[Part 2 Step by Step] How To Upgrade GTM Container & Data Layer from 1.0 to 2.0
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.
Follow this step by step guide on upgrading your original GTM Suite Data Layer to Elevar 2.0. Including Facebook, GA, Google Ads, and more.
Step 1: Create New Workspace in GTM Web Container
Name it "Elevar 2.0 Upgrade" as shown below.
Step 2: Review Existing Google Ads Tags
If you are implementing Google Ads via GTM? If so then you'll need to document a few things during the upgrade transition.
- What conversions are setup (ex. Transactions, Add to Cart, other custom conversions)?
- What product identifier is being used in the remarketing tags (ex. shopifyUS, SKU, etc)?
- Are custom parameters included in the remarketing tag that are outside of our standard setup?
- Are the Google Ads scripts using the built-in tag type in GTM? Or are they hard coded in Custom HTML tags?
You can filter your tags like this to see what is configured:
And then look to see the details of the tag. In this example I can see the Add to Cart conversion is configured and will need to be upgraded to 2.0 in future steps. So I like to add "Upgrade" to the tag name:
For the individual remarketing tags, you'll want to double check:
- product ID used
- custom parameters used (if you didn't modify from original Elevar 1.0 install then you can skip this)
In this example I can see that I'm using SKU as my primary ID. So make note of what you are using. But it might be good during this exercise to double check accuracy anyways. In this Google Ads setup guide we show exactly how to verify the ID you are utilizing (step 5).
Step 3: Repeat The Review for Facebook Pixel
If you don't have FB pixel implemented via GTM from version 1.0 then you can skip this step.
However if you have FB implemented via version 1.0 then follow these steps that you completed for Google Ads:
- What is the product ID used in your tags (ex, product ID, variant ID)?
- Do you have any custom events that you created outside of our base tag implementation? For example maybe you have a custom event called "FB - Subscription Purchases". If yes then rename this to include "Upgrade" in the tag name as shown in the Google Ads example above.
- Do you have CCPA configured for your FB pixel?
- Do you have any custom parameters added to your FB pixel outside of our base 1.0 installation (95% of brands do not)
Step 4: Review Google Analytics Tags
Do you have Google Analytics enhanced ecommerce implemented via GTM with our version 1.0 integration (typically only Shopify Plus stores)?
If so then make note of this so you can delete the old tags after importing the version 2.0 (we'll go over below).
Step 5: Review Other GTM Tags
Do you have other custom tags like Pinterest, Snapchat, or other tags that are using the data layer? Take a quick glance to see how many tags you have.
In this quick example I can see that I have the following tags that I'll need to update in 2.0:
- AdRoll
- Bing
Step 5: Import 2.0 Container
Time to import your new container. Grab the version for your store - Shopify or Shopify Plus. The only difference is we don't include GA in the non-plus container since most stores leave the native Shopify <> GA configuration setup.
Select merge on import option:
Step 6: Update Placeholder Variables
After importing you will see 3-5 variables that need to be updated from their placeholder values. Update each one of these to match your unique account IDs. Some of these may already exist in your container from version 1.0 which you can copy over.
Click into each one to update like this:
If you do not have a GA4 property created yet then you'll need to do that to update the GA4 variable as well.
Step 7: Upgrade Old Tags to 2.0+ Version
Now it's time to upgrade your pre-existing tags.
Google Ads Upgrade
If you recall the Google Ads example from the previous step we had two conversions:
- Add to Cart
- Purchase
In the 2.0 import we include a Google Ads transaction tag, but it has a different name than the 1.0 version and it's associated to the account ID variable you just updated in step 6. Plus we are using some of the new conversion features in the 2.0 Google Ads tag that they recently rolled out like customer LTV, ID, etc.
So you must update this.
Here's my Google Ad conversions:
- I go into the Adwords - Transaction (old tag) and copy the conversion label
- Then I go into the "Update After Elevar Import" Google Ads conversion purchase tag and paste this conversion value and remove the "update after elevar import" label in the tag name.
- Then I delete the old AdWords - Transaction tag
- Then I go to the Add to Cart conversion tag and do the following:
- Update the name to say "Google Ads - Add to Cart Conversion"
- Change the Conversion ID variable to be "Google Ads Conversion ID"
- Change the trigger to be "Event - add_to_cart" which is the new trigger name
And now my Google Ads conversion tags look like this:
I recall that in my previous review that I am using product SKU as my product identifier. Since that is what my new tags are set to then I leave it as is.
