Set up Matomo Analytics with Google Tag Manager

Why choose Matomo Analytics? #

Arguments FOR using Matomo Analytics #

Arguments AGAINST using Matomo Analytics #

Matomo configuration with GTM #

I’ve created 5 tag templates (available in the GTM gallery) to help you send your data to your Matomo instance from Google Tag Manager :

1. Matomo Analytics - Configuration
2. Matomo Analytics - Actions
3. Matomo Analytics - E-commerce Tracking
4. Matomo Analytics - Content Tracking
5. Matomo Analytics (Server-Side)

In this tutorial, I will detail the client-side implementation (tags 1 to 4). If you’d like to configure Matomo as server-side (tag 5), you can consult this blog post.

Initial configuration #

Go to the Google Tag Manager gallery and add Data Marketing School’s Matomo Analytics - Configuration tag to your workspace.

At this stage, you have 4 items to configure:

1. Setup Type : Client-Side
2. Matomo Instance URL: The URL of your Matomo instance.
3. Matomo site ID: The site ID of your Matomo instance.
4. Trigger: Initialization - All Pages

This tag sends all pages viewed to Matomo.

Actions #

Page views #

Page views are sent automatically via the configuration tag. If you wish to manage the sending of page views with a separate tag, you can do so with the Matomo Analytics - Actions tag.

Events #

In the Matomo Analytics - Actions tag, select the Event action.

Goals #

To send a goal to Matomo, you must first create it in the interface.

Go to Websites > Goals then click on Add a new Goal.

Once your goal has been created, you can retrieve its identifier.

Once you’ve retrieved your goal identifier, all you have to do is specify it in the Matomo Analytics - Actions tag by selecting the Goal action.

Outlinks #

Automatic tracking #

To activate automatic outbound link tracking, you can check the Enable Link Tracking box in the Other Settings section of the Matomo Analytics - Configuration tag.

Manual tracking #

To track outbound links manually (for example, to track only one of several outbound links, but not all of them) you can use the Matomo Analytics - Actions tag and select the Link then Outlink action as Link Type.

Downloads #

Automatic tracking #

To enable automatic tracking of downloads, you can check the Enable Link Tracking box in the Other Settings section of the Matomo Analytics - Configuration tag.

Manual tracking #

To track outgoing links manually (for example, to track only one of several outgoing links, but not all of them) you can use the Matomo Analytics - Actions tag and select the Link then Download action as Link Type.

Site search #

Automatic tracking #

By default, Matomo tracks searches if they generate a page reload and if the results page contains one of the following query parameters:

• q
• query
• s
• search
• searchword
• k
• keyword
• keywords

Manual tracking #

To track searches on your site, you must first activate this feature in Matomo. To do this, go to Websites then Manage.

Then click on the icon to edit your website. Scroll down to the Site Search section. Activate Site Search and uncheck the Use default Site Search parameters box.

E-commerce tracking #

With e-commerce tracking, Matomo can collect and display detailed statistics on :

• Orders: number, revenue, conversion rate, etc.
• Products: products viewed, added to cart, purchased, their individual performance.
• Cart: abandonments, additions, modifications.
• Revenues by channel: where visitors buy from.

Category views #

To track category views, you can use the Matomo Analytics - Ecommerce Tracking tag and select Category View as the Ecommerce Event Type.

If you leave the Category Name field empty, the tag will default to the value ecommerce.items.0.item_category if present.

Product views #

To track category views, you can use the Matomo Analytics - Ecommerce Tracking tag and select Product View as the Ecommerce Event Type.

The Product ID field is mandatory.

The other fields are optional and will fetch the following default values:

• Category Name : ecommerce.items.0.item_category
• Product Name: ecommerce.items.0.item_name.
• Product Price : ecommerce.items.0.price

Cart updates #

To track cart updates, you can use the Matomo Analytics - Ecommerce Tracking tag and select Cart Update as the Ecommerce Event Type.

By default, this tag will fetch the ecommerce.items array, but you can modify this behavior in the Override items array section.

Orders #

To track shopping cart updates, you can use the Matomo Analytics - Ecommerce Tracking tag and select Order as the Ecommerce Event Type.

By default, this tag will fetch the following variables from the ecommerce dataLayer:

• Order ID: ecommerce.transaction_id
• Total Revenue : ecommerce.value
• Subtotal: this must be filled in manually, as the standard GA4 dataLayer does not contain this field.
• Tax: ecommerce.tax
• Shipping: ecommerce.shipping
• Discount: ecommerce.discount

By default, this tag will use the ecommerce.items array, but you can modify this behavior in the Override items array section.

Conclusion #

Congratulations, you’ve completed the configuration of Matomo Analytics with Google Tag Manager.

If you encounter any problems in configuring your tags, or if you have any feedback (positive or negative) or suggestions for modifications to share with me, you can do so in the comments below.