VIP Online records key actions in the VIP Booker and VIP Portal so that you can understand how visitors move from viewing products to completing an order. These actions are called events. iXpole places them in the website's data layer, where Google Tag Manager (GTM) can read them and send them to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) or another analytics platform.

In this article you will learn…

• What conversion tracking records
• Which events are available
• When an order counts as a purchase
• What information each event contains
• How GTM and GA4 use the events

What conversion tracking records

A conversion is an action you want to measure, such as a completed order. The earlier actions in the same journey help explain how the visitor reached that point. For example, a visitor may view a product list, open a product, add it to the cart, begin checkout and then complete a purchase.

Tracking covers the VIP Booker for a Calendar Item and the VIP Portal purchase flow. An event is recorded when its corresponding action occurs. Merely opening the thank-you page does not create another purchase.

Which events are available

The VIP Booker also records login, sign_up and logout when those actions happen in the order flow. It records terms_opened and privacy_opened when the respective links are opened. For invoice and free orders, order_created records that the order was created.

The VIP Portal additionally records checkout_step when the visitor moves to a step in its purchase flow. The checkout_step parameter identifies that step.

Note order_created, checkout_step, payment_failed, terms_opened, privacy_opened and logout are custom events. The product, checkout, purchase, login and sign-up event names follow GA4's recommended event naming. GTM determines which events are passed on to GA4.

When an order counts as a purchase

1. Invoice or free order in the VIP Booker: purchase is recorded after iXpole successfully confirms the order. An invoice order can therefore count as a purchase even though it has not yet been paid.
2. Online payment in the VIP Booker: purchase is recorded after the payment has been confirmed and the visitor returns to the VIP Booker.
3. Invoice order in the VIP Portal: purchase is recorded when the confirmed order reaches the finished page.
4. Online payment in the VIP Portal: purchase is recorded on the finished page after the payment has been confirmed.

Starting an online payment records add_payment_info, but does not yet record purchase. If the payment fails, the flow records payment_failed instead of purchase. VIP Online uses the transaction identifier to avoid recording the same purchase again in the same browser when browser storage is available.

What information each event contains

The events include sales_channel, which is either booker or portal, and event_uuid, which identifies the Calendar Item. Product and order events can also include an ecommerce object with the currency, value and a list of products. A product can include its identifier, name, category, price and quantity.

The purchase event includes a transaction_id, order value, currency and products. This identifier lets an analytics platform recognise the transaction. The tracking events do not include the visitor's name or email address.

How GTM and GA4 use the events

The VIP Online website places events in its data layer. GTM can listen for those events and pass selected events and their parameters to GA4. A data-layer event by itself does not guarantee that it appears in GA4: the relevant GTM container must have tags, triggers and data-layer variables configured for the events you want to collect.

iXpole loads its GTM container on the relevant pages. If your organisation uses its own GTM container, that container can also be loaded through the tenant configuration. Your organisation controls how its GTM container processes these events and which GA4 property receives them.

If you already use GTM triggers or variables based on older ixp fields, review them alongside the new events. Some older data-layer fields are still present in the Booker code, so do not remove an existing setup without checking what it uses.

Further reading

• Google Tag Manager: Custom event trigger
• Google Analytics: Set up ecommerce events
• Google Analytics: Recommended events