However if you are using product ID or another variation then you'll need to follow these steps:
- Go to variables > user defined variables > filter for "google ads"
- Go to each variable and change the '.id' (which is SKU) to one of the options we show how to do in the notes section of each variable. For example this is showing me changing id to product_id
Do that for each Google Ads variable and save each.
Once you're done now it's time to delete the old AdWord tags.
- Filter by "Adwords"
- Select all
- Delete
That's it for Google Ads!
Upgrade Facebook
This is an easier upgrade process since the tag names are the same in 1.0 and 2.0, except for the global pixel. Yours should look like this:
Which you can click into and even select the "View Changes":
The main thing you'll need to do is set the proper product ID for each tag. If you are using product ID then you don't need to change anything. However if you are using variant ID, SKU, or something else then you'll need to modify following this guide.
The purchase tags are all pre-configured for the FB Conversion API as well.
Upgrade Google Analytics
Note: For Non-Plus stores using version 1.0 container, you will only see the "EE - Product List Click and Impressions" tags.
This is an easy one! It's a straight deletion of your old Google Analytics tags from 1.0 and keeping the 2.0 version. Two updates to make:
- Delete all of the old events that start with "EE Event -"
- If you are using the Shopify Plus version 1.0 pre-built container, Delete the old "Google Analytics Sitewide Pageview" event so you don't have duplicate pageviews
The only thing you might want to change is the event category and event action names within each tag.
That's it for GA.
Upgrade Remaining Tags
Now it's time to upgrade the remainder of your tags.
This really boils down to:
- Updating the trigger to the 2.0 version trigger
- Updating the variables (if needed) to the 2.0 version
You can view the exact trigger and variable changes in this related guide. All of the triggers are new, but only ~ 1/3 of the variables are different.
Here is an example process using AdRoll:
Updated to new variable and new trigger for 2.0:
The easiest way to go through all of your tags that need updating is:
- Go to all triggers
- Click into the old 1.0 triggers*
- See associated tags to the old trigger (in this image you'll see Bing associated to the old trigger.
- Click into the tag and change the trigger
*These trigger events have been updated in version 2.0.
Once you're done updating then you can filter your triggers by "Custom Event" and then select all of the old triggers which can be deleted:
Step 8: Verify Elevar 1.0 Installation Exists in Production Theme
Since the upgrade to 2.0 is automated and replaces the pre-existing Elevar snippets, we need to make sure that your 1.0 installation is still in place the way that we expect it.
Go to your production theme and verify it has the snippets elevar-head, elevar-body-end, and elevar-checkout-end snippets implemented in the production theme.
In the theme.liquid you should see:
- elevar-head.liquid at the top of the template
- elevar-body-end.liquid near the bottom
In the checkout.liquid you should see:
- elevar-head.liquid at the top of the template
- elevar-checkout-end.liquid near the bottom
If you have modified this implementation by one of the following methods:
- Changed the name of elevar snippets
- Moved elevar snippets to another snippet or section (e.g. moving them to another snippet called
third-party-scripts.liquid
or something similar - Extracted the contents and implemented on your own
Then you will need to plan on removing these modifications from your theme after you complete the installation of 2.0 below.
Step 9: QA & Publish
Once you've completed all of the steps above and you are ready to go live then we recommend the following:
- Double check your new GTM workspace for duplicate tags that are lingering\
- Click "Preview" on your GTM workspace => if there are any conflicts or missing references then GTM will tell you. If preview opens then you are good to go
- Make a copy of your production theme so it's there as a backup
- Publish your GTM Container workspace
- Then proceed with saving your configuration inside Elevar dashboard and clicking Reinstall to update your production theme:
Save your GTM configuration container ID here:
Then click Reinstall:
And if you are on Shopify Plus, then remove the previous hard coded Elevar Data Layer from your thank you page script settings.
If you are a non-plus store, then copy the thank you page script in your Elevar data layer settings and replace your pre-existing Elevar data layer in the thank you page script setting.
Once you've complete the steps above then do the following:
- Put GTM into preview mode
- Browse your website and verify your data layer and tags are firing as expected (see how here)
- Verify your Facebook Pixel does not have any errors in the FB Pixel Helper or inside your Events manager
- Repeat step 3 for GA, Google Ads, and other tags you've updated
Have questions? Let us know how we can help.
Updated about 1 month ago