International Tracking FAQs
Learn the answers to commonly asked questions about tracking on International Websites.
Overview:
Setting up tracking on International Websites depends on:
- If you're using multiple Shopify Instances (e.g. unique myshopify URLs) per site
- If the international sites have the same products/catalog structure, theme, checkout, etc [Except for the currency & language]
- If you want to set up the same or different Pixel IDs per site.
Does Elevar Support Selling Internationally?
The answer depends on your specific set-up:
- If you have one Shopify store selling into multiple different countries then we support the ability to send data to one set of ad accounts using one Elevar account.
- If you have multiple Shopify Stores (one per country) with a different set of ad accounts for each country, then we support this set-up by using a separate Elevar account for each Shopify store.
- If you have one Shopify store and you're selling internationally using Shopify Markets, then we can support this set-up as long as you're only using one set of ad accounts for advertising globally.
- If you have one Shopify store and you're selling internationally using Shopify Markets with different ad accounts for each country, then we're currently unable to send unique data sets to each ad account, but this request is on our product roadmap.
How Do I Know If I Need Multiple Elevar Accounts/Websites?
You may need multiple Elevar Accounts/Websites per each International Store depending on your setup:
Scenario Where One Elevar Account/Website is Needed
If you're using Shopify Markets or another setup where you have one single myshopify URL for all your international websites (Shopify's subfolders approach), then you only need one Elevar Account. Installing the Elevar Sources (Where your data gets pulled from) will collect the needed data for all your international websites.
Scenario Where Multiple Elevar Account/Websites are Needed
If you have multiple myshopify URLs (Shopify's domains or subdomains approach) for your international websites (e.g. website-us.myshopify.com & website-uk.myshopify.com) then you'll need an Elevar Website for each international website.
If this is the case for your stores, you'll need to:
- Add an Elevar Website for each of your unique MyShopify URLs.
- Install the DataLayer/Sources on each Website
- Set up the Client-Side tracking and/or Server-Side tracking for each website (depending on if you use a single or multiple Google Tag Manager Containers - continue reading to learn what you should do!)
Should I Use One GTM Container or Separate GTM Containers?
This depends on how similar or different your international sites will be from each other.
If your websites will have very similar structures/elements and you are planning on running the same tags on all websites, then it might be more convenient to use one container. This way, when you need to make a change in Google Tag Manager, you can make it in one place instead of five.
If your websites have very different layouts or require different tags/pixels per website, then it might be easier to use different Google Tag Manager containers per website. This way you don't need to do complex lookup table logic in Google Tag Manager.
How Should I Identify My International Domains?
You have a few options for how to identify your international domains! The main options are:
- Multiple Domains (e.g. company.ca)
- Subdomains (e.g. ca.company.com)
- Subdirectories (e.g. company.com/en-gb)
We lean towards using subdomains for tracking purposes. Subdomains don't require cross domain tracking to be setup, and it's easy to create separate GA views by subdomain.
Should I Have Separate GA Properties Per Website?
You have two main options for how you can structure your Google Analytics Account:
Separate Google Analytics Properties per Website
One Google Analytics Property with Unique Views per Website
We tend to recommend tracking all subdomains on the same property. With this method, you to have a roll-up view of all sites plus individual views per site. This allows you to view your traffic holistically as well as individually. Here's how you can create this option yourself in GA!
Can I Have Different GA4 Views Per Website?
GA4 works a little differently!
If you've purchased Google Analytics 360, you have access to a GA4 feature known as "sub-properties". Sub-properties are the GA4 version of Google Analytics Views.
If you haven't purchased Google Analytics 360, you'll need to set up different GA4 Properties per Website in order to separate out the data.
Who Should I Use for Consent Management?
We typically recommend OneTrust or CookieBot for consent management.
How Can I Set My Tracking to Properly Convert Currency?
Typically the marketing destination does the needed currency conversion.
Let's take Facebook for example. Say you have a US website selling in USD, a Canada website selling in CAD, and your Facebook Ads account is using USD to report internally.
The tracking for your Canada website would send the currency code and item value to Facebook, and Facebook would then convert the value to USD in their reporting for you!
Caution: There are a lot of different marketing destinations, so we'd recommend confirming with the destination itself that the above is the case :)
Updated 8 months ago