How to Set Up GA4 in Elevar Server-Side Destination

Follow the step by step guide to launching your Google Analytics server-side tracking

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Note: GA4 Server-Side Tracking sends the purchase event via the server and the rest of the events via the browser. We're working towards an integration that sends all events via the server.

Prerequisites

Before you can enable your Google Analytics Server-Side Destination, you will need to:

Step 1: Add GA4 as a Server-Side Destination

  1. In your Elevar App, navigate to My Tracking > Select Add Destination > Find and select GA4.

  2. You'll be taken to an Overview Page, select Get Started

Step 2: Select Your Events

Currently the GA4 Server-Side integration just sends purchase conversions & refunds server-side. We are looking into sitewide server-side events.

Most likely, you won't need to adjust anything and can just select Save to continue to the next step.

Step 3: Consent Mode

If you've configured consent mode in your data layer settings for cookie compliance, then you can configure this option here as well. [How to make sure my server-side tracking adheres to my consent rules]

Currently, if a user has not opted in, then Elevar will block the transaction from being sent to GA.

If you haven't enabled consent mode in your data layer settings, select Save & Continue.

Step 4: Select your Transaction Identifier

The Order Name is the most commonly used Transaction ID, so you likely won't need to adjust anything and can just select _Save _to continue to the next step.

Step 5: Select your Product Identifier

Product SKU is almost always used as the primary product ID in GA4 integrations, but you can override this for your purchase events.

If you change this, just be sure you update all ecommerce events to use this new product identifier (e.g. add to cart, etc).

Select _Save _to continue to the next step!

Step 6: Block Transactions

This step allows you to control exactly what purchase events are sent to GA4. You can block orders based on Source Channel Names, Order Tags or Order Gateways.

We'd recommend blocking any offline orders (e.g. Draft Orders) from being sent to GA4. Why? These orders don't have an associated session, so they may appear in your Traffic Acquisition Report as (not set). By default our best practice is to block exchange orders. You can leave this as is or add other offline channels

Learn how to block additional types of orders in this guide.

Not sure if you need to block and additional orders? Look at what Sales Channels you have in Shopify!

Otherwise, select Save to continue.

Step 7: Subscriptions

  1. If you sell subscriptions, select whether you are using the unified Shopify checkout, or are using a separate checkout.

  1. If using a separate checkout, select if you use ReCharge, OrderGroove or another subscription software.

  1. Decide if you want to send recurring orders to GA4. This is a business decision for your team to make.

  1. If you do want to send recurring orders to GA4, choose to either use the attribution of the first order or to set a custom attribution for these orders.

  1. Select Save & Continue to move on to the next step.

Step 8: Enter your GA4 Settings

Add your GA4 Measurement ID.

If you want to send custom dimension or have source/medium overrides for specific channel/order tags you can do so by exploring the Advanced Options

Step 9: Web Container Setup

Select Download Pre-Built Web Tags

Import the downloaded file to your Google Tag Manager Web Container. [How do I do this?]

Once imported, publish the new tags. [How do I do this?]

Step 10: Going Live

It's time to go live!

  1. Select Go Live on the Overview Step

  2. Be sure your GA4 Pre-Built Web Tags are published in Step 9.
  3. Remove your pre-existing GA4 integration
  4. Monitor your GA4 property via real time reports and/or your standard reports

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out to ask us for help.