[Part 1] How To Upgrade From GTM Suite Data Layer Version 1.0 to 2.0

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This guide has been depreciated

Upgrading to our Shopify source is now required. Follow this guide for upgrading from data layer 1.0 to our current version.

Learn the steps to upgrade your Shopify website from version 1.0 of the Elevar Data Layer to version 2.0.

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Please be sure to follow all steps closely. This is not a 1-click upgrade since changes are also required inside your GTM container.

This guide is for the following customer types:

• Stores that purchases our one-time Shopify app called GTM Suite
• Existing Basic & Advanced Plan customers that signed up before December 2nd

Want Elevar to handle this for you? Email support [email protected]

Part 2 of the upgrade process which includes full technical upgrade overview can be found here.

Are you ready to unleash the power of the all-new Elevar 2.0 on your Shopify store?

Do You Have Elevar Installed via Shopify Apps?

Before continuing, double check that you have Elevar's Google Tag Manager Suite app (also known as Elevar Tag Management Suite) installed on your store:

If you do then continue!

If you do not then follow one of these steps:

• If you're a PRO customer then email your analyst directly to initiate the upgrade process
• If you are a previous customer of the $199 one-time purchase but no longer see the app installed then try re-installing from the app store to initiate the process again. You should be taken through the version 2.0 installation process.

Step 1: Upgrade Your Elevar Account

Click on the Elevar app from your Shopify apps dashboard. You'll then need to navigate to the Data Layer settings inside your Elevar account and click the Upgrade Option:

This is what the Shopify upgrade process looks like:

Step 2: Questions To Ask Before Upgrading

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The last thing we want to do during this upgrade process is introduce tracking issues.

Please be diligent on reviewing these questions before proceeding.

Follow our complete technical guide walk through here.

We've listed some of the most common scenarios you should consider during this upgrade process. Plus how to handle each.

Q: Have you modified elevar data layer snippets from version 1?

This could include:

• elevar-body-end
• elevar-checkout-end
• elevar-head
• thank you page data layer copy/paste

If yes, then your changes will be overwritten during the upgrade. It's possible you've added customizations that our new features now account for, however if they are highly unique to your store then you'll need to follow this guide on adding data layer customizations to version 2.0.

Q: Have you modified the names of the elevar data layer snippets?

We see this fairly often where developers will move the elevar snippets installed on the store into different snippets. A few common examples:

• They'll change the names from elevar-head to gtm-head
• They'll move the contents of the code into another snippet that houses third party scripts

You can quickly test this by going to your theme.liquid and searching for elevar. If you see the snippet names in the previous question in your theme.liquid and checkout.liquid then you should be good.

If you don't then you'll need to contact your developer to either:

1. Revert the name changes of elevar snippets
2. Remove those custom snippets after you install the new elevar snippets

Q: Is your Facebook pixel setup in GTM using Elevar's v1 data layer?

If you are using the standard events from v1 then your FB tags should look something like this:

And the 2.0 tags look similar to this:

Since these 2.0 tags are setup to be compatible with server side tagging and deduplication with the Facebook Conversion API events, we recommend deleting the old standard Elevar Facebook events and starting with the 2.0 version.

The tags are using product ID as the primary product identifier to match up to Facebook catalog. So if you are using SKU or variant ID in your Facebook catalog then you will have to update the content_id parameters inside the tags in GTM.

Q: Are your Google Ads remarketing setup in GTM using Elevar's v1 data layer?

If yes then you'll need to follow a very similar process outlined in the previous example with Facebook:

• Look for customizations to your existing Google Ads tags in GTM
• Verify what product ID you are using in your tags that matches up to your Merchant Center (SKU, shopify_US_productId_variantId, product ID, variant ID, etc).
• Update the 2.0 tags to match your requirements
• Delete the old tags

Q: Is GA Enabled via GTM?

If you have Universal Analytics or GA4 (or both) then we recommend using our new tags contained within the new 2.0 pre-built container.

If you customized these tags in your existing GTM account then you'll need to go through and transition these updates to the new tags as well. For example:

• event category/action/label names
• GA variable assignment and customizations
• Custom metric/dimension assignments
• Content groupings

Q: Are version 1.0 variables and/or triggers being used by other tags?

If you are unsure then the easiest way to do this is by navigating to the trigger (or variable) inside of GTM and seeing the references (see image).

Using this example, you'll need to change the trigger associated to each tag to the new Event - purchase trigger in the 2.0 container.

Repeat this step for variables that might have changed as well.

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Compare trigger differences here and variable differences here.

Step 3: Import & Update GTM Container Inside GTM

Now that you've researched your existing GTM container to narrow down potential changes, it's time to import the new 2.0 container. We recommend doing this before upgrading the elevar snippet code in your theme since this could take a few hours to implement.

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Be sure to leave your self at least 30-60 minutes to review the changes you'll need to make inside of GTM.

Inside your Elevar account you'll find a 2.0 tab inside the Pre-Built Tags to access all of the pre-built containers. Start by downloading either the Complete Plus or Non-Plus container.

Then import into GTM by going to Admin > Import Container > Select New Workspace. Name it "Elevar 2.0".

Most users will elect to select MERGE instead of overwrite. This will allow you to transition your events.

Step 4: Install Elevar Data Layer Snippets To Your Theme

For Shopify Plus stores, this is a single step. You do not need to copy/paste code into your thank you page. We've included all of the data layer logic inside of the checkout.liquid template for all of the checkout steps - including the purchase page.

However for non-plus stores you will need to copy the thank you page data layer code and paste into your thank you page script settings:

When you're ready to publish the new data layer code snippets then click the Install or Reinstall button found in your data layer settings:

Step 5: Publish GTM Container

The final step to finish your upgrade is put your GTM container into preview mode to QA and publish the new workspace.

This process should function the same way you've QA'd your GTM container in the past.

Questions or suggestions? Please let us know!

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Need a more technical breakdown walkthrough?

Follow Part 2 of our guide.