Copy a working setup from one brand to the rest

Start from the brand where it already works

The safest rollout copies something that is already proven. A typical case: Brand A's lead tracking has run cleanly in Australia for a quarter, and Brand A is launching in New Zealand. The NZ container is new. You want the same tag, trigger and variables, with the same names and settings, without rebuilding them by hand.

Before you copy, make sure the source is the version you want everywhere. Fix it in the source container and publish it first. Copying an untidy setup gives you the same untidiness in every brand.

Select the source and choose targets

Extract the source brand, find the item and select its row. You can select several items at once. Press Copy to… and choose the target containers.

• The target list includes every web container your Google account can see, not only the ones you extracted. There's no need to extract the targets first.
• The source container itself isn't offered: a copy never lands on itself.
• On Free, targets are limited to one GTM account. Premium can copy across accounts.

Press Stage copy. Each item becomes a new pending row in each target container.

Include its triggers and variables

The Copy dialog has one important switch: Include its triggers and variables. It is on by default. With it on, ODDVX carries everything the item needs:

• the tag's firing triggers and exceptions, including the members of any Trigger Group;
• every custom variable the tag uses;
• the variables those triggers use;
• the variables those variables read, all the way down.

In the target, these are created in dependency order, variables before the things that use them, then the item itself. Built-in variables the setup needs are enabled where they aren't already.

What happens when the target already has it

Copy never overwrites. When the target already has a trigger or variable with the same name, ODDVX reuses it instead of creating a duplicate. If its settings differ from the source's, the preview shows a warning. That is your cue to check whether the two brands really should differ.

The item you are copying is treated differently. If the target already has a tag with the same name, that copy is skipped with a tag with this name already exists. To copy it anyway:

• copy a single item and fill in New name in the Copy dialog; or
• rename the target's existing tag first, if it is the one that is out of date.

Copying the basics only

Turn Include its triggers and variables off when you want the tag's shape without its wiring, for example to rebuild the triggering by hand in each brand.

• The tag copies with its name, type and plain settings.
• Fields that use a custom variable are left blank. Built-in variables are kept.
• No triggers are attached.

GTM may refuse a tag whose required field was blanked. A dry run can't tell you this, because only GTM itself checks it when the tag is written, so such a tag shows as an error after Apply. A variable copied on its own needs everything it reads to exist in the target already.

Check what was not carried

Read the copy notes in the preview before you apply. They list what was carried, what was reused, any warnings and any blanked fields. Two things are never carried:

• Tag sequencing. Setup and cleanup tags are dropped. If the source relies on them, rebuild the sequencing in GTM.
• Folders. Copies land at the container root.

Consent settings and other configuration on the copied items come across as they are in the source.

Review, apply, publish

Press Review & apply and read the preview container by container (see Read the Review & apply preview). Apply stages everything in one named workspace per container.

Then the human gate. Open each workspace in GTM, use preview mode on the journey the setup measures, and publish. Do it brand by brand, so a surprise in one brand doesn't spread to the rest. For the release order and what to do if something needs undoing, see Workspaces, publishing and recovery.

Keep going

• Use case: build once, stage it in every brand
• Roll out a Community Template tag to every container
• Swap a vendor tag across brands in one batch