Content Groups in GA4 and bugs in it

Content groups is something you can add in GA4 with tag manager.

Basically, you just create a table or variable and assign that to a page.

For example, you can create a variable called event and use that to set a variable called content_group

If you set that in the configuration tag, it will send the content_group to the value of the event. It's all straightforward enough. You can read the official documentation here

The problem I have had is that sometimes it just doesn't work. There is a bug in it so sometimes it says none and not set even if the set-up is correct.

bug in content_group

In the debugger the variable is set and you can see it. However, when it gets to the reporting, its missing.

How to fix?

Set additional content groups

You may want to set additional content groups. For example, you might want a top-level content group for Men's clothing and then content_group2 for Apparel and content_group3 for Shirts.

You can set additional content groups by creating custom parameters for the content groups and then registering the content groups in Analytics as custom dimensions.

from the documentation, you just set up content_group2 and register it as a custom definition. It does work. So strange. Hopefully, they will fix it one day but for now, just add another variable to set in tag manger, register it and create a report based on that value.

Hope that helps someone out.

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2 Comments

  1. Hi Ben,
    Thanks for this article. I have a problem with my content groups (all based on pageviews). They were all functioning perfectly, but since the beginning of the week the (not set) value is shown to be the highest. It is as though all pageviews are indexed twice – both in the content group and as not set.
    Currently my content group report looks very similar to the last photo in this article – with (not set) holding the highest value in the group, and also an empty line (which is new..looks just like the one in your photo, between 58 and 56) with small values and no indication to any webpage.
    Do you have any clue about this? Is it safe to assume it’s a GA4 bug and hope it will be fixed soon?
    Thanks a lot!

    1. Hi Oran

      If it worked and then didn’t, its probably a bug. Its different to what I was talking about. If you want to book a free 15 minute call, I can have a look for you and give you more advice.

      cheers

      Ben

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