Zones

Use zones to control and sandbox access to tagging on your sites.

This article is for advanced users who wish to set up zones for Tag Manager containers.

A zone allows you to link additional Tag Manager containers when your main container loads, so that the linked containers are allowed to fire tags on your website. Linked containers may be associated with any Tag Manager account, including containers owned and managed by third-parties.

Example uses:

A third-party ad agency is given access to a zone that fires tags on specific pages using only the tag types that are relevant to the advertising campaigns they are working on.
The recruiting team is given access to publish containers on the careers section of your website.
The marketing team is given access to publish containers on most pages, but are limited to only being able to edit (but not publish) more secure content (e.g. shopping cart pages) so that the changes must go through a review and approval process.

You can also use zones to link Tag Manager containers to Google tags (i.e. tags for related Google products, like Analytics and Ads) created using the global site tag (gtag.js) framework.

You can set parameter values for zone tags, configure zone boundaries that define the pages on which the zone is active, and restrict the types of tags that a zone can fire.

Combined with approvals, zones can help you create an effective tag management workflow for your organisation. You can set completely different users and permissions for the main and linked Tag Manager containers, and for other Google tags that are linked to a zone. Admins of the main container don't need or gain access to the linked containers.

Zone triggers and data layer event timing

If a zone tag uses a data layer event trigger, it is important to confirm that the data layer event takes place after the zone has loaded. If the data layer event occurs before the zone has loaded, the tag won't fire.

For example, if a zone loads at 'All Page – Container Load', and a tag in the zone uses the data layer 'consent initialisation' event as its trigger, the tag won't fire because the 'consent initialisation' event occurs before 'All Page – Container Load'. In this scenario you would need to change the trigger for the zone tag to an event that occurs after the zone has loaded.

Create zones

Link to Tag Manager containers

Use this method to create a zone that links to a Tag Manager container. To link to Google tags, use the method described in Link to Google tags.

To create a new zone that links to a Tag Manager container:

In Tag Manager, click Zones New.
In Zone configuration, click to add one or more containers.
Select a container using one of the following actions:
1. Click and select a container from the current account.
2. Manually enter a Container ID and optional Nickname.
  Note: You can enter the ID of any container. It doesn't need to be in the same account.
Optional: In Fields to set, configure persistent parameter values for all pages that fire a given tag. See Fields to set for more.
Optional: In Boundaries, select Some pages to specify which pages linked containers are allowed to fire tags on. See Boundaries for more.
Optional (Tag Manager 360 only): Use the Type restrictions toggle to specify which types of tags, triggers or variables linked containers are allowed to fire. See Type restrictions for more.
Give your zone a title and click Save.
Save and publish your workspace for the changes to take effect.

Link to Google tags (gtag.js)

Use this method to link a Google tag (gtag.js) to your main container.

You can link a main container to multiple Google tags (any gtag.js implementation) to ensure that all tags load on the same page. Each tag should reside in its own zone. Use this method, for example, to link a Google Analytics tag or a Google Ads tag to the same website.

To create a new zone for a Google tag:

In Tag Manager, click Zones New.
In Zone configuration, click to add a container.
Manually enter any of the following in Container ID:
1. Google Analytics (gtag.js) measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXX).
2. Google Ads (gtag.js) Conversion tracking ID (AW-XXXXXXXXX).
3. Floodlight (gtag.js) Conversion ID (DC-XXXXXXXXX).
4. ...any gtag.js implementation (Tag-specific ID-XX....) .
Optional: In Fields to set, configure persistent parameter values for all pages that fire a given tag. See Fields to set for more.
Optional: In Boundaries, select Some pages to specify which pages linked containers are allowed to fire tags on. See Boundaries for more.
Optional (Tag Manager 360 only): Use the Type restrictions toggle to specify which types of tags, triggers or variables linked containers are allowed to fire. See Type restrictions for more.
Give your zone a title and click Save.
Save and publish your workspace for the changes to take effect.

Fields to set

Fields to set lets you initialise and configure settings for a particular gtag.js tag. Depending on the product linked, fields to set may also initiate certain behaviour for that product.

Settings configured here are equivalent to configuration parameters defined in your gtag.js code. For example, if you set the field name to send_page_view with a value of false for an Analytics tag, this will disable pageview measurement in the same way as the following snippet in your code:

gtag('config', 'GA_MEASUREMENT_ID', { 'send_page_view': false });

To learn more about how the fields to set can control behaviour, read the product-specific documentation:

Boundaries

Boundaries allow you to choose which pages your zone fires on.

The two main options are All pages (default) and Some pages. For Some pages, you can set the conditions for your zone container to fire. Conditions operate in the same way as triggers.

The underlying page view trigger is set to Consent Initialisation by default. To access this setting, select > Show custom evaluation.

The default page view trigger was updated in March 2022 from Initialisation to Consent Initialisation. Zones created prior to this change aren't affected and retain the Initialisation page trigger.

Type restrictions (Tag Manager 360 only)

Type restrictions allow you to restrict which tags fire in your zone. This gives you additional control and security over how your zone behaves.

You can set restrictions based on tag types, trigger types, variable types and script types.

Restrictions default to:

Google tag types: All allowed
Trigger types: All allowed
Variable types: All allowed except custom JavaScript
Script and iframe tag types: None allowed
Pixel types: None allowed
Sandboxed script types: None allowed.
Note: To allow use of custom templates, enable Sandboxed script types.

For non-360 Tag Manager users, no restrictions are applied to the zone.

Edit a zone

To edit a zone:

Click Zones and then click the name of the zone you would like to edit.
Edit Zone configuration, Zone boundaries, and Type restrictions as desired.
Save and publish your workspace for the changes to take effect.

Note: Communication across zones is not supported. Updates to the data layer of your main container may not get reflected in a linked container.

Related resources

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