Topics covered in this article
What is Google Tag Manager? 🤔
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free platform built by Google to help with managing and deploying marketing tags. You can connect GTM with your Cliniko online bookings to help with visitor tracking and other marketing efforts. This can be quite handy when it comes to seeing where your bookings are coming from, recording successful conversions, and lots of other data-analysis goodness 🤓
Never heard of GTM before? Google offers a self-paced course to help get started with Google Tag Manager Fundamentals. You can check it out here: https://analytics.google.com/analytics/academy/course/5
Is Google Tag Manager secure? 🔒
Keeping your Cliniko data safe is our utmost priority. The GTM integration supports a handful of secure tracking tags. Some tags are blacklisted, which might result in tracking limitations, especially when tracking with the embedded versions of online bookings. If using an embedded booking portal, more details on the tracking limitations can be found here.
Integrate online bookings with Google Tag Manager 🔗
You'll need to have a GTM account set up. If you haven't already done this, you can learn how to do so here.
If you already have a Google Tag Manager account, you can use your existing GTM container ID which can be found here:
Copy your "Container ID”, and paste it into your Google Tag Manager settings in Cliniko (this is found in Settings, and then Online bookings):
To complete the integration setup, click Save online bookings settings.
How to Configure and deploy marketing tags ⚙️
Now that GTM is connected with Cliniko bookings, you will want to deploy marketing tags and start reporting on new visitors.
There are two versions of Cliniko bookings. This is important as tag deployment can vary between the two versions:
Embedded bookings, where the booking portal is embedded on your website using an HTML iFrame tag provided by Cliniko. The snippet can be found in your Cliniko account in Settings → Online bookings;
Cliniko hosted bookings. You would usually redirect to this booking portal from your website, social media, or marketing emails/sms.
Embedded bookings
Limitation tracking the "referral source" with embedded bookings
The embedded version of Cliniko bookings comes with some limitations. It's possible to track visitor sessions and report conversions, however, it's difficult to keep the "source" of each session. Without the "source", it will be challenging to report if the source of the booking was an ad click, social media referral, search engine, etc.
If tracking the referral source is essential, it's worth considering the Cliniko hosted booking portal instead of embedding. More context on the limitations can be found here.
Google Analytics 4
Google Ads
It's recommended to link Google Ads with your Google Analytics 4 account. Conversions will be reported in Google Analytics.
The "referral source" will be needed to connect a successful booking to a Google Ad click. Unfortunately, the "referral source" isn't tracked automatically due to limitations with embedded bookings, outlined in this guide.
The "Google Ads Conversion Tracking" tag is also available, but will still have issues reporting the "referral source" back to the original source (Setup guide).
Meta/Facebook
Connect online bookings with Meta pixel (previously known as Facebook Pixel)
Cliniko hosted bookings
Google Ads
It's recommended to track Google Ads through linking your Google Ads account with Google Analytics 4.
The "Google Ads Conversion Tracking" tag is available too, if preferred (Setup guide).
Google Analytics 4
Meta/Facebook
Connect online bookings with Meta Pixel (previously known as Facebook Pixel)
Other GTM tags supported by Cliniko bookings
AdRoll Smart Pixel (Setup guide)
Bing Ads Universal Event Tracking (Setup guide)
Testing, troubleshooting & support 🤗
Google Tag Assistant can help us see which tags are firing successfully. We can access Tag Assistant using the "Preview" tool, found in your GTM Workspace, here:
We have a support guide to help with with using Google Tag Assistant.
If you're having issues with the GTM integration, please check our "Troubleshooting Tips for Google Tag Manager" guide or reach out to the Cliniko support team. Cliniko offers limited support for issues with the GTM integration and we will do our best to assist!