Google

What is Google?

By "Google" we mean here two free Google tools that let you measure behaviour on your own website and manage your tracking: Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM). They belong together, but each does something different.

Tool	What it does
Google Analytics 4	Measures how visitors and customers use your website. It works on the basis of "events" (page view, add to cart, purchase...) and shows this in reports. Since 1 July 2023, GA4 is the successor to the old Universal Analytics.
Google Tag Manager	A management system for tracking code. You place a "container" on your site once and then add all your tags (GA4, Google Ads, Meta Pixel...) through a web interface, without touching your site's code.

In the context of Club Planner, the point is to link your own GTM container ID to your MyClubPlanner environment (member portal and web shop). That way the visitor and sales data flow into your club's own Google account and you remain the owner of that data.

For normal club and web shop traffic, GA4 and GTM are completely free. There are paid enterprise versions (Analytics 360, GTM 360), but those are meant for very large volumes and you don't need them as a club.

What can Google do for my club?

As soon as you connect GA4/GTM, you gain insight into your website, your marketing and your web shop:

Measure website traffic: number of visitors, sessions and page views, and where they come from (Google search, social media, ads, direct).
Marketing attribution: see which campaigns and channels bring visitors and members to your site.
Web shop conversions and revenue: which products or memberships are viewed, added to the cart and purchased.
Track actions as events: measure specific actions on your website (clicks, forms, sign-ups, bookings), which you configure yourself in GTM.
Real-time reporting: who is on your site right now.
Audience insights: geography, device, new vs. returning visitors and (with consent) demographics and interests.
Google Ads linking: conversion tracking and remarketing to people who visited your site.
AI/predictive figures: for example a predicted purchase or churn probability, without building your own model.
GTM management: add, adjust and organise multiple tags from a single dashboard, with version control and roll-back capability, without touching your site's code.

Specifically in Club Planner, you can also have a purchase event ("purchase") sent after a successful online payment. You can enable this separately per flow:

Booking wizard
Web shop
Gift voucher
Reservation
Club credit (top-up)
Membership
Invoice
Table Booker

This way you can see in your own Google Analytics which online payments come from which flow. These purchase events are off by default: you turn them on yourself, per flow.

How do I set up Google?

You arrange the connection yourself in MyClubPlanner. You do need a staff account with the rights for Settings (AllowSettings); otherwise you will get a no-access message.

What you need in advance (outside Club Planner):

A Google account for your club.
A GTM container that you create yourself in the Google Tag Manager console. This gives you a container ID in the form GTM-XXXXXXX. Club Planner does not create this container.
To make purchase conversions truly meaningful: in the Google console, you link that container/the purchase event to your GA4 property or Google Ads. This mapping happens in Google, not in Club Planner — Club Planner only stores and injects the container ID and pushes the event to the dataLayer.

Setting up in MyClubPlanner:

Go to Settings > Integrations. On the Integrations page you will find the Google tile.
On the Google tile, click the Settings button. The settings screen for the Google integration opens.
In the Google Tag ID field (placeholder GTM-XXXXXXX), enter your club's container ID. As soon as there is a value, the status switches to Active.
(Optional) In the section for purchase events, switch the toggles on for the flows for which you want to send a purchase (booking wizard, web shop, gift voucher, reservation, club credit, membership, invoice, Table Booker). Everything is off by default.
Click Save.

After that, the rest happens automatically: as soon as the Google Tag ID is filled in, your MyClubPlanner member site loads the GTM container on every page. If a purchase toggle is on, that flow sends a purchase event to the dataLayer after a successful online payment.

Note — this boundary: Club Planner stores your container ID and places the script on your site. What happens after that with that container ID and the purchase event (which GA4 property or Google Ads account it feeds) is something you configure yourself in the Google console. So Club Planner does not create any GA4 or Ads conversions.

Important for Belgium/EU (GDPR): GA4 processes pseudonymous visitor data and sends it on to Google, so it is not automatically "compliant". As a club, you are the data controller yourself. Therefore make sure you have:

a cookie/consent banner that asks EEA/UK visitors for prior consent before GA4 loads;
Google Consent Mode v2 (required by Google for EEA traffic since March 2024);
acceptance of Google's Data Processing Terms in your GA4 account;
a sensible retention period for your data.

The Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD/GBA) and other EU regulators have previously raised concerns about Google Analytics and EU-US data transfers. Consent Mode v2 improves your data quality, but is not in itself a guarantee of compliance — the correct configuration remains your responsibility.

Unsure about setting up your GTM container or the GDPR configuration? Feel free to contact Club Planner support and we'll look together at what you need.

Note: the same settings screen also contains Google Login (signing in with Google). That is a separate feature for login and has nothing to do with GA4/GTM tracking.