Here you’ll find the definition of the most common terminology for tracking codes and data collection tools out there.
Data Layer: is a javascript object used to pass information to your Google Tag Manager container. Can contain e-commerce transaction data, events, attributes, etc. More information about DataLayer and Google Tag Manager you can find here.
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
window.dataLayer.push({
'event': 'mey_event_name',
'attribute_1': 'dummy value',
'attribute_2_nested': {
'var_1': 'value',
'var_2': 9999
}
});
</script>
Data Stream: Google Analytics 4 has its hierarchy in the form of Account > Property > Data Stream. Each data stream represents a flow of data from a customer touchpoint (your website or app) and your GA4 property. A property can have up to 46 data streams (10 web data streams and 36 app data streams).
Tag: can be referred to as the tracking code or pixel for a data collection tool (e.g. Google Analytics, Hotjar, etc). This snippet of code usually can be found on the head section of a webpage, however, depending on the configuration of your website/app can exist in other parts as well. It runs functions to send tracking and measurement information to a third-party tool. Google Tag Manager is a tool to manage all your tags in the same place, otherwise, you’ll have to add each tracking code on your website. GTM makes this job easier.