How to connect & use Google Tag Manager integration?

In this article

🧠 What is Google Tag Manager?

💡 Why does it matter?

⚙️ How does it work?

🚀 How to set it up?

Step 1 – Create a GTM Container

Step 2 – Import Shotgun's GTM configuration template

Step 3 – Add your GTM ID to Shotgun

Step 4 – Verify the setup on your event page

🔎 Understanding what your template contains

🧰 What you can do with GTM

✋ Limitations

✅ Best practices

❓ FAQ & troubleshooting

🧠 What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tool that lets you add and manage all your marketing and analytics scripts — like Google Ads, TikTok, etc. — without using code.

You just paste your GTM ID in your Smartboard, and you can:

1. At the technical level

• Install tracking tools (pixels, scripts, etc.) without waiting for a dev
• Set up conversion tracking
• Create advanced analytics setups
• Manage everything in one place

2. At the business level

• Measure precisely which advertising campaigns bring you the most ticket sales
• Optimize your marketing budget by better understanding what works
• Stay in total control of your digital marketing strategy

💡 Why does it matter?

Most organizers use multiple tools to promote and measure their events: Google Ads, TikTok, etc.

Instead of manually installing all those tools on every event page, you can:

• Use one GTM container across all your events
• Add/modify/remove tags at any time — no need to ask a dev
• Track user behavior more deeply (scrolls, button clicks, etc.)
• Set up conversion goals for ad platforms

Think of GTM as your marketing control center.

⚙️ How does it work?

1. You create a GTM container in Google Tag Manager
2. You get a unique ID like GTM-ABC123X
3. You paste that ID into Shotgun
4. GTM injects all your tags (Meta Pixel, GA4, etc.) on all your events page and organizer page

From there, you control everything from GTM.

🚀 How to set it up?

Step 1 – Create a GTM Container

To begin with, you need to create a new Google Tag Manager container specifically for your Shotgun events. Even if you're already using GTM for your main site, this separation is essential for clearer management.

1. Go to https://tagmanager.google.com
2. Create a new account (if you don’t have one)
3. Create a Web container named “Shotgun Events” (or similar)
4. Click on “Create”
5. Accept the Google Tag Manager Terms of Service Agreement
6. Copy the GTM ID (e.g., GTM-ABC123X), you will need it Step 3 – Add you GTM ID to Shotgun.

Step 2 – Import Shotgun's GTM configuration template

• 💡 Shotgun has prepared a preconfigured template that will save you precious time.
• Instead of the template provided, you can use your own custom GTM, but note that Shotgun reserves the right to disable any GTM if we detect malicious or non-compliant scripts.
• Here's how to import and setup the template:
  1. In your new GTM container, click on “Admin” (top left)

  2. Select “Import Container”

     

  3. Click on “Choose container file” and select this template file created by Shotgun:

     Organizer GTM template

  4. Choose “Overwrite” to replace the current empty configuration

  5. Click on “Add to workspace”

     

  6. Enter your advertising IDs in the corresponding variables :
     • GA4 - Measurement ID
     • TikTok Ads - Pixel ID
     • Google Ads - Conversion ID
     • Google Ads - Purchase - Conversion Label
     • Google Ads - AddToCart - Conversion Label
     • Google Ads - ViewContent - Conversion Label
     • Google Ads - InitiateCheckout - Conversion Label 
       
       
  7. Activate the tags corresponding to your external advertising IDs. You can leave the other tags paused so that you can activate them later if other campaigns come along. 
     
     
  8. Publish your container by clicking on “Submit” then “Publish”.

Step 3 – Add your GTM ID to Shotgun

1. Open your Smartboard
2. Go to Settings > Integrations

3. Paste your GTM ID into the Google Tag Manager card

   

✅ It’s now automatically installed on your organizer page and all your published event pages

Step 4 – Verify the setup on your event page

• 🤸 The extension method

  1. Go to the Tag Assistant extension and download it
  2. ⚠️ Make sure your adblocker is disabled (if any).
  3. Go to a published event page and accepts marketing cookies.
  4. Run the Tag Assistant extension, you should see your GTM

  

• 👁️ The GTM preview method
  1. Go to your GTM workspace and click on Preview
     
  2. Add your event url and click on Connect
  3. You will be redirect to your Shotgun’s event

  4. Switch to the Tag Assistant tab in your browser and click on Continue

     

  5. You can check the GTM load and the others fired tags (Google Analytics, Google Ads …)

     

• 🌐 The network method

1. Go to your event page and open the console (Right click on page and select 'Inspect')
2. Go to the 'Network' tab
3. Filter the requests by writing “gtm.js”
4. Nothing appears and that’s normal, you have to reload the page first.
5. After reloading the page, you should be able to see your GTM ID loaded.

