The Braze Tag for Google Tag Manager Server-Side allows you to send events, update user profiles, and track purchases to Braze directly from the server container - making it easy to track user behavior and update records.
Getting Started
- Add the Braze tag to your server Google Tag Manager container.
- Choose the Action:
Track Event(send an event/purchase/user update to/users/track) orIdentify User(merge an anonymous alias into anexternal_idprofile via/users/identify). - Set the Braze REST API Endpoint (e.g.
https://rest.iad-01.braze.com). - Add your Braze API Key (must include the
users.trackpermission for theTrack Eventaction, and theusers.identifypermission for theIdentify Useraction). - Add your Braze App ID (you can find it under your App Settings or APIs and Identifiers configuration)
- For
Track Event, choose the Event Type you want to send (purchaseor custom). - Set user identifiers (at least one user identifier is required) and optional user alias.
- Add custom event properties and user profile attributes.
Supported Actions
- Track Event: send data to Braze’s
/users/trackendpoint.- Custom Event: Track any custom event.
- Purchase Event: Track purchases (order-level or product-level).
- User Profile Update: Update user attributes in Braze (e.g., email, phone, external ID, user aliases).
- Associate user aliases (e.g. external ID to Braze ID)
- Send event context data (e.g. page location, user agent)
- Identify User: merge an anonymous alias profile into an
external_idprofile via Braze’s/users/identifyendpoint. See Anonymous User Identification below.
Anonymous User Identification
When a Track Event has no identifier at all, the tag can generate and track an anonymous user so
Braze never receives an event without an identifier:
- It reads an existing anonymous alias from the
__braze_anon_aliascookie (set by this tag) or the
braze_idEvent Data parameter; if neither exists, it generates a new UUID. - This anonymous identifier is sent as a
user_alias, notbraze_id, because Braze’s
/users/identifyendpoint — the only way to merge an anonymous profile into an identified one —
only accepts alias-only, email-only, or phone-only profiles, neverbraze_id. It’s deliberately
not called “Braze ID” to avoid confusion with the realbraze_id/device ID set by the Braze
client-side SDK. - Merging that anonymous alias into an identified user is not automatic — it requires a separate
tag configured with the Identify User action, using anexternal_idUser Identifier and
targeting a trigger that fires once the user becomes known (e.g. on login/sign-up), rather than on
every tracked event. This avoids repeated, redundant/users/identifycalls and gives explicit
control over exactly when the merge happens. - This is controlled by the Set Anonymous Alias cookie checkbox (enabled by default); disabling
it stops cookie generation/storage (an existing alias is still sent, just not persisted). Only one
primary identifier (external_id>braze_id>user_alias) is ever sent per request, and a
manually configuredbraze_idor user alias always takes precedence over the automatic one.
The Identify User action never generates a new alias — it only merges an alias that already
exists, and fails the tag if either theexternal_idor the existing alias is missing.
Open Source
The Braze Tag for Google Tag Manager Server-Side is developed and maintained by the Stape Team under the Apache 2.0 license.
