Google Tag Manager has a Trigger type which fires after a certain duration of time has passed on the web page: the Timer Trigger. The most common uses for the Timer Trigger seem to be either to send an event to Google Analytics after X seconds of dwell time (to kill the Bounce), or to defer a Tag from firing until some asynchronous request has completed with certainty. In the previous version of Google Tag Manager, the Timer was a separate listener Tag, which meant that you could start a timer based on a user interaction such as a click.

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Every now and then I run into a problem which needs some creativity to find a fix. When choosing a course of action, I tend to land first on an extremely complicated solution. However, if I’m patient enough, I manage to whittle it down to something far more manageable and efficient. In this #GTMTips post, I’ll show you one of these extremely simple solutions to a problem which you might normally overcomplicate.

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There might be many reasons you’d want to fire a single Tag multiple times in Google Tag Manager. The most common one is when you want to deploy multiples of a single tracking point on the web. Perhaps you have a roll-up account you want to send the hits to, in addition to the site-specific tracking property. Quite a while ago, I gave a solution for this with a specific focus on Google Analytics Tags.

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To prevent a Tag from firing in Google Tag Manager, you can: Delete the Tag Remove all Triggers from the Tag Add an Exception Trigger to the Tag The third option is usually the best if the blocking is just temporary. Exceptions are what used to be called blocking rules in the first version of GTM. To add them is easy enough. In the Fire On step of Tag creation, you can click Create Exceptions, and choose the Trigger that will block this Tag from firing.

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Here’s a very quick tip this time, but one that’s caused a lot of headache for many Google Tag Manager users. Tip 21: Use the All Pages Trigger correctly Let’s face it, All Pages isn’t really an intuitive Trigger name. Many seem to interpret it as: enable the Tag to fire on all pages, but use the other Trigger (e.g. Link Click) to actually fire it. As it turns out, the All Pages Trigger will fire the Tag on all pages.

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Be honest, can you think of anything that’s more unfair than this: A new Google Tag Manager feature, published at 02:07 AM my time, and with an easter egg hunt involved?! Of course it was the infuriating Charles Farina who found the new feature and claimed the prize. Curses! (Just kidding Charles, you’re still awesome.) Anyway, there’s a new GTM feature in town, and oh boy, this time it’s a big’un!

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Updated 27 March 2019 In the new version of Google Tag Manager, one of the most visible and profound changes to the previous version is how tags are fired (and blocked). First of all, there’s the obvious terminological distinction: we talk about triggers now, not rules. Second, triggers have become an integral part of the tag creation workflow, and as such have far more significance in the user interface than before.

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