🔎 Understanding what your template contains

• ✅ Ready-to-use tags
  • TikTok Ads: send events to TikTok Ads and optimize your campaigns.
  • Google Ads: send events to Google Ads and optimize your campaigns.
  • GA4 (Google Analytics): send events to GA4 and analyze your performances.
• 🔫 Triggers : It is a condition that determines when a tag should be activated.
  • Event - addToCart triggered when adding a ticket with the (+) button
  • Event - begin_checkout triggered when the basket is validated and the user enters the payment flow
  • Event - view_item triggered when an event page is viewed

  • Event - order.confirmation (purchase) triggered on the confirmation page (even for free events)

    Notes: Those triggers are based on dataLayer events, not all of them were mapped here. You can also use the following events if needed :

    • Event - removeFromCart triggered when removing a ticket with the (-) button
    • Event - add_to_wishlist triggered when marking an event as interessed
    • Event - add_payment_info triggered when completing payment information
• 🕵️‍♀️ Custom variables
  • event_id: Unique identifier of the event
  • event_name: Name of the event
  • ticket_id: Unique identifier of the deal
  • ticket_name: Deal name (e.g. “Regular Saturday”)
  • ticket_price: Price of the deal without services fees
  • order_id: Unique identifier of the order
  • order_amount : Amont of the order
  • currency: “EUR”, “USD” …
  • user_id: Unique identifier of the client
  • user_hashed_mail: Email of the client hashed for privacy policy
  • user_hashed_phone: Phone number of the client hashed for privacy policy
  • GA4_ID: GA4 tag identifier
  • TikTok Ads - Pixel ID: Tiktok pixel identifier
  • Google Ads - Conversion Id: Google Ads ID
  • Google Ads - AddToCart - Conversion Label: Google Ads Conversion label for AddToCart event
  • Google Ads - InitiateCheckout - Conversion Label: Google Ads Conversion label for InitiateCheckout event
  • Google Ads - ViewContent - Conversion Label: Google Ads Conversion label for ViewContent event
  • Google Ads - Purchase - Conversion Label: Google Ads Conversion label for Purchase event

🧰 What you can do with GTM

1. Install Meta Pixel via GTM: If you want more control (e.g. custom events), you can install Meta Pixel as a tag via GTM instead of using Shotgun’s native integration.

2. Add Google Analytics 4: Understand how users browse your event pages — where they come from, how long they stay, what they click.

3. Run Google Ads Conversion Tracking: Track which campaigns actually drive ticket purchases.

4. Add TikTok Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag.: All major platforms support GTM — no need to install anything manually.

5. Trigger Tags on Specific Events: Shotgun pushes all key events to GTM as dataLayer events, including: PageView, ViewContent, AddToCart, RemoveFromCart, AddToWishlist, InitiateCheckout, AddPaymentInfo, Purchase. You can trigger your tags precisely when these events happen. → To help you doing that, all the triggers and already created in the template container, ready to be used !

6. Send user data: With the user_hashed variables, you can send personal user data to improve your audience matching on advertising platforms.

✋ Limitations

• GTM (like the Meta Pixel) only works on web, not in the Shotgun mobile app
• Adblockers usually prevent browsers from loading GTM
• User must accept marketing cookies via the Cookiebot banner to load GTM
• Events only start being tracked after GTM is installed on the Shotgun account
• GTM gives you power but also responsibility — poorly set tags can slow down pages or conflict with others

✅ Best practices

• Use GTM for tools that Shotgun doesn’t natively support (e.g., TikTok, Snapchat, custom analytics)
• Keep your GTM setup clean — avoid duplicate or conflicting tags
• Combine GTM with Shotgun’s Meta Conversion API integration for best results

❓ FAQ & troubleshooting

• Does it work for cohosts ?

  Yes, GTM of any cohost (editor, viewer, merch dealer) are added to the event page as well

• I'm seeing other GTM that aren't mine

  On any events we have:

  1. Shotgun GTM
  2. Organizer GTM (If setup)
  3. Cohost GTM (if at least one exists with pixel setup)

  All those GTMs will receive the same data.