Data Layer Variable in GTM: What, Why, and Where?

Updated: December 6th, 2022

To work with Google Tag Manager, you need to know three key concepts: tags, triggers, and variables. But, as you dive deeper, you will come across the fourth one, the Data Layer.

Google Tag Manager and Data Layer are frequently found in the same sentence. These concepts work hand in hand to make tag management significantly more straightforward. A clear understanding of both concepts ensures maximum flexibility and ease of implementation.

Without it, there would be no variables and no triggers. Therefore, Google Tag Manager wouldn’t fire any tags.

 

Table of Contents

– Hide table of contents –

• The context
• What is a Data Layer Variable?
• Let’s create a Data Layer Variable
• Data Layer version
  • Version 1
  • Version 2
• Default value
• Different data structures
• Further reading
• Final words

 

The context

Before we dive in, let’s recall how the Data Layer (DL) works. DL is a virtual layer of a website where useful information is stored, e.g., user ID, Text of a Clicked Button, Order Total, etc.

Other marketing tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Google Ads, to name a few, can also use this data.

Google Tag Manager already supports a bunch of default built-in variables. You can find the complete list by going to Variables > Configure.

After you enable these variables, they’ll appear in the Variables tab of Google Tag Manager’s Preview and Debug mode.

Once enabled, you can use these data points in trigger conditions, tags, and other variables  (e.g., Lookup or Regex Tables). And that’s awesome!

But what if we want to have some custom variables? For example, blog post author’s name, user’s registration country, etc.?

That’s where the Data Layer Variables come in handy.

 

What is a Data Layer Variable?

Data Layer Variable enables you to fetch a value from the Data Layer and turn it into a variable (which can be used in Tags, Triggers, and even other variables). But first, let’s look at how the Data Layer stores this data.

Enable the GTM Preview and Debug mode and go to the Data Layer tab. In the screenshot below, I am viewing my blog’s data; yours might look different.

Here, I’ve taken the example of a custom event to track which author got the most reads on a website. The event will fire when someone lands on a blog post.

Let’s say that I need to know the author, the page category, and the type of blog they are reading and I want to measure that in Google Analytics.

The blog is running on WordPress, and it’s using GTM4WP Plugin, which pushes this data to the Data Layer every time the page loads.

If you want to get even more custom information, ask a developer to add it to the Data Layer with the help of dataLayer.push.

Anyway, let’s go back to the example. As you can see in the screenshot above, there’s some interesting data I could employ in my tags and triggers.

Unfortunately, if I navigate to the Variables tab of the Preview and Debug Console, those variables aren’t there. Why?

By default, Google Tag Manager does not recognize custom data in the Data Layer. Even though the data is present in your datalayer, you cannot use it unless you use the Data Layer Variable.

To create this variable, you’ll need to specify the Data Layer key whose value you want to retrieve. When the variable is resolved, it will return the most recently pushed value into the key. Let me show you how.

 

Let’s create a Data Layer Variable

Let’s have another example. I want to track which author is generating the highest number of views on a website.

Above the Google Tag Manager container snippet, the following dataLayer code is added:

 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({ 
    'pagePostAuthor': 'Julius Fedorovicius',
    'pageCategory': 'google-tag-manager-tips',
    'pagePostType': 'post' 
});

In this case, I want to track and use it in GTM:

• Key: pagePostType, value: post
• Key: pageCategory, value: google-tag-manager-tips
• Key: pagePostAuthor, value: Julius Fedorovicius

Here’s what it would look like in the Preview and Debug mode:

With the help of Data Layer variables, I can easily retrieve those values and re-use them in other tags, triggers, or variables.

Say you want to send a Google Analytics event when someone leaves a comment. You also want to push the article author’s full name with every event. This way, you’ll see which authors drive the highest reader engagement.

In this example, I will not go into details on how to create a tag. I will only demonstrate how to pull the data from the Data Layer and turn it into a variable (within Google Tag Manager).

Go to Variables in your Google Tag Manager account and create a new one with the following settings (dlv stands for data layer variable):

That’s it! Save this variable, refresh Preview and Debug (P&D) mode, and perform the desired action in the new tab. You should then see your newly created variable in the Variables tab of the P&D console.

 

Data Layer version

Another setting available in the Data Layer Variable is Version. When you select the Version, you’re instructing GTM to treat the values in the data model in two different ways.

Version 1

One of the main problems with Version 1 is that it does not allow you to access nested values.

Look at the dataLayer.push code below. Suppose you create a Data Layer variable and try to access pagePostAuthor. In that case, you’d fail because it’s not in the root of the object (instead, it’s a direct child of the attributes key).

