2024-11-06
If you’ve ever wanted to automatically pull your Google Tag Manager (GTM) container data into Google Sheets — or just run GTM API requests inside Apps Script — this guide is for you.
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how I connected the GTM API to Google Apps Script to read container data, using nothing but code and some configuration in Google Cloud Platform.
No need for third-party tools
Easy to run and manage from Google Sheets
Perfect for automation, reporting, or building internal GTM documentation tools
Open script.google.com
Create a new project
Name your project (e.g., “GTM API Connector”)
Go to Project Settings
Copy your Project Number
In the Google Cloud Console, create a new project or use an existing one
Enable the Tag Manager API v2
appsscript.json FileIn Apps Script, enable the manifest file:
Go to ⚙️ Settings → Show appsscript.json
Then paste:
{
"timeZone": "Europe/Zurich",
"oauthScopes": [
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.external_request",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/tagmanager.readonly"
]
}
This gives your script permission to connect to external APIs and read GTM containers.
Here’s a simple function that gets your GTM containers:
function getGTMContainers() {
const accessToken = ScriptApp.getOAuthToken();
const accountId = 'YOUR_GTM_ACCOUNT_ID';
const url = `https://www.googleapis.com/tagmanager/v2/accounts/${accountId}/containers`;
const response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url, {
method: ‘get’,
headers: {
Authorization: ‘Bearer ‘ + accessToken
},
muteHttpExceptions: true
});
Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}
Make sure to replace 'YOUR_GTM_ACCOUNT_ID' with your actual GTM account ID.
Click the ▶️ Run button
Apps Script will ask for authorization
Grant access
Open View > Logs to see the API response
You should see JSON data containing your GTM containers.
Now that your script is connected to GTM:
You can extend it to log tags, triggers, and variables
Or push the data into Google Sheets for documentation or audits
Connecting GTM API to Apps Script opens up a ton of automation opportunities for analysts and developers. You don’t need complex frameworks or tools — just a bit of Apps Script and a GCP project.
If you’d like me to share a follow-up on how I pushed the API data into Google Sheets, let me know in the comments or reach out.
Hisham Ghanayem
Lets talk data
