Tag Rocket provides Google Analytics 4 Enhanced Ecommerce tracking for your BigCommerce store. The future of Analytics reporting.
Tag Rocket provides comprehensive Core Web Vitals Tracking for your BigCommerce store – pinpoint CWV issues to a device, page, page type or even HTML Element and monitor the performance of fixes, using your real-world customer experiences
Tag Rocket utilizes the new server-server event capabilities of GA4 to track orders via both the browser and server throughout the order life-cycle. Identify stalled orders or those that are skewing your reporting due to being misreported
- We expect GA4 will mature and deduplication of browser/server purchase events will be commonplace, vastly improving your overall revenue reporting and decreasing the need for these reports.
Basic Installation
If you have already created a GA4 property, you can use it instead of creating a new one, simply skip this step and add your existing property’s Measurement ID to Tag Rocket (next step).
Go to Google Analytics->Admin->Create Property and add a name for your new property, click Next.
Analytics 4 uses the Measurement ID to identify your store
Instructions:
- In GA4, search for ,“measurement id”
- Copy the Measurement ID by clicking the copy () icon
- Paste the ID into the Tag Rocket->Analytics 4->Settings->Measurement ID field, click “Finish Editing” & “Publish”
*Ensure you have disabled any existing tracking first, otherwise duplication errors may occur
The Tag Rocket Report
Make the most of your GA4 data via the Tag Rocket Report. Schedule a daily/weekly snapshot of your site’s sales & technical performance to ensure you spot things as they happen, not weeks or months too late. Please visit our Tag Rocket Reports Page for more information on the report and how to set it up.
Advanced Installation
Identify Your Search Query for BigCommerce Default Search:
The BigCommerce default search results in a URL that looks like this: [Your Domain]/search.php?search_query=[Search Term]. The search term query parameter in this instance is “search_query” (in advanced search, it uses search_query_adv)
Search Term Query Parameter:
| search_query, search_query_adv |
Additional Query Parameters:
| brand,category,price_from,price_to,section,min_price,max_price,rating |
Identify Your Search Query For Other Search Systems
If you are using a custom search system, you will likely have a different parameter, such as this example using Searchanize: [Your Domain]/search-results-page?q=[Search Term]. In this example, the search term query parameter is “q“. The Searchanize documentation is unclear on additional parameters.
Configure Parameters
Google Analytics 4
Enter the correct Search Term Query Parameter and if applicable, Additional Query Parameters, in GA4 under Admin->Data Streams->[Your Web Data Stream]->Enhanced Measurement Settings->Site Search Advanced Settings, then click Save
Tag Rocket
Enter the correct Search Term Query Parameter In Tag Rocket under Global Tag Values->Settings->Search Term Query Parameter
BigCommerce uses its own CDN system for your sites resources such as images. By default these are considered external to your own domain. We recommend telling GA4 that they are internal. This fixes up issues like clicks to your images being classed as outbound clicks.
In GA4, click Admin->Data Streams->[Your Web Data Stream]->More tagging settings->Configure your domains->Add condition. Choose Match type “Matches RegEx” and Enter the following text:
| .*cdn[0-9]*\.bigcommerce\.com.* |
Most of the data sent to GA4 is sent via the user’s browser. Certain server-related events, such as order status changes and refund processing cannot be captured via this method. If you would like send this information, an API secret is required to authenticate Tag Rocket.
- Under Admin->Data Streams->[Your Web Data Stream]->Measurement Protocol API Secrets, click Create
- Enter “Tag Rocket” as the Nickname
- Click the copy icon () for the Secret value
- Paste the ID into the Tag Rocket->Analytics 4->Settings->Measurement Protocol API Secret field
Below is a list of tracked events that could be considered conversions. If you would like these to be registered as conversions within Google Analytics 4, you will need to mark them as conversions within the GA4’s Events Configuration area. You can also adjust their respective dollar values by editing the corresponding fields under Tag Rocket-Global Tag Values->Conversion Values*.
- sign_up = account created
- generate_lead = contact form submitted
- subscribe
- click_phone
- click_email
- click_download
*Note: These values are used for conversions across all platforms (ie Google/Microsoft Ads)
Super Advanced Installation
The extra data Tag Rocket collects beyond the GA4 specification cannot be used within GA4 reports but can be used by the Tag Rocket Report. To make it available within GA4 (eg within Explorations, the following extra configuration is required
Custom User Dimensions
If a customer is logged in, the system can track that user across devices. It also tracks custom User properties once you have added them into GA4:
To track the following user dimensions you need to add them to your GA4 Account in the ‘Custom definitions’ section as dimensions of scope ‘User’. Once added they will start reporting on the data provided.
