Brainerce HelpGoogle Analytics, Google Tag Manager and the Meta pixel
Connect the app and your GA4 or Meta tag loads on your storefront by itself, but only page views report automatically. Add-to-cart, checkout and purchase have to be sent by your storefront.
Your storefront can report shopper activity to Google Analytics 4, Google Ads and the Meta (Facebook) pixel. Connect the app and the tag itself loads on your storefront with no developer and no ID to paste.
What that gets you on its own is page views. Product views, add-to-cart, checkout and purchase are not automatic; they only report if whoever built your storefront calls them. See What gets reported before you judge your tracking as broken.
Every tracking ID on this page is set inside the app that supplies it, at Apps → Google → Analytics for anything Google. They are not in your sales channel settings. Each one applies to a single sales channel, so if you run more than one storefront, switch channels at the top of the app before you change anything.
There is no Meta app and no TikTok app in your app store yet. Both are built but neither has been released to stores, so Apps → Meta and Apps → TikTok are not paths you can walk today, and there is no box anywhere in the dashboard for a Facebook pixel ID or a TikTok pixel ID: those fields live inside those apps, so they are unreachable until the apps ship. The only platform app in the store today is Google. Until the others ship, fire your Meta or TikTok pixel through your own Google Tag Manager container instead, which works today on every store. Everything below that mentions the Meta or TikTok pixel describes how it will work once those apps are released.
You do not need to paste a tracking ID
Connecting the Google app lets Brainerce find your Google Analytics 4 property and read its measurement ID (the one that looks like G-ABC1234) for you. Your storefront then picks the ID up on its own within about five minutes, with no republishing, no code change, and nothing to copy and paste.
Connecting is not quite the whole step. The measurement ID is read the first time you open Apps → Google → Analytics, not during the sign-in itself. Connect the app and never open that tab, and no GA4 ID is ever stored, no tracking runs, and nothing warns you. So: connect, then open the Analytics tab once.
Two things can stop that first visit working, and neither shows an error:
- You need Editor access on the GA4 property in Google Analytics. A Viewer or Analyst account cannot complete it.
- If your Google account has no GA4 property at all, there is nothing to find. Create one in Google Analytics first, then reconnect.
If you have not connected an app yet, go to Apps in the sidebar and connect it. Everything on this page follows from that one step.
The exception is Google Tag Manager. Google offers no way for us to detect your container, so a GTM container ID is the one thing you type in yourself. See Using your own Google Tag Manager container below.
When an ID is coming from a connected app, the app's Analytics screen shows it as Running with the ID next to it. An empty box there means nothing is set, not that something is hidden.
What gets reported
Only page views report by themselves
Once a tag is running, it fires a page view as soon as it loads, with no involvement from you or your developer. That is the only automatic event, and it goes to Google Analytics, the Meta pixel and the TikTok pixel alike.
One caveat if your storefront is a single-page app (most vibe-coded sites are): the page view fires when the tag loads. Moving between pages inside the app without a full reload may not produce another one on every platform, so page-view counts can read lower than your Brainerce traffic figures.
Everything else has to be sent by your storefront. Product views, add-to-cart, checkout and purchase are calls the storefront makes; a tag that is connected and "Running" reports nothing but page views until that code exists. So if your GA4 or Meta reporting shows traffic but no add-to-cart and no purchases, the tag is fine. Ask whoever built your storefront to send the events. Reconnecting the app will not fix it.
Every event, and where each one goes
One fires by itself; the other ten are calls your storefront has to make.
Today every one of these goes to GA4 and Google Tag Manager only. The Meta and TikTok columns below describe what will be sent once those apps are released. Neither is available to install yet, so there is nowhere to put a Meta pixel ID or a TikTok pixel ID, and nothing is being sent to either platform from your store.
| Event | Sent when | Reaches |
|---|---|---|
| Page view | The tag loads, automatic | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
view_item | A shopper opened a product page | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
view_item_list | A category or search-results list was shown | GA4/GTM only |
add_to_cart | Something was added to the cart | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
remove_from_cart | Something was removed from the cart | GA4/GTM only |
view_cart | The cart page was opened | GA4/GTM only |
begin_checkout | The shopper reached checkout | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
add_payment_info | Payment details were entered | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
purchase | An order was paid for: total, tax, shipping, coupon | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
search | The shopper searched your catalog | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
sign_up | A customer account was created | GA4/GTM, Meta, TikTok |
The three marked GA4/GTM-only are not standard Meta or TikTok events, so those platforms are skipped rather than sent a custom event that cannot optimise a campaign.
"Reaches GTM" means the event is pushed into your container's data layer. Whether anything happens with it is up to the triggers and tags you configured in Google Tag Manager. An empty container receives the events and does nothing with them.
The purchase report includes the order value and currency. That is what Google Ads and Meta need to optimise your campaigns towards actual revenue rather than clicks.
Product IDs: do not use the SKU
For dynamic remarketing to work, the product id in these events has to be the same id your catalogue feed publishes. That id is not your SKU. Brainerce feeds publish the internal Brainerce product and variant ids, because a SKU is optional in Brainerce and a SKU-keyed feed would silently drop every product that has not got one.
The two feeds format that id differently, so give your developer both:
| Catalogue | The id it publishes |
|---|---|
| Google Merchant Center | prod_ + the Brainerce product id, or var_ + the variant id for a variant |
| Meta catalogue | the Brainerce product id or variant id, with no prefix |
Send the SKU and the pixel reports an id the catalogue has never heard of: no product match, no dynamic remarketing, and an audience that never builds. Nothing errors; the events just never join up.
