Why is Google Tag Manager click event received twice in Google Analytics 4?

Question

In GTM, I have a trigger when I click on a link:

And a tag using this trigger:

In debug mode, this tag is fired only once in GTM:

But received twice in GA4:

I cannot find why it happens. It doesn't happen on every link on the page; but on the two links it happens, it happens every time.

Did anyone else face such a behavior and managed to solve it?

Answer 1

I had exactly the same issue with custom event and finally find the solution.

• Do not create the same event in GA4

My mistake was due to misunderstanding with event creation in GA4 (and many bad tutorials too) : you shouldn't create a new event into GA4 !!

In order to see the event in GA4 and get all the analytics about it, I thought you needed to create an event in GA4 with condition like IF event_name EQUALS "name of your condition in GTM" THEN Create an event.
Doing so the event was first created by GTM and then created again by GA4.

Answer 2

EDIT: I finally have the solution!

If you created the event within GA4 and then sent it over via GTM then it gets sent as an event twice, you only have to do it in GTM, not also create it in GA4.

So go to Events >> Create New Event >> then locate the event and delete it - GTM will create it automatically from the tag.

I hope that helps?

Sophie

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I've been doing some more testing and it seems if I used the recommended event name it duplicates the event but if I change it to a custom event it doesn't.

Have you tried that? I think it must be a bug...