Three things to create

  1. A Data Layer Variable named, for instance, Beckonbird channel, with the variable name beckonbird_channel.
  2. A Custom Event trigger with the event name beckonbird_click. Leave it on all custom events of that name.
  3. A tag that fires on that trigger. For Google Analytics 4 that is a GA4 event tag, with an event name of your choice and a parameter that takes its value from the variable.

Testing it

Open the container in preview mode, load a page with the button and click one of its lines. The event appears in the preview’s list, with the channel in the data layer. If it does not, check that the option is ticked, that the page is not an old cached copy, and that the tag manager’s snippet is on the page.

Why a data layer push

The plugin pushes the event itself, at the moment of the click, instead of asking the tag manager to watch links on the page. That is why it works the same for the single button and for the menu, and for any theme.

What it does not send

Only the channel name. Not the number, not the message, not anything about the visitor. If you want to know which page the click came from, the page is already in the tag manager’s own variables, such as the page path. Pro’s own click counts also include the page, without an analytics tool.