Purchases reported from our servers use a different id. GA4's server-side purchase reporting sends the SKU for each line where the product has one, falling back to the internal id where it does not. Your revenue total is safe, because both sends carry the order number and GA4 de-duplicates on it, but GA4's product-level reports can end up split between SKUs and internal ids for the same product. Give products a SKU and use the internal id in your storefront events, and the catalogue match still works; the split only affects how the rows are labelled in GA4.
Using your own Google Tag Manager container
If you run your own GTM container, add it in the dashboard:
- Go to Apps in the sidebar and open Google.
- Pick the sales channel your storefront uses, then open the Analytics tab.
- Under Storefront measurement tags, paste your container ID (it looks like
GTM-ABC1234) into Google Tag Manager container ID and save.
If you have not signed in to Google yet, there is no Analytics tab. The same Storefront measurement tags card sits on the app's first screen instead, under the list of sales channels. GTM is the one tag nobody can detect for you, so that box is always there to type in whether or not you connect an account.
Your container will receive the same shopper actions listed above, so your existing triggers and tags work without extra setup.
You do not need GTM to run Google Analytics or the Meta pixel here; those already work on their own once the app is connected. Add a container only if you have one and want your own tags in it.
Using a different ID than the connected account
When an app has already supplied an ID, its Analytics screen shows that ID as Running rather than an empty box. To use a different one, click Use a different id next to it and type yours.
- GA4 measurement ID: Apps → Google → Analytics
- Meta pixel ID: Apps → Meta, in the Storefront pixel card, once the Meta app is released to stores. It is not in your app store today, so there is nowhere in the dashboard to type a Facebook pixel ID; use your own Google Tag Manager container instead.
Do this only when you deliberately want a different ID than the connected account's. Clear the field and save to go back to the connected app's ID, and the badge changes back to Running when it takes effect.
If you type an ID in the wrong format, it is rejected when you save rather than accepted and quietly ignored.
Entering a Google tracking ID without connecting your account
You do not have to sign in to Google to run a Google tag. Install the Google app, add your sales channel to it, and the Storefront measurement tags card appears on the app's first screen with both the GA4 measurement ID and the Google Tag Manager container ID ready to type into. The tag then loads on your storefront exactly as it would have.
What you give up by not signing in: nothing is filled in for you, and GA4's server-side purchase reporting stays off. That one sends the order straight from our servers to Google Analytics using a Measurement Protocol API secret, a per-property key created on your GA4 property when you connect your Google account. No sign-in, no secret, no server-side purchases. Browser-side reporting (product views, add to cart, checkout, purchase) works either way, as far as your storefront sends those events.
The Meta pixel is different: there is no box for it at all today. The pixel ID field lives inside the Meta app's capability screen, and the Meta app has not been released to stores. You will not find it in the app store, and it cannot be installed. So a Facebook pixel cannot be added from the Brainerce dashboard right now. Fire it through your own Google Tag Manager container instead; that works today on every store, and it is the same approach you would use for any other tag we do not host.
TikTok pixel
The TikTok app works like the Google one for typing an ID by hand: install TikTok from the app store, add your sales channel to it, and type your pixel ID into the Storefront pixel field on the app's first screen. No TikTok sign-in is needed, or possible yet. Your storefront then reports page views, product views, add to cart, checkout and purchases to that pixel. Your pixel ID is in TikTok Ads Manager under Tools → Events → Web Events.
If you do not see a TikTok app in the app store, it has not been released to your store yet. Until it appears, fire your TikTok pixel through your own Google Tag Manager container instead, which works today on every store.
A pixel ID you type is the only TikTok integration right now. Signing in to TikTok so the pixel fills in by itself, purchase reporting from our servers, and product catalog sync are planned and not available yet, so do not look for them in the app.
Cookie consent is your responsibility
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, the Meta pixel and the TikTok pixel are advertising tags and they set cookies. Brainerce does not show a cookie-consent banner for them, and does not block them until a shopper consents.
If you sell to shoppers in the EU or the UK, you need consent before these tags run. Ask whoever built your storefront to add a consent banner, or to implement Google Consent Mode. This is not something the dashboard can switch on for you.
Brainerce's own storefront traffic reporting is different: it is cookieless, stores no personal data, and needs no consent banner. It keeps working whether or not you connect any of the tags on this page.
What this page does not cover
- We do not send conversions to TikTok from our servers. Like Meta, TikTok reporting depends on the shopper's browser reaching your confirmation page, so the same gaps apply.
- Brainerce does not create a Google Analytics account or a Meta pixel for you in every case. If your Google or Meta account has no property or pixel yet, there is nothing for us to find and nothing will be filled in. Create one in Google Analytics or Meta Events Manager, then reconnect the app.
- We do not send conversions to Meta from our servers. Meta reporting depends on the shopper's browser reaching your confirmation page. If they close the tab straight after paying, that sale may not appear in Meta's reporting even though the order is in Brainerce. Your Brainerce order and revenue figures are always complete, so treat those as the source of truth, not the ad platform's.
- Numbers will not match exactly. Ad blockers, browser privacy settings and consent choices all mean Google and Meta see fewer sales than you actually made. A gap between the dashboards is normal, not a bug.