Which "Google Tags" are needed for a classic sGTM + Google Ads setup?

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As of the recent changes in GTM (automatically load Google Tag) and Google pushing for better adoption of “Google Tag” (suggestions to add Google Tag inside of GTM UI) I want to ask the stape community:

Which “Google Tags” are needed – for the simple setup of GA4 + Google Ads?

Google Tag with GA4 ID and GA4 Event Tag with server_container_url is a no brainer.

But recently, some Tag Manager properties suggest to add a Google Tag with AW-XXXXX ID.

Is this necessary?

I know that Google Ads mostly still tracks via client (request to Google Ads is client side, tracking request is coming via server request header).

  • Stape tutorials only suggest to use Google Tag with GA4 ID for communicationGTM–sGTM, but this would mean, that there is a client request for Google Ads without a Google Tag with AW-XXXXX being initialized – hence this question.

Thanks in advance!

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I guess it depends if you are okay with Google automatically loading Gtag with its full configurations and UPD enabled as well, so you risk it scraping emails on your site which you might not want it to (if u have automatically detect user data turned on in g ads - i believe it might be on default, not sure tho)

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When i tested it, it also sent remarketing hits automatically, and the only way to stop it was adding a gtag for ads and send page view=false.

So i guess its really a question about if you want that control or not.

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