🧑‍🏫 WWLT: Why Isn't My Google Tag Manager Code Snippet Firing?

During the Google Ads management onboarding process, there are three tools we configure:

• Google Ads

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

• And one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s toolbelt - Google Tag Manager (GTM).

The Problem

GTM is one of the best ways to set up conversion tags and tracking to measure the success of your advertising and SEO efforts. In this particular instance, we did not have access to the client’s website, so we sent the Google Tag Manager code snippet via Gmail to their developer. Once we heard back that the Google Tag Manager code snippet had been added, we attempted to use preview mode to start the tagging process. Long story short, it wasn’t working properly. The usual suspects were checked and nothing seemed wrong:

• Ad blockers

• Browser settings prohibiting pop-up windows

• Consent

The Solution

After inspecting the website, we noticed that "gtm.js" wasn’t firing correctly due to a syntax error. This was the confirmation we needed to know that the tag wasn’t implemented properly.

So, who was the culprit? Big bad Gmail. The reason it wasn’t working was that when the Google Tag Manager code snippet was pasted into Gmail, the apostrophes in the code were edited for grammatical reasons.

To remedy this, we re-sent the code snippet inside a .txt file so the code could not be edited in any way. The developer added the code, and it was smooth sailing from there on out.