish your changes in Google Tag Manager

Step 1: Enable Click tracking in GTM

Sign into your Google Tag Manager account and let’s get started!

Before you set up the actual event you need to enable the build-in variable for tracking clicks on an element with an ID.

Click on Variables in the menu on the left side of the screen:

Google Tag Manager - Variables in the side menu.
Google Tag Manager - Variables in the side menu

Click Configure:

Tag Manager - Configure Built-in Variables
Tag Manager - Configure Built-in Variables

Scroll down to the Clicks section and select Click ID:

Google Tag Manager - Enable Click ID variable
Google Tag Manager - Enable Click ID variable

Step 1 done! Close the window by clicking the X at the top.

Step 2: Creating the Trigger in GTM

Now click on Triggers in the left side menu:

GTM - Creating a Trigger
GTM - Creating a Trigger

Click New:

Google Tag Manager - Building a new Trigger
Google Tag Manager - Building a new Trigger

Give your new Trigger a name: Call Now Button clicks and click the pencil (appears when you hover over the box) in the top right corner:

Google Tag Manager - New Triggers
Google Tag Manager - New Triggers

Under Choose trigger type select Just links:

Google Tag Manager - Clicks Just Links.
Google Tag Manager - Clicks Just Links

Under This trigger fires on select Some link clicks. Then from the pull-down menu select the variable you’ve just enabled: Click ID, change the second pull-down to equals and in the empty field you enter callnowbutton:

Google Tag Manager: trigger settings
Google Tag Manager: trigger settings

Click Save to store your new Trigger. Step 2: DONE!

Step 3: Creating the Tag in GTM

Click on Tags in the left side menu:

The Tags setting is located in the left side menu of Google Tag Manager (GTM)
The Tags setting is located in the left side menu of Google Tag Manager (GTM)

Click New:

Google Tag Manager - Creating Tags in GTM
Google Tag Manager - Creating Tags in GTM

Give your new Tag a name: Call Now Button click tracking and click the pencil (appears when you hover over the box) in the top right corner:

Google Tag Manager - New Tags
Google Tag Manager - New Tags
Tag type

From the Choose tag type list that appears, select Google Analytics: GA4 Event.

Configuration Tag

Select None - Manually Set ID.

Measurement ID

Enter your GA4 Measurement ID in the field below it. A GA4 measurement ID looks like this: G-XXXXXXXXXX.
(If you have a variable set up for this, you can select it by clicking the lgo block next to it)

Event Name:

Call Now Button - Clicked

The whole window should look like this:

Google Tag Manager: GA4 Event Tracking settings
Google Tag Manager: GA4 Event Tracking settings

Now in the window below called Triggering click the pencil:

Google Tag Manager - triggering the tag
Google Tag Manager - triggering the tag

In the Choose a trigger window select the Trigger you created in step 2 called Call Now Button clicks.

Click Save and you’re all set.

Done!

From now you should see the clicks on your Call Now Button appear in your Google Analytics account under Reports > Engagement > Events:

Google Analytics 4 - Finding your events
Google Analytics 4 - Finding your events