Before You Begin: GA4 vs. Google Tag Manager Explained

If you are new to analytics, the terminology can be confusing. Here is a simple breakdown of how these tools work together:

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4): This is your reporting dashboard. It collects and displays your booking revenue, website visitor numbers, and tour performance reports.

• Google Tag Manager (GTM): This is the courier/messenger. It sits on your website and booking tool, captures booking actions as they happen, and safely delivers that data to GA4 (as well as Meta or Google Ads).

Think of GTM as the engine that sends the information, and GA4 as the dashboard where you read the results.

Prerequisites Checklist (What You Need First)

Before following this setup guide, ensure you have active accounts for both services. If you don't have them yet, click the links below to set them up for free:

1. A Google Analytics 4 Account

   • Don't have one? Create a free account at analytics.google.com

   • What you need: Your GA4 Measurement ID (looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX)

   • Where to find it: Log in to GA4 > Click Admin (gear icon) > Data Streams > Click your website stream > Copy the Measurement ID
     
     

2. A Google Tag Manager Account

   • Don't have one? Create a free account at tagmanager.google.com. When creating a container, choose Web as the target platform.

   • What you need: Your GTM Container ID (looks like GTM-XXXXXXX).

   • Where to find it: Appears in bold in the top header bar of your Google Tag Manager workspace.
     
     

3. Manager Access to Nabooki

   • You'll need access to your Nabooki account to paste your GTM ID.
     
     

How Tracking Works in Nabooki (Custom Events vs. Page Loads)

Nabooki's booking tool is a modern "Single Page Application." As a customer selects a tour and adds it to their cart, the screen updates dynamically without reloading the web page. This creates a faster, smoother checkout experience that minimises drop-offs.

What this means for tracking: Standard triggers like "Page View" or "History Change" will not capture rich cart or invoice data. Even though the final booking confirmation URL may change, relying solely on a page load will miss vital transaction details like order total, discount codes, and individual items. Instead, tracking is event-based, automatically sending data-rich signals (Custom Events) to GTM at key moments.

Testing Your Setup

Before relying on live data, verify your tags in GTM Preview mode:

1. In Tag Manager, click Preview in the top-right corner, enter your website URL that contains the booking widget and click Connect.

2. In the new browser tab, open the Nabooki booking tool, add an item to the cart, and complete a test booking (you can set the service to $0 or use a 100% discount promo code so no money is charged).

3. Switch back to the Tag Assistant tab and verify that GA4 Event - add_to_cart and GA4 Event - purchase appear under Tags Fired.

Preview Mode Won't Connect? Privacy-focused browsers like Brave (via Brave Shields) or browser extensions like uBlock Origin block Tag Assistant. Please complete setup and testing using standard Google Chrome with ad-blockers temporarily disabled.

Publish Your GTM Workspace

In GTM, click the blue Submit button in the top-right corner.

Type a Version Name (e.g., "Nabooki GA4 Setup") and click Publish.

{
  "event": "purchase",
  "ecommerce": {
    "currency": "AUD",
    "value": 1372.99,
    "transaction_id": "5198804",
    "coupon": null,
    "items": [
      {
        "item_id": 342555,
        "item_name": "Pricing categories - Price 2",
        "price": 1206.66,
        "quantity": 1
      },
      {
        "item_id": 342556,
        "item_name": "Pricing categories - Price 1",
        "price": 166.33,
        "quantity": 1
      }
    ]
  }
}

{
  "event": "purchase",
  "ecommerce": {
    "currency": "AUD",
    "value": 0,
    "transaction_id": "5198807",
    "coupon": "GTMTEST2",
    "items": [
      {
        "item_id": 342560,
        "item_name": "Pricing categories - Price 2",
        "price": 1206.66,
        "quantity": 1
      },
      {
        "item_id": 342561,
        "item_name": "Pricing categories - Price 1",
        "price": 166.33,
        "quantity": 1
      }
    ]
  }
}