Google Analytics: Universal and GA4

BookingCenter supports the old Universal and GA4 code paradigms. The Universal GA code stopped support by Google in July 2023, so customers were to migrate their GA code to GA4 by that date.

Note: You must ensure your Google Analytics Account is setup correctly. Read the documentation in our KnowledgeBase for specific implementation advise here. "BookingCenter GA4 and GTM (Google Tag Manager)" below is a general overview for working with Google Analytics.

Setup your Google Analytics account.

In order to get support for setting up Google Analytics and Campaign Conversions, customers need to work with their webmaster - it's not a service BookingCenter provides. There are literally THOUSANDS of webmasters skilled in setting up Google Analytics campaigns and Tag Manager who can assist you.

Install the Tracking Code for Your Product

Once you have setup your Google Analytics account, there is code your webmaster will present to you for entry into the Parameters | Booking Engine section of BookingCenter program. You will need to paste the standard tracking code into the 'Web Tracking Code' area the code to track the eCommerce additions of the Booking ID and Costs (as detailed below) into the section called 'Web Tracking Last Page Code' as shown here in this example screen shot:

The BookingCenter Team does not place web tracking code into our customer’s system. Usually a Manager makes a User account (directions to do are here) with access to the Setup area in order for the marketing/webmaster team to paste tracking codes, test bookings, and assure it has been ‘done right' as part of the testing process. Then the Manager withdraws that User permission once tested and the project is tracking appropriately.

It is critical you perform some test bookings to validate the Google Analytics setup is working properly. Many times no one tests until after many months of a change - and then wonder why the values are not accurate.

KEY NOTES:

BookingCenter requires that an MSO 'Premium Marketing contract' is in place in order for this to work. Go to: http://www.BookingCenter.com/contact to request the service or call us at +1-707-874-3922 ext 201.

Before attempting to implement inline scripting or complex Google Tag Manager code, read the article on the BookingCenter CSP (Content Security Policy) to avoid costly effort at complex coding.

Google Hotels and Google Ads

BookingCenter provides real-time feeds to Google to support the Google Hotels product. Google Ads doesn’t need to access the Google Hotels feed, and BookingCenter cannot provide any API access Google Hotel feeds, as it's a secure connection between BookingCenter and Google. BookingCenter is not an advertising firm, and we can’t assist in either connecting Google Analytics (Tag Manager, Universal, GTM, etc) on either a technical level, nor consulting on the benefits of connecting these two. But it's been the case since the early 2000s that Google Ads works independently of Google Hotels, and that the Analytics interface this article defines works fine to generate the 'ROI' for ad display campaigns with no connection needed to Google Hotels. BookingCenter only refers to our Site ID (example, MYHOTEL) when publishing to Google Hotels, there is no ‘Google Hotel ID’ we have in our technical specs to Google Hotels, rather we use identifiers such as name, address, lat/long coordinates, etc to define the specific hotel is actual.

Some ad firms state that adding a Hotel's Ad Campaign ID to our Google Hotels feed can assist in their tracking benefits, so if your ad firm wishes us to include your Hotel's Ad Campaign ID, issue a Support ticket and our engineers can add a Google Hotels ID to the Google Hotels feed for the specific property.

BookingCenter, GA4 and GTM (Google Tag Manager)

BookingCenter offers the option to track Google Analytics's (GA) Goals and Conversions via the Booking Engine. In order to use these services, you need to have a Google Analytics Account setup. And you need to have a Webmaster or marketing person who understands how GA needs to be setup for Goals and Conversions. This is important, because BookingCenter's MSO feature is NOT a service to setup, interpret, nor manage your GA account - we simply offer technology that allows the GA architecture to be used with our Booking Engine.

The Booking Engine supports two variables dynamically posts:

Booking Number: %%$booking_id%%
Total Price: %%$total_price%%

[GA4] Configure Google Analytics 4 tags in Google Tag Manager

source: https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/9442095?hl=en

Step-by-Step Instructions

From your Google Tag Manager account, create a new Tag.
Name Your Tag. It can be the same name as your Google Analytics Property View name.
Choose a Tag Type. ...
Select Track Type – Page View.
Select a Settings Variable. ...
Select a Trigger – All Pages.
Save the Tag.
Publish Your New Changes.

Once tracking you can create your own Looker Studio's web based reporting tools to view your results.

Sign in to Looker Studio.
In the top left, click. Create, then select Report.
You'll see the report editor tool, with the Add data to report panel open. ...
A table appears with fields from that data source. ...
In the top left, name your report by clicking Untitled Report and then entering a new name.

Click below to see a live Looker Report that tracks the 2 main variables

Booking Number
Booking Total Cost

https://lookerstudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/4f05e910-a3bd-4694-a95a-ecb9d5f320e4/page/u7BUD