What You Need To Know To Load The Google Tag Automatically
Management Summary
Starting April 10, 2025, Google Ads and Floodlight tags will load differently and may collect more data than desired. In this article we will show you what you should check now and which settings you should adjust if necessary!
Which GTMs/Tags are affected?
This change only affects Web GTM containers and the Google Ads and Floodlight tags they contain.
It therefore does not affect GA4 tags, nor Google Ads and Floodlight tags in server GTM containers.
Apparently, however, some users with pure GA4 setups were also incorrectly informed.
Will this change automatically create new tags in GTM?
No! This change will happen in the background, so no new tags will be created.
What is changed in the background in GTM?
Two approaches are possible in GTM for tracking using Google Ads and Floodlight Tags:
a) Automatically loaded Google Tag (most common variant):
- Only the event tags are created, without the associated Google tag
b) Explicitly created Google Tag:
- A Google tag and other event tags are created
Since in the first case the Google Tag or the gtag.js library behind it is still required for the event tags to work, in the first case the Google Tag is automatically loaded by GTM in the background.
This is already the case and this approach will be maintained!
Until now, the automatically loaded Google Tag contained a minimal version of settings, most of which were disabled. From April 10, 2025, the full Google Tag settings will be loaded.
Two settings are particularly important to note in this context:
- User Provided Data:
- These can be in theGoogle Tag Settingsbe activated
- This allows first-party data (e.g. hashed email addresses) to be transferred in three different ways:
- Add a code snippet to your website: Targeted throughout the day, usually from the data layer – the website/tracking needs to be adjusted here
- Automatically detect user-provided data: The tag automatically searches for email addresses on the page – no changes are necessary here
- Specify CSS selectors or JavaScript variables: By specifying CSS selectors or JavaScript variables – these can be entered directly in the settings
- Enhanced conversions:
- These can be inGoogle AdsandCM/DV360User interface can be activated
If the ‘Google Customer Data Terms of Service’ were accepted in the past, the ‘User-Provided Data’ feature was automatically activated. In addition, the ‘Automatically detect user-provided data’ setting was activated.
Until now:
Even if the Enhanced Conversions feature was activated – which is the second requirement for collecting this data – it was still not collected.
This is because the minimal version of the Google Tag loaded so far did not take into account the combination of the activated ‘User-Provided Data’ option with the ‘Automatically detect user-provided data’ setting and activated Enhanced Conversions.
From April 10, 2025:
From this point on, Google tags (regardless of whether they are loaded automatically or created explicitly) with the ‘Automatically detect user-provided data’ option activated will actually start to collect this data.
| Now | From April 10th | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
User-Provided Data: activated
Enhanced Conversions: activated |
Automatically loaded Google Tag: | Ignore these settings | Automatically collects data |
| Explicitly created Google tag: | Automatically collects data | Automatically collects data |
Do the CMP / Consent settings need to be adjusted?
Normally not! As before, the Google Tag is only loaded automatically when the actual Google Ads or Floodlight tag is running. In any case, this should only be triggered if the corresponding consent has been given.
What changes are necessary?
To maintain full control over the tags and avoid possible delays in tracking, it is recommended to create Google Tags manually.
Adding the Google Tag does not change the tracking behavior, it is purely used to explicitly load the Google Tag before the Google Ads / Floodlight Tags.
What should be checked?
In the unusual case that you have activated User-Provided Data (and ‘Automatically detect user-provided data’) and Enhanced Conversions without creating the legal basis for this, then this data will actually be collected automatically from April 10th. In this case, it is recommended to disable either just the ‘Automatically detect user-provided data’ setting or all of these settings. The second option would be to obtain the consent of the users.
From April 10, 2025, events recorded automatically using Google Tag will be tracked. If you do not want to record these events, you can do so as usual via theGoogle Tag Settingsbe deactivated.
Conclusion
The planned changes probably only rarely have negative consequences for website operators. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to check the settings mentioned to be on the safe side legally.