| Dimension Name | Scope | Description | User Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer ID _ Tag Rocket | User | BigCommerce ID for customers | customer_id |
| Customer group _ Tag Rocket | User | The name of the customer group this user is in. Blank if no group or not a customer | customer_group_name |
| User currency _ Tag Rocket | User | The current currency selected by the user. A 3 letter code | user_currency_code |
Other custom properties that we set are: customer_group_id
Custom Event Dimensions
Tag Rocket adds custom dimensions to certain events, providing more data to report or filter with
To track the following event dimensions you need to add them to your GA4 Account in the ‘Custom definitions’ section as dimensions of scope ‘Event’. Once added they will start reporting on the data provided.
| Dimension Name | Scope | Description | Event Parameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page type _ Tag Rocket | Event | BigCommerces page types. The home page is set to [home]. Also added to the content_group dimension | page_type |
| Meta description _ Tag Rocket | Event | The meta description for the page. This could be of use to a/b test changes | meta_description |
| Date and time _ Tag Rocket | Event | UTC time of an event in ISO format | datetime |
| Description _ Tag Rocket | Event | Used by the exception event to explain the error. Tends to be a verbose version covering other dimensions. Good for real time inspection | description |
| Error type _ Tag Rocket | Event | Used by the exception event to explain the type of error (javascript, console, jsonld, network) | error_type |
| Error message _ Tag Rocket | Event | The explanation for an exception | error_message |
| Error filename _ Tag Rocket | Event | Used by the exception event to provide the file where the error happened | error_filename |
| Error line number _ Tag Rocket | Event | Used by the JavaScript exception event to provide the line where the error happened | error_lineno |
| Error column number _ Tag Rocket | Event | Used by the exception event to provide the column in the line where the error happened | error_colno |
| Effective connection type _ Tag Rocket | Event | Uses the Network Information API to get the effective connection speed of the user. 4g, 3g, 2g, slow-2g and unknown | effective_connection_type |
| Save Data _ Tag Rocket | Event | true if the user has set a reduced data usage option on their device | save_data |
If you enable server events, one event event tracks your order status changes (order_status_update) and includes the following dimensions:
| Dimension Name | Scope | Description | Event Parameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order status _ Tag Rocket | Event | The new order status | order_status |
Web Vitals sets the following dimensions and metrics:
| Dimension Name | Scope | Description | Event Parameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debug target _ Tag Rocket | Event | This identifies the selector path to the element that contributed most to the metric | debug_target |
| Web Vitals status _ Tag Rocket | Event | Good, Needs Improvement or Poor. Based on the scores set by web.dev. Used in the relevant web vitals events (LCP, CLS, FID) | metric_status |
Other custom dimension properties that we set are: metric_id, debug_timing, event_time
The following dimensions are no longer supported and can be removed:
Page view ID, Event ID, Core Web Vitals status, Web Vitals TTFB status, Web Vitals FCP status, Web Vitals CLS status, Web Vitals FID status, Web Vitals LCP status, Position
There are some GA4 built-in dimensions that currently don’t get sent to Data Studio. Over time these will no longer be required:
| Dimension Name | Scope | Description | Event Parameter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page referrer _ Tag Rocket | Event | The referrer URL (or an empty string if not available). The previous page URL | page_referrer |
| Transaction ID Server _ Tag Rocket | Event | The transaction ID used by the Server Side Events | transaction_id |
There are more dimensions and metrics used, but that covers the core ones which we think may be of use in custom reports. To see other events that are automatically collected, refer to Tag Rocket Automatically Collected Events.
This custom metric is required to specify the web vitals metric values for use in reports. Click on the “Custom Metrics” tab and enter the following:
| Metric Name | Scope | Description | Event Parameter | Unit of measure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Vitals value _ Tag Rocket | Event | The value of a web vital. Used in the LCP, FID and CLS events. | metric_value | Standard |
Other custom metric properties that we set are: metric_delta
The following metrics are no longer supported and can be removed:
Web Vitals TTFB, Web Vitals FCP, Web Vitals CLS, Web Vitals FID, Web Vitals LCP
There are more dimensions and metrics used, but that covers the core ones which we think may be of use in custom reports. To see other events that are automatically collected, refer to Tag Rocket Automatically Collected Events.
Basic
Advanced
We can track purchases server-side which can be far more accurate but unfortunately, Google cannot currently de-duplicate these with browser purchase events. Enabling this setting will cause a custom server_purchase event to fire which can be used to identify those purchases missing in GA4 reports. This is best seen in the Tag Rocket Report’s “Browser vs Server Report”
If enabled, the order number is appended to the order confirmation URL for purchases – this can aid reporting by identifying the order the purchase event came from.
Google Tag Assistant allows you to explore the data for your Google Tags. By clicking on an event you can discover detailed information about the data sent.
Google Tag Assistant (Legacy) is a Chrome Extension that allows you to see your Google Tag status. Below is an indication of what it generally looks like
