Send notifications to telegram using Google tag manager server container

Some teams prefer Telegram to Slack for alerts, especially small teams and international ones. The Bot API is simple, and a server container can call it with one tag. This page shows the recipe. Check Telegram's Bot API documentation for current details. See Slack notifications for a similar pattern and webhook servers.

1. Create the bot

1. In Telegram, chat with BotFather and create a new bot.
2. Copy the bot token. It is a secret.
3. Add the bot to your chat or group, or start a chat with it, and send a message.
4. Find the chat ID, for example through the getUpdates method of the Bot API.

Data in, clean out

Raw events in. Clean events out.

Open Tracked collects each event on your own domain, removes the noise and sends what is left to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok.

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2. The tag template

const sendHttpRequest = require("sendHttpRequest");
const JSON = require("JSON");
const getEventData = require("getEventData");

const token = data.botToken;
const chatId = data.chatId;
const text = data.message;

sendHttpRequest("https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token + "/sendMessage", (statusCode) => {
  statusCode >= 200 && statusCode < 300 ? data.gtmOnSuccess() : data.gtmOnFailure();
}, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  timeout: 3000
}, JSON.stringify({ chat_id: chatId, text: text }));

Allow https://api.telegram.org/* in the template permissions, and keep the token in a secure field.

3. What to send

• Large orders and new leads, with order ID, total and source.
• A daily summary rather than every event.
• Alerts for no purchases for several hours during opening times, if your set-up can detect it.

The short version

3 things to remember

Scroll and the points stack up.

01

Create a bot with BotFather, get the chat ID, and call the Bot API's sendMessage from a server container tag.

02

Keep the bot token secret and personal data out of messages.

03

Telegram has rate limits. Use conditions so you do not send too many.

4. Limits and cautions

5. Test

1. Send a test purchase in server Preview.
2. Check the message arrives in the chat.
3. Check the tag status and response.
4. Send many events quickly and check that conditions prevent a flood.

A realistic example

A two-person agency wants to know when a client's checkout stops producing orders. It creates a Telegram bot, adds it to a group, and adds a tag to the client's server container that posts a message for every purchase above a set value. It also posts a message when a purchase tag returns an error. On a Sunday evening the error messages start arriving: a payment provider changed a field. The agency fixes the mapping before the client notices. The set-up took less than an hour. It worked because the messages were few, specific and tied to events that mattered, so nobody learned to ignore them.

Keep it healthy

Mute the group during quiet hours if you must, but do not remove the alerts. Review the rules every few months and remove the ones nobody acts on. If you rotate the bot token, update the secure field and send a test message the same day.

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Written by

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