[GA4] Set up automatic collection (Tag Manager)

This feature is part of an open beta. Keep in mind that the feature is subject to change.

These instructions are for administrators and editors who want to pass user-provided data from a web page to Google Analytics using Google Tag Manager.

Overview

In Tag Manager, you will update the Google Analytics 4 Event tag for events that collect user-provided data.

Before you begin

These instructions assume that you have the following:

• Access to the Google Tag Manager container for your website
• Activated user-provided data collection and allowed user-provided data capabilities​
• Set up a Google Analytics: GA4 Event tag in your Google Tag Manager container

Instructions

1. Sign in to Google Tag Manager.
2. From the Workspace tab, click Tags on the left.
3. Open the Google Analytics: GA4 Event tag where you collect customer data.
4. Select Include user-provided data from your website.
   
5. In the User Data drop-down menu, select or create a User-Provided Data variable.
6. In the User-Provided Data variable, select Automatic collection.
   
7. Optional: Select Exclude selected elements to exclude certain CSS selectors on your website page from being interpreted as customer data. Learn how to identify CSS selectors.
8. Skip the Format Values field to avoid potential setup issues.
9. Save the User-Provided Data variable, then save the event tag.
10. In the top right, click Submit to publish the changes.

Next steps

Validate that user-provided data collection is set up correctly. Show me how.