1 day course 
Private 
Certificate of Attendance Built for developers and technical professionals, this workshop delivers the skills and confidence needed to implement and manage a high-impact, scalable dataLayer.
Whether you're new to dataLayer design or looking to streamline and modernise your approach, this expert-led session blends hands-on practice with up-to-date best practices. You'll explore how to structure data for accuracy, consistency, and compliance; ensuring it supports everything from analytics tracking to marketing integrations.
By the end of the session, you'll have a clear roadmap for building a dataLayer that’s technically sound, privacy-compliant, and future-ready.
This dataLayer Implementation for Developers course is available as a private session that can be delivered via Virtual Classroom, at our training centre in The Shard, London, or at a location of your choice across the UK.
Course overview
Who should attend:
This course is perfect for developers responsible for implementing and maintaining analytics tracking, as well as technical teams working with Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics or who are seeking to improve their dataLayer architecture for scalable tracking solutions.
What you'll learn:
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand the data layer and its role in analytics tracking, particularly for GTM, GA4, and third-party marketing tools
- Utilise best practices for structuring data layers to improve data accuracy
- Utilise techniques to push dynamic event data into the data layer for real-time tracking
- Optimise data layers for performance, security, and compliance
Prerequisites:
In order to get the most out of this course, you should have basic knowledge of JavaScript and web development. Familiarity with Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics is also necessary.
Course agenda
- Understanding the purpose and structure of a data layer
- How Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics utilise the data layer
- Defining and implementing a basic data layer
- Passing dynamic data and custom variables
- Hands-on exercise: Implementing a basic data layer on a test site
- Event-driven data layer updates
- Using JavaScript to push data dynamically
- Hands-on exercise: Creating event-based tracking for user interactions including ecommerce events
- Setting up data layer variables in Google Tag Manager
- Mapping events to GA4 and third-party marketing tools
- Hands-on exercise: Configuring GTM triggers and tags using data layer values
- Debugging data layer implementations
- Best practices for performance and security
Next Steps:
Looking to take the next steps in your analytics journey after taking this course? Check out the following courses: