Installing and using Google Global Site Tag

Difficulty: Easy | Updated: February 3, 2023
Google Analytics 4 is taking over, Universal Analytics and similar trackers will be discontinued in 2023 according to Google. Unfortunately Google Analytics kinda sucks… a good time to switch to Matomo perhaps. Or you can upgrade to Google Analytics 4.

In AdRotate Pro you can track Impressions and Clicks using Google Analytics Events.
Have all your analytics in one place with the power of Google behind it. For this you can use Google’s Global Site Tag available in your Google Analytics dashboard. If you prefer to use Google Tag Manager, check out that guide instead.

Using the Google option all statistics are tracked externally, using onload and onClick attributes, AdRotate adds those to your adverts where required and compatible.

For simple banner images, both clicks and impressions can be tracked. Most HTML5/iFrame adverts work for Impressions only. AdRotate Pro can detect the format and add the tracking code by itself in most adverts.

Installing the Global Site Tag

If you are using Google Analytics already you should already have the Global Site Tag installed on your website. AdRotate uses this code to push events to Google Analytics. So make sure it’s set up correctly or add it if you haven’t yet. You can follow the steps below.
Installation of the Global Site Tag takes only a few minutes.

First log in to your Google Analytics Account. In the lower left of the page there should be an “Admin” button.

Click that and navigate to the Tracking Info section. In there you’ll see your Tracking Code.

Copy the entire code and paste it on your site in the header or footer.
Google recommends to place the code in your header. Which is fine, but it also works in the Footer. This has the benefit that in the off-chance Google is slow or unavailable your site is not hindered by it.
But, either works.

If you place the code in your header, place it right below the wp_head function in your theme’s header.php.

If you want to place the code in the footer instead (Which I prefer and do on this site) you need to paste the code below the wp_footer function in your theme’s footer.php.

Save and upload your theme file. And you’re done.

There are also plugins that can add this code for you, so that you don’t have to edit theme files. Some people prefer this, but that’s beyond the scope of this page.

Seeing statistics

Since you track stats remotely they are no longer visible in your AdRotate Dashboard.

You can see your gathered statistics in 2 places in Google Analytics.

  • Realtime -> Events -> Banner
  • Behavior -> Events -> Banner

Take a look at my Google Analytics page for more information.

Note: The stats in Behavior are usually delayed one day (24 hours). Most free/non-professional accounts of Google Analytics have this delay. If stats show up in Realtime, the same stats will eventually show up in Behavior.

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