In this guide
- A set-up has levels: accounts hold containers and properties, which hold tags, streams and events, which send data to destinations.
- Each level has its own permissions and owner.
- Draw the map once and keep it with your documentation.
Newcomers to tracking often get lost in names: account, property, container, workspace, stream, pixel, dataset. They all sit in a hierarchy, and knowing it is the quickest way to find where a problem lives and who can fix it. This page lays out the hierarchy for a typical set-up and how to document it. It supports Google Tag Manager best practices, a Google Tag Manager audit and a tagging strategy.
Google Tag Manager
| Level | What it is | Permissions |
|---|---|---|
| Account | The top level, often one per company or agency client | User management at account level |
| Container | One per website or app (web, server, iOS, Android) | Container-level access |
| Workspace | A draft of changes inside a container | Edit rights |
| Version | A published snapshot | Publish rights |
| Tags, triggers, variables | The items inside | Via workspace |
Check your tracking in one pass
This is an example. Run the check on your own site to see where yours stands.
Google Analytics 4
| Level | What it is |
|---|---|
| Account | The top level |
| Property | One reporting space, usually per business or site |
| Data stream | A source of data: web, iOS or Android, with a measurement ID |
| Events and parameters | What the stream collects |
Ad platforms
- Meta: Business portfolio, ad account, dataset (pixel), events.
- Google Ads: manager account, customer account, conversion actions.
- TikTok: business centre, ad account, pixel or event source.
3 things to remember
Scroll and the points stack up.
A set-up has levels: accounts hold containers and properties, which hold tags, streams and events, which send data to destinations
Each level has its own permissions and owner.
Draw the map once and keep it with your documentation.
The server side
- A server container in Tag Manager.
- A tagging subdomain pointing to it.
- A host that runs it, with its own account and plan.
- Inside: clients, tags, triggers, variables, transformations and power-ups such as the Data Store and Cookie Keeper.
A map for one client
| Layer | Example | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Website | shop.example.com | Client |
| Web container | GTM-XXXX in the client account | Client, agency has edit |
| Tagging subdomain | data.example.com | Client (DNS) |
| Server container and host | GTM-YYYY on Open Tracked | Client account, agency user |
| GA4 property | G-ZZZZ | Client |
| Meta dataset | Dataset 123 | Client business portfolio |
| Google Ads account | Customer 456 | Client |
Why it matters
- Permissions: know where to grant or remove access.
- Debugging: a missing event is at one level; the map tells you which.
- Handover: a new person understands the set-up in minutes.
- Exit: you know what belongs to the client.
Draw yours
List every account and ID
Tag Manager, GA4, ad platforms, hosting.
Write who owns each
And who has access.
Draw the data flow
Website to web container, to tagging server, to destinations.
Keep it with the documentation
And update it on each change.
A realistic example
A new marketer joins a company and is told that purchases are missing in Meta. Instead of opening every tool, she opens the one-page map the previous owner left. It shows the website, the web container, the tagging subdomain, the server container on its host, the GA4 property and the Meta dataset, each with an owner. She follows the flow: the web container sends events to the tagging subdomain, the server container has a Meta tag, the tag uses dataset 123. A quick check shows that the dataset in the tag is an old one. She replaces it, tests with a test order and the purchases appear. The fix took twenty minutes, mostly because the map told her where to look.
Orders from your store, back to the ad that earned them
Your store sends the order once. Open Tracked passes it on to each ad platform, cleaned and deduplicated.
Frequently asked questions
What is the tracking hierarchy?
The nesting of accounts, containers, properties, streams, tags and events across your tools.
What is the difference between a GA4 property and a data stream?
A property is a reporting space. A data stream is a source of data inside it.
What is a workspace in Tag Manager?
A draft of changes inside a container, before you publish a version.
Who should own the accounts?
The client, with the agency as a user.
Why draw a map?
It speeds debugging, permissions and handovers.
Do I need spreadsheets to read my results?
No. Once tracking is live, the Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit, and you can ask Ari, the built-in AI assistant, questions about your own numbers in plain words. Ari's allowance depends on your analytics plan.
Is Open Tracked different from Open Track or Open Space Track?
No. Open Tracked is the official name of our server-side tracking platform, and the website is opentracked.io. Many people search for it as Open Track, OpenTrack or Open Space Track. All of them lead to the same product: server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline.
Fix your tracking at the source
Open Tracked hosts your server-side Tag Manager, keeps first-party cookies alive and shows what each ad is really worth.
The Open Tracked team
We build Open Tracked: server-side tracking hosting, analytics and the tools around them, for stores that spend on ads. Questions about this guide, or an idea for the next one?
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