Existing Google Analytics events and Google Tag Manager

Question

I have implemented Google Analytics (GA) on my site and I send several custom events through ga("send", "event", ...); function and it works well.

I am experimenting with Google Tag Manager (GTM). I have removed original GA snippet, and now I use GTM to inject GA tag on my site and pageviews are tracked correctly. What does not work well are my custom events sent by ga() function.

I have noticed that GA create has tracker name variable like

ga("create", "UA-12345678-1", {name: "gtm0123456789", allowLinker: false});

and Google Analytics Debugger extension for Google Chrome reports Command ignored. Unknown target: undefined.

I found out that send event call should include tracker name so it should look like ga("gtm0123456789.send", "event", ...);, but I don't want to change all my existing GA send event calls.

I quickfixed it by setting tracker name to empty string in GTM settings (Edit Tag -> More Settings -> Advanced Configuration -> ☑ Tracker Name, leaving the textbox blank) and now it works, but I do not think it is such great solution.

Is there any other options to have my existing GA send event calls and using also event tracking through GTM?

Answer 1

I had the similar configuration (Universal Analytics tag in Google Tag Manager) and I wanted to fire events from button on click.

I used petriq's comments to solve my problem and therefore want to add my notes.

Universal Analytics default event code is in this format:

ga("send", "event", ...);

You can fire Universal Analytics events from your code with the tracker name:

ga("gtmXXXXXXXXXX.send", "event", ...);

However the tracker name changes in every gtm load so I changed the code like this:

var trackerName = ga.getAll()[0].get('name');
ga(trackerName + '.send', 'event', { eventCategory: 'category1', eventAction: 'action1', eventValue: 0 });

Hope it helps!