In this guide
- "Failed" means the tag fired but did not complete. It is not the same as "not fired".
- In server Preview, open the tag and read the outgoing request and its response. The vendor usually says why.
- Common causes: invalid credentials, a missing required field, a blocked outbound domain and a timeout.
Preview shows three outcomes for a tag: fired, not fired and failed. Failed is the one that tells you the most, because the tag did start and something went wrong at the end. This page lists the causes and how to find which one you have. For the related state where a tag never finishes, see tag status still running.
Where to look
Open Preview and select the event
In the left list.
Click the failed tag
The tag panel shows the status and the message.
Open the outgoing HTTP request
See the URL, headers and body the tag sent.
Read the response
Most vendors return a status code and a text that explains the problem.
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.
Common causes
A systematic approach
- Reproduce with one event.
- Compare the failed request with the vendor's example request.
- Fix one field at a time.
- Use the vendor's test tool (for example Meta's Test Events) to confirm.
- Remove any test codes before you go live.
Ask Ari instead of digging through reports
Ari reads your tracking and ad data and answers in plain words.
Keep failures from going unnoticed
A tag that starts to fail on Friday is easy to miss until Monday. Check your logs regularly, and use alerts where you can. Open Tracked's Business plan includes monitoring with 5 alerts and the Business+ plan 10, so a drop in server events can be caught early.
A worked example
A Meta Conversions API tag shows failed on every purchase after a Friday release. The response says error 190, invalid OAuth access token. The token was created by a person who left the company and their access was removed. A system user token created in Business Settings fixes it. The lesson: use tokens that do not depend on one person and put the renewal date in a calendar.
Terms you will see
- Outgoing request
- The call your tag makes to another company's server.
- Status code
- The number the vendor answers with, such as 200, 400 or 401.
- Template permission
- A list of what a tag template may do, such as call a given domain.
- Access token
- The secret that proves your server may send data.
- Retry
- Sending the same request again after a failure.
Status codes in plain words
| Code | Meaning | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | Accepted | Nothing. It worked. |
| 400 | The request is malformed | Missing or wrongly formatted field |
| 401 or 403 | Not allowed | Token, key or permission |
| 404 | Wrong address | The URL or the pixel or dataset ID |
| 429 | Too many requests | Send slower |
| 500 and above | Vendor error | Wait and retry; check status page |
Terms you will see
- Failed
- The tag ran and ended with an error.
- Not fired
- The trigger did not match, so the tag never ran.
- Preview
- The debug mode of Tag Manager.
- Response body
- The text a vendor sends back, often with the reason for a rejection.
- Retry
- Sending the same request again later.
3 things to remember
Scroll and the points stack up.
"Failed" means the tag fired but did not complete. It is not the same as "not fired".
In server Preview, open the tag and read the outgoing request and its response. The vendor usually says why.
Common causes: invalid credentials, a missing required field, a blocked outbound domain and a timeout.
Frequently asked questions
What does a failed tag mean in GTM?
The tag fired but did not complete. In a server container this is usually a vendor error response, a permission problem or a timeout.
How do I find out why it failed?
Open the tag in Preview and read the outgoing request and the response.
Is "failed" the same as "not fired"?
No. Not fired means the trigger did not match. Failed means the tag ran and then errored.
Can a failed tag still send some data?
Sometimes the request was sent but the vendor rejected it. Check the response.
Can I be alerted when tags fail?
Use logs and monitoring. Open Tracked offers monitoring alerts on Business and above.
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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