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Guide 99 · Container · GA4 + Tag Manager

Create a Tag Manager account and a web container: one container per website, five container types

Checked 11 November 2026 · Verification: container fragment validated structurally (7 checks, all passed) · Steps traced to Tag Manager Help, opened 11 November 2026 · 6-minute read

Tag Manager has two levels and people mix them up: the account is the company, the container is the website. Google's own setup page says it plainly — first create an account that represents the topmost level of organization for your company, then create one container for each of your company's websites and apps. A second website gets a second container in the same account, not a second account. This guide creates both, and picks the Web container type out of the five on offer.

Expected signal

After step 6, the workspace opens and Tag Manager shows the install dialog with your container ID, which starts with GTM-. A second website added later gets its own container name and its own GTM- ID in the same account.

Download the container fragment: the account starter fragment (JSON) (export format version 2, 786 bytes, MD5 60fb3fad116358bf2585388928c3fb18). It holds the container shell, one folder named GA4, and the two built-in variables every later guide uses — Event and Page URL. It holds no tags yet, because the container is empty at this point. The file is a hand-built import template, validated structurally — it was not exported from a live container.

What you need

  • A Google account. Tag Manager sign-in is a Google sign-in, so this step needs one — it was traced to Google's documentation, not run here.
  • The site's top-level URL. The container name should be that URL, for example www.example.com. You do not need a container for each page of the website.
  • Nothing else. No code, no Measurement ID, no tag yet. The container is an empty shell until the snippet is installed and tags are added.

The trace

  1. Go to tagmanager.google.com and sign in. Use the Google account that owns the site's tracking. Creating the account and the container needs a Google sign-in, so this step was traced to Google's documentation, not run here.
  2. Open the Accounts tab and click Create Account. The Accounts tab sits at the top left; Create Account is at the top right. The account is the topmost level of organization — one account covers the whole company.
  3. Fill in Account Setup: name and country. Enter an account name and select the country location. The optional Share data anonymously with Google and others box turns on benchmarking by sharing your data in anonymous form; Google strips identifying information first.
  4. Fill in Container Setup: name the container after the site's top-level URL. Enter the site's top-level URL as the container name, for example www.example.com. One container covers the whole website — you do not need a container for each page.
  5. Pick Web as the container type. Tag Manager offers five container types: Web, iOS, Android, AMP and Server. Web is the most common, and it is the type this guide and every other guide in this section uses. Picking Server here would build a container that needs a server to host it.
  6. Click Create and agree to the Terms of Service. Tag Manager creates the account and the container together, then opens the workspace and shows the install dialog with your container ID. The arithmetic of the setup: 5 container types on the list, 1 of them picked; 1 account created, holding 1 container for the first site. A company with 3 websites repeats the container step twice more — 1 account, 3 containers, 3 different GTM- IDs.

Dead ends

DEAD END — NAMING THE CONTAINER AFTER A PAGE, NOT THE SITE. A container named after /shop/checkout reads as if the container only covers checkout. It covers the whole site. Name it after the top-level URL and the workspace stays readable when a second site joins the account.

DEAD END — PICKING THE WRONG CONTAINER TYPE. Web, iOS, Android, AMP and Server install differently. A Server container with no tagging server behind it loads nothing, and an iOS container cannot be installed on a website at all. If the type is wrong, the fix is a new container, not a setting change.

DEAD END — ONE ACCOUNT PER SITE. A second account per website splits your containers across accounts and doubles the admin work — users, permissions and billing all live at the account level. Add a container from the Accounts tab instead: next to the account name, click the menu, then Create Container.

End state

One account, one web container named after the site's top-level URL, and a container ID starting with GTM-. The container is empty: no tags, no triggers, no variables. The next job is installing the container snippet on the site, which is the next guide in this section.

Sources

Checked 11 November 2026. The click paths above are the ones in Google's help pages, opened 11 November 2026. No step in this guide was run inside a live Analytics property or a live Tag Manager container, because both need a Google sign-in and this site does not sign in as anyone. The container file was validated structurally instead: export format version 2, every tag's firing trigger resolves, every variable the tags reference exists in the file, and the tag types are the documented ones. Google moves menu items without warning; if a path on this page no longer matches, the linked help page is the current map. The container fragment for this guide is 786 bytes (0.77 KB, 0.38% of the reported 200 KB container size limit), MD5 60fb3fad116358bf2585388928c3fb18, and passed 7 structural checks.