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← GTM Fundamentals
Lessons in GTM Fundamentals

Lesson 8 of 8

Preview & Debug

GTM's Preview mode (Tag Assistant) is how you verify your work before publishing. In your GTM account click Preview, paste the URL you want to test, and Tag Assistant opens it in a new tab connected to a debug session.

TagsVariablesData LayerGA4 ConfigurationGA4 event, purchase

What Tag Assistant shows you

  • Tags, which fired and which did not, on each event.
  • Variables, the resolved value of every variable at that moment.
  • Data Layer, every push in order, so you can confirm your events.
  • Consent, the current consent state for each event.

That is exactly how these lessons work: each one loads your container and pushes real events, so you point Preview at the lesson URL and watch your tags light up, the same loop you'll use at work.

Key takeaway

Preview is your safety net. If a tag is not firing, check the Data Layer tab first, then the trigger conditions, then the variable values.

Check your knowledge

A quick quiz on the fundamentals. Pass it and it counts toward your course certificate; you can retake it any time.

5 questions. Answer all of them, then submit; you need 4 of 5 to pass.

  1. 1. Your thank-you page pushes a purchase event to the dataLayer with the order value. To send that to GA4, what do you build in GTM?
  2. 2. What is the dataLayer's job in a well-built setup?
  3. 3. The site pushes { event: "purchase", ecommerce: { value: 49 } }. Which piece of GTM reads the event name, and which reads the value?
  4. 4. You just finished building a new tag. What should happen before it goes live?
  5. 5. In Tag Assistant your new tag shows as not fired. What is the recommended first place to look?

Answer every question to submit.