If you’re already using Google Tag Manager, setting up Amplitude is one of the fastest paths from “I just signed up” to “I’m collecting real data.” GTM gives you the infrastructure to get tags, triggers, and variables deployed quickly, and Amplitude has a tag template in the GTM community gallery that makes this whole process surprisingly painless.
This walkthrough covers how to get Amplitude up and running via GTM, from the initialization tag all the way through setting up your first custom event. I’m using my own blog, kristaseiden.com, as the example site, but the steps are the same regardless of what you’re working with.
If you prefer to watch rather than read, the video version of this walkthrough is part of the Amplitude Quickstart Series on YouTube.
Step 1: Add the Amplitude Tag Template from the Gallery
First things first: open your Google Tag Manager account and click New Tag. When you land on the blank tag screen, click into Tag Configuration. You’ll see a list of featured tag types, but Amplitude isn’t in the default list. You need to go up to the top and click Discover more tag types in the community template gallery.
Once you’re in the gallery, search for “Amplitude.” You’ll see two results. Ignore the legacy one. The one you want is Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK. Click it, then choose Add to workspace. This adds the template to your available tag types so you can use it going forward.
You only need to do this once. After the template is added, it’ll show up in your tag configuration options every time.
Step 2: Create the Initialization Tag
Now to create a new tag, click into Tag Configuration, and select the Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK template you just added. The first thing you’ll see is the Tag Type dropdown, which defaults to “Initialize.”
Here’s the thing worth understanding about these tag types, especially if you’re coming from GA4. Amplitude’s GTM template has several tag types, and they map roughly to things you’re already familiar with:
- Initialize is the equivalent of a GA4 config tag. It loads the Amplitude library, sets your project key, and determines what gets autocaptured.
- Track Event is what you’d use for individual custom events, similar to a GA4 event tag.
- Identity is how you set user properties. This is a little different from GA4, where user properties get attached to the config tag. In Amplitude, user properties get their own separate tag.
- Groups, Revenue, Flush/Reset are additional tag types that don’t really have first-class equivalents in GA4, but give you more control over how you structure and send data.
For now, keep it on Initialize. This is your foundational tag.
Step 3: Enter Your API Key
Next, you’ll need your Amplitude API key. You’ll find this in Amplitude under Organization Settings (settings wheel in upper right hand corner) and then the API Keys section. Copy that key.
Now, you can paste it directly into the API key field in the tag, but here’s a best practice if you’ve spent any time in GTM: create a constant string variable for your API key. That way you’re referencing the same variable across all of your Amplitude tags instead of copying and pasting the key each time (and potentially mispasting it). If you’ve done this with your GA4 measurement ID, same idea.
Step 4: Configure Autocapture Settings
This is where things get interesting, and where Amplitude diverges a bit from GA4.
In GA4, most autocapture (enhanced measurement) is managed within the GA4 UI itself. In Amplitude, autocapture is configured right here in the tag settings. You’ll see checkboxes for:
- Page views
- Sessions
- Form interactions
- File downloads
- Element interactions
- Frustration interactions (rage clicks, dead clicks)
- Network errors
I’ll call out frustration interactions specifically because this is something GA4 doesn’t offer out of the box. Being able to automatically track rage clicks and dead clicks from the moment you deploy the tag is really useful for understanding where users are running into friction on your site.
Below that, you’ll also see options for:
- Web vitals (Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics)
- Page URL enrichment
- EU data residency (if you need your data stored in the EU)
- User ID (if you have one available at page load)
- Session Replay (enable the plugin here, then finish setup in the Amplitude UI)
- Guides and Surveys (same as above, enable here first)
Check the boxes that make sense for your setup. For Session Replay and Guides and Surveys, note that enabling the plugin checkbox in GTM is just the first step. There’s additional configuration you’ll do inside the Amplitude product to get those fully running.
Step 5: Set the Trigger and Save
Because this is your initialization tag and you want Amplitude running across your entire site, set the trigger to All Pages. That’s the built-in GTM trigger that fires on every page load. If you have a consent-based setup where you’re using a custom “All Pages” trigger that accounts for user consent, use that one instead.
There are also advanced settings for tag firing priority and tag sequencing if you have multiple tags and need to control the order they fire. For most initial setups, you won’t need to touch these.
Finally, name your tag. I like a naming convention that includes the platform and the tag type, something like Amplitude – Initialize. Whatever structure you use, be consistent. Your future self (and anyone else working in this container) will thank you.
Save the tag.
Step 6: Set Up a Custom Event Tag
The initialization tag gets Amplitude loaded and autocapture running, but most teams also have custom events they want to track explicitly. This is where the Track Event tag type comes in.
Here’s the practical example I will use: on this blog, every article has a “continue reading” button that takes you from the overview to the full post. I was already tracking this in GA4 with event parameters like button title, article title, article tag, article date, and link URL. I want to set up the same event in Amplitude.
If you’re migrating from GA4 (or running both side by side), this is where things get really efficient. All of the variables and triggers you’ve already built in GTM can be reused for your Amplitude tags. You don’t need to rebuild anything on that side.
Here is an example of the GA4 tag I’m going to replicate:
Create a new tag, select the Amplitude Analytics Browser SDK template, and this time change the Tag Type to Track Event.
The first field you’ll see is Event Type, which is your event name. I called mine “continue reading.” (In GA4, I had called this “select_content” to follow their recommended naming. In Amplitude, you have more flexibility to name events in a way that’s clear to your team.)
Step 7: Configure the Event Properties
Below the event name, you’ll add your event properties. These are the equivalent of GA4’s event parameters. Click to add a property, enter the property name, and set the value. For each one, I was able to reuse the same GTM variables I’d already built for my GA4 tags:
- button_title → Click Text (built-in variable)
- article_title → A custom JavaScript variable I’d previously created
- article_tag → Another existing custom variable
- article_date → Existing custom variable
- link_url → Click URL (built-in variable)
This is the part that makes the GTM approach so efficient for anyone coming from GA4 or another platform. The variables and triggers already exist. You’re just pointing them at a new tag.
Step 8: Add the Trigger, Name, and Save
Unlike the init tag, this event tag shouldn’t fire on all pages. You need a trigger specific to the action you’re tracking. In my case, I had an existing trigger called “more tag click” that fires when someone clicks the continue reading button on my blog. I selected that.
If you already have triggers set up for your GA4 event tags, you can reuse those here as well. Same trigger, different tag, same data flowing into a new system.
Name the tag following your convention. I went with Amplitude – Event – Continue Reading. Save it.
Step 9: Preview, Test, and Publish
With both tags saved, use GTM’s Preview mode to verify everything is firing correctly. Check that your initialization tag loads on all pages and that your event tag fires when you trigger the relevant action. Once you’re confident it’s working, go ahead and Submit to push your changes live.
Why GTM Makes This So Fast
The real takeaway here is how much of your existing GTM work carries over. If you’ve already set up GA4 (or really any analytics tool) through Google Tag Manager, you’ve done the hard part. Your variables are built. Your triggers are in place. Setting up Amplitude is mostly about creating new tags that point to the same infrastructure.
I’ve been working with GTM since the early days, and this is one of the things it does best: letting you add new tools and platforms without starting from scratch. The Amplitude tag template makes the process straightforward, and the ability to reuse everything you’ve already built means you can go from nothing to collecting real data in well under an hour.
If you’re already a GTM user, this is the fastest way to get started with Amplitude. And if you want to keep going from here, the next step would be setting up additional event tags for the key actions in your product, and then heading into Amplitude to start analyzing the data that’s flowing in.