GA4 tag is fired twice when ordered confirmed – double metrics in GA4 reports

  • Hi,

    I completed the set-up for e-commerce in GA4 last week.
    Metrics are appearing in my GA4 property but I see some strange behavior.

    – Metrics are doubled in my GA4 reports (e.g.: someone places a 10€ order, 20€ appears in the report).
    – The same goes for the quantities of ordered products (e.g.: someone orders 1 item, 2 items appear in the report).
    – ‘E-commerce purchases by Item list name’ pane remains empty in GA4
    – ‘Item Views by Item promotion name’ pane remains empty in GA4
    – ‘Ecommerce revenue by Order coupon’ is populated but again: with double e-commerce revenue numbers.
    – ‘Product revenue by Product ID’ pane remains empty in GA4
    – Could it also be that the sales figures in GA4 are VAT included where they are ex VAT in Universal Analytics?
    – Sometimes there also seem to be minor differences (a few cents after the comma) between the ordered amount on the website and the amounts displayed in GA4.

    When I look at a confirmation page in the debug mode of Google Tag Manager, I do see that the GA4 tag is fired twice. So this explains something but no idea what causes this, let alone how to fix this.

    Strange thing is that everything is pitch-perfect in the parallel Universal Analytics property of the same website.

    Great plugin by the way. Absolute live-saver!
    Keep up the good work.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Plugin Author Thomas Geiger

    (@duracelltomi)

    Hi,

    Thanks for the kind words ??
    Can you share a website URL? Can I place a test order without the need to use my bank card?

    Thread Starter benjaminslap

    (@benjaminslap)

    Dear Thomas,

    Thank you very much for your reply.
    The website in question is https://www.muskle.nl`

    It’s a live website, so placing an order without using your bank card won’t be possible, I’m afraid.

    I can give you the order confirmation url and I can give you the contents of the Data Layer Variables that are sent (twice). But I don’t want to post them here in the forum. I also have some screenshots of the GTM debug mode.

    Is there another way to get these to you directly?

    If all this isn’t possible, maybe I can see if I can create a 0€ article or something.

    Kind regards

    Plugin Author Thomas Geiger

    (@duracelltomi)

    As far as I know wp.org forum rules does not allow me to ask for any private contact.

    Perhaps a temporary product with the value of €0 would be the best or a coupon code that I can use during checkout

    Thread Starter benjaminslap

    (@benjaminslap)

    Dear Thomas,

    Thanks for the follow-up.
    I created a 0€ product to test: https://www.muskle.nl/product/gtm4wp-test/

    The website is in Dutch but very straightforward as any WooCommerce. Normally, you don’t even have to create an account.
    You can also select 0€ shipping on this article.

    Kind regards

    Thread Starter benjaminslap

    (@benjaminslap)

    Dear Thomas,

    It’s been a while since our last communication.
    Did you have the chance to do some testing?

    Kind regards,

    Plugin Author Thomas Geiger

    (@duracelltomi)

    Hi,

    Sorry for not responding to this thread.
    I just placed a test order but I can not tell you what could cause this yet. I can see that data layer is only populated once.

    Can you share a Google Tag Assistant preview link so that I can turn on debugging your container without the need to grant me access to it?

    Thread Starter benjaminslap

    (@benjaminslap)

    Dear Thomas,

    Thank you for your reply and the test.
    Please find the debug link here:

    https://tagassistant.google.com/#/?id=GTM-PP69ZLZ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.muskle.nl%2Fafrekenen%2Forder-received%2F10760%2F%3Fkey%3Dwc_order_qP23VX3A0i2Yg&source=TAG_MANAGER&gtm_auth=5e2UoLIAFm3cDlozF0jvPQ&gtm_preview=env-7

    This is from your test order.
    You will see (if you click the GA4 Google Container on top) that in the ‘hits sent’ tab, there are three recorded hits (purchase). And two of them are identical (hence the double measurements in the GA4 reports?).

    Kind regards

    Thread Starter benjaminslap

    (@benjaminslap)

    Dear Thomas,

    Have you had the opportunity to dive deeper into this thread by any chance?

    Kind regards,

    Plugin Author Thomas Geiger

    (@duracelltomi)

    Hi,

    I did a test now and this is very very strange!
    Even in the GTM debug panel everything seems to be OK. No tags are firing multiple times.

    Could you double check this: did you use Tag sequencing in any of your GA tags?
    https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6238868?hl=en

    Thread Starter benjaminslap

    (@benjaminslap)

    Dear Thomas,

    Thx for the test and the reply.
    I checked in Google Tag Manager but no Tag sequencing is enabled anywhere.

    My second guess would be that some variable in the GA Ecommerce events tag is sending something twice.
    Here’s my configuration of the GA4 Ecommerce events tag (Parameter Name – Value):

    items – {{Ecommerce Items_import}}
    transaction_id – {{Ecommerce Transaction ID}}
    affiliation – {{Ecommerce Affiliation}}
    value – {{Ecommerce Value}}
    tax – {{Ecommerce Tax}}
    shipping – {{Ecommerce Shipping}}
    currency – {{Ecommece Currency}}
    coupon – {{Ecommerce Coupon}}

    The first (items – {{Ecommerc Items_import}} is a Custom Javascript Variable contrary to all the others (Data Layer Variables).
    Could it be that that is sending something twice to the reports?

    Kind regards,

    Plugin Author Thomas Geiger

    (@duracelltomi)

    Variables do not trigger tags, they just hold values for further usage.

    Would it be possible to test this?
    – create a new and empty GTM container
    – import GA4 variables from the container export downloaded from gtm4wp.com
    – setup GA4 tracking based on the setup article
    – do not add anything else
    – change GTM ID in plugin settings to this new container

    Let’s check what happens with that?

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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