GA4

How to Uninstall GTM Server Side Tagging

Himanshu Sharma

7 min read

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Nobody talks about this.

Everyone's busy writing guides on how to SET UP GTM server-side tagging.

But what happens when:

→ The Google Cloud bills keep climbing.

→ You're not seeing the ROI you expected.

→ You realise your website doesn't actually need it.

→ Or you just need a clean reinstall from scratch.

You need to uninstall it. Cleanly.

Without leaving behind orphaned DNS records, zombie Cloud projects still billing you, or a GA4 tag is still trying to send data to a server that no longer exists.

The following is the overview of uninstalling GTM server-side Tagging:

Downgrade from production to the testing server.
Disconnect the GA4 configuration tag from the server container.
Shut down the Google Cloud project so that you are no longer billed.
Delete the GTM Server container
Delete all the DNS records related to server-side Tagging.

#1 Downgrade from production to the testing server.

Follow the steps below to downgrade from production to the testing server:

Step-1: Click on the container ID of your GTM Server Side Container:

You should now see a pop-up like the one below:

Step-2: Open your Google Cloud Platform project by clicking on the open button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-3: Find and click on the button ‘Activate Cloud Shell’ on the top right-hand side of your screen:

After a few seconds, you should see the cloud shell terminal window at the bottom of your screen:

Step-4: Copy-paste the following shell command at the command prompt:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://googletagmanager.com/static/serverjs/setup.sh)"

Step-5: Press the Enter key to execute the shell command.

Step-6: Click on the ‘Authorize’ button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-7: Press the Enter key to continue.

You should now see the following screen:

Note: If you don't see this screen, close the cloud shell terminal, refresh the web page and again start following from step-3.

The container configuration that you see in the cloud shell terminal is the same as that you see in your GTM server container:

Step-8: Press the Enter key, as we want to keep using the current container configuration.

You should now see the following screen:

Step-9: Press Enter, as we don't want to provide the policy script URL.

You should now see the following screen:

Step-10: Press the Enter key, as we want to keep logging on.

You should now see the following screen:

Step-11: Type ‘testing’ at the command prompt as we are downgrading to the testing server:

Step-12: Press the Enter key to change the server deployment type from 'production' to 'testing'.

You should now see the following screen:

Step-13: Type ‘y’ and then press the enter key to confirm that you are ready to downgrade to a testing deployment.

After around 5 minutes of waiting, you should now see the following message: “Your server deployment is complete”:

Step-14: Close the cloud shell terminal by clicking on the cross button:

Step-15: Click on the browser refresh button to refresh your Google Cloud account.

Step-16: Click on the link ‘Go to App Engine Dashboard’:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-17: Click on ‘Versions’ from the left-hand side menu:

You should now see ‘testing’ under the ‘Version’ column with the status of ‘serving’, which indicates that you are now using the testing server:

#2 Disconnect the GA4 configuration tag from the server container.

Follow the steps below to disconnect the GA4 configuration tag from the server container:

Step-1: Navigate to your GTM web container.

Step-2: Edit the GA4 configuration tag:

Step-3: De-select the checkbox ‘Send to Server Container’ and then click on the ‘Save’ button to save your tag:

Step-4: Click on the ‘Submit’ button to publish your container:

#3 Shut down the Google Cloud project.

Follow the steps below to shut down the Google Cloud Project:

Step-1: Click on the container ID of your GTM Server Side Container:

You should now see a pop-up like the one below:

Step-2: Open your Google Cloud Platform project by clicking on the open button:

You should now see a screen like the one below:

Step-3: Click on the link ‘Go to project settings’:

Step-4: Click on the button ‘Shut Down’:

Step-5: Type the project id and then click on the ‘SHUT DOWN’ button:

Step-6: Click on the ‘ok’ button:

#4 Delete the GTM Server container.

Follow the steps below to delete your GTM Server Container:

Step-1: Navigate to your GTM server container and then click on the ‘Admin’ tab:

Step-2: Click on the link ‘Container Settings’ under ‘CONTAINER’:

Step-3: Click on the three dots menu located at the top right-hand side of your screen:

Step-4: Click on the ‘Delete’ option to delete your GTM server container:

Step-5: Click on the ‘Delete’ button to confirm the deletion of your GTM server container:

Follow the steps below to delete all the DNS records related to server-side Tagging:

Step-1: Login to your domain registrar account (in my case, it is ‘cloudflare’).

Step-2: Find and then delete all the DNS records you added while setting up a custom domain in Google cloud:

There should be 9 DNS records (4 ‘A’ records, 4 ‘AAAAA’ records and 1 TXT record) related to server-side Tagging setup in your domain registrar account:

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Himanshu Sharma

Founder of OptimizeSmart (Voice AI Agent Development and GA4/GTM Consulting Agency)