Compare Elevar Tag Manager Suite Versions 1.0 vs 2.0

Learn how the two versions of our Google Tag Manager Suite compare so you can make an informed decision on upgrading

In December of 2020, we released version 2.0 of our popular Google Tag Manager Suite app on the Shopify App store (now known as Elevar Tag Management Suite).

This upgrade was a year in the making that focused on improving data collection accuracy, compatibility with other third party apps, localization, and much more.

We highly recommend upgrading to version 2 to ensure you are not missing out on critical events and conversions that your marketing channels rely on.

In fact, if you sign up for our Advanced Plan, which includes our server-side tracking that any non-technical marketer can deploy, you'll get our 95% accuracy guarantee.

This means that we guarantee your Google Analytics, Facebook Conversion API, and any other server-side channel receives at least 95% of your conversions.

We even alert you if this drops.

Compare Data Layer Feature Differences

We've packed dozens of new features in version 2.0 to help ensure you have a best in class data foundation that you can trust and scale with confidence from.

We've outlined over 10 of our largest feature differences between the two versions here. Check this guide out to learn about the improvements in.

• Server-side tracking & FB Conversion API support for Shopify, ReCharge, Zipify, and all other checkout platforms.
• Add to Cart & Enhanced eCommerce Improvements
• User Consent Integrations
• Performance Improvements
• Data Layer & Tag Error Monitoring

Integrations

Version 1.0 did not have any direct integrations that populated parts of the data layer. The integrations were all within the GTM containers that we provide to launch Facebook, Google Ads, Pinterest, and 20+ other marketing channels.

But now in version 2.0 we have integrations for:

• User consent management that will populate a new data layer variable with the user's consent status
• Facebook Conversion API
• Server-side tracking (GTM Server-Side container OR Elevar's Fully Managed)
• Server-side integrations for FB CAPI, Google Analytics, ShareASale, TikTok, Google Ads, Impact Radius, Voluum, and more

Data Layer Changes

In addition to the event names we've also updated the variable naming convention to follow the syntax that Google has standardized across their products (Google Ads, GA4, etc).

The table shows the variables that have changed from version 1.0 to 2.0. This is not an exhaustive list of all variables included in the data layer - just the differences.

Event Trigger Changes

When data is pushed into the data layer from your Shopify store it is done through events in the Elevar code snippets that match up to the triggers that are imported to GTM.

These events have names and they have been updated in version 2.0 which means your triggers in GTM will also need to be updated if you decide to upgrade.

Code Changes

Our v1 implementation of the GTM Suite was completely handled via template modifications. The new version is the same but includes some additional functionality.

This version utilizes the following key features:

1. A per-shop offsite javascript file that handles all functionality for translating and pushing to the dataLayer.
   1. This offsite javascript file utilizes localstorage to capture session-specific data like attribution data storage, cart reconciliation, last collection page visited, user logged in, etc.
   2. This offsite javascript file lazily loads the sentry SDK if any errors occur and pushes the error to the Elevar sentry instance.
2. A custom per-shop snippet (elevar-head.liquid) which includes the following:
   1. A configuration object which specifies the shop's GTM ID, enabled events, and offsite javascript file location.
   2. The GTM initialization script
3. A snippet (elevar-body-end.liquid) responsible for translating and calling methods on the offsite javascript mentioned in #1.
4. A snippet (elevar-checkout-end.liquid) responsible for translating and calling methods on the offsite javascript mentioned in #1 that is used on Shopify Plus stores only.

In 2.0 you can also choose to select which data layer event code you want to include/exclude in the snippets:

Modifying Elevar's Data Layer

In version 1.0, you could manually customize any of the code in the elevar snippets. However this was a brittle customization option since all changes would be deleted if you (or anyone on your time) ever re-saved the implementation inside the app settings.

View the entire details of how to customize your own solutions with Elevar's data layer.

Have any questions?

Book a call with us here.