<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({ 
    'attributes': {
       'pagePostAuthor': 'Julius Fedorovicius' 
    }
 });
</script>

If you want to fetch the Post Author’s name (while using the Version 1), the object in the Data Layer must look like this:

<script>
 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({ 
    'pagePostAuthor': 'Julius Fedorovicius' 
 });
</script>

See? There’s no parent key, and pagePostAuthor is at the root level.

That’s just one limitation of Version 1.

There’s also no merging available. So, every time you push the data to the Data Layer, it will overwrite the entire key (that you’re pushing data to). Let me illustrate.

Imagine that we have two Data Layer Pushes with different data. The first push contains a post object with only one parameter, pagePostAuthor, the other one includes the other two keys, pageCategory and pagePostType.

 //The 1st Push
 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({ 
 'authorData' : {
    'pagePostAuthor': 'Julius Fedorovicius' 
 } 
});

 //The 2nd Push
 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({
 'authorData' : { 
   'pageCategory': 'google-tag-manager-tips',
   'pagePostType': 'post'
 }
 });

As a final result, you’d have only two values in the Data Layer: pageCategory and pagePostType because the 2nd push has completely overwritten the data of the 1st push.

So what’s the point of the 1st Version? It sounds like a useless thing, you might say. Definitely not.

For example, in GA4ecommerce tracking, it’s important not to have any artifacts (scraps) from previous pushes, meaning that every time a window.dataLayer.push occurs, it rewrites keys.

 

Version 2

The 2nd version is more flexible. It allows you to access nested values, arrays, merge data, or any other operations you need.

Let’s go back to the previous example with two subsequent Data Layer Pushes. The first push contains only pagePostAuthor; the other includes two more keys, pageCategory and pagePostType.

<script> 
 //The 1st Push
 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({ 
 'authorData' : {
    'pagePostAuthor': 'Julius Fedorovicius' 
 } 
});

 //The 2nd Push
 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({
 'authorData' : { 
   'pageCategory': 'google-tag-manager-tips',
   'pagePostType': 'post'
 }
 });
</script>

Contrary to Version 1, in Version 2 all three values would remain in the Data Layer because they were not conflicting.

{ 
'authorData' : {
   'pagePostAuthor': 'John Doe',
   'pageCategory': 'google-tag-manager-tips',
   'pagePostType': 'post'
  }
}

Simo Ahava has posted a detailed guide about Data Layer Versions. If you still have some questions, go check it out.

 

Default value

The last setting in the Data Layer Variable is Default Value. If you’re trying to access the value of a particular key in the Data Layer AND that key does not exist, undefined will be returned.

Sometimes you might need to get a different default value, e.g., (not set), empty, or anything else.  In that case, click the checkbox and set the default value.

 

Different data structures

Keep in mind that data can be stored in the data layer using different structures. Here’s an example (the key pagePostAuthor is in the root level).

<script>
 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({
    'pagePostAuthor': 'Julius Fedorovicius'
 });
</script>

Or this (pagePostAuthor key is now a descendant of the attributes key):

<script>
 window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
 window.dataLayer.push({ 
    'attributes': {
       'pagePostAuthor': 'Julius Fedorovicius' 
    }
 });
</script>

Or even like this (there are two arrays that are the descendants of the transactionProducts key):

<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
dataLayer.push({
 'transactionProducts': [{
   'sku': 'DD44',
   'name': 'T-Shirt',
   'category': 'Apparel',
   'price': 11.99,
   'quantity': 1
 },{
   'sku': 'AA1243544',
   'name': 'Socks',
   'category': 'Apparel',
   'price': 9.99,
   'quantity': 2
 }]
});
</script>

Every structure requires a different way to define the key in the Data Layer variable. In the case of the first example, the key should look like this:

In the 2nd example, the correct variable name should be:

In the 3rd example, you should pull the first product’s category by entering the following name:

There’s a chance that the latter screenshot confused you a bit. Where did that 0 come from? If you want to understand better how to pull the data from the Data Layer, read this blog post.

 

Further reading

This is neither the first nor the last post about Data Layer in this blog. So if you have any questions, check out these posts (or subscribe to my newsletter and stay up-to-date):

• What is Data Layer in Google Tag Manager?
• 3 ways to pull data from the Data Layer
• Custom Event trigger explained (because the Custom Event trigger can be used to turn all Data Layer events can be turned into triggers)

 

Data Layer Variable: final words

Data Layer variable is one of the most (if not THE MOST) used type of variables in my Google Tag Manager accounts.

With its help, you can access data stored in the Data Layer and utilize it in your tags, triggers, or even other variables.

In this blog post, I’ve explained how to set up a variable, how to access data (which is stored using different data structures), what’s the difference between Version 1 and Version 2, etc.