{"id":64083,"date":"2025-02-02T10:05:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T10:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/analytics\/gtmtips-setup-a-google-tag-manager-server-using-cloud-run\/"},"modified":"2025-02-02T10:05:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T10:05:31","slug":"gtmtips-setup-a-google-tag-manager-server-using-cloud-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=64083","title":{"rendered":"#GTMTips: Setup A Google Tag Manager Server Using Cloud Run"},"content":{"rendered":"


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While Google App Engine<\/strong>, the default implementation pattern of server-side Google Tag Manager<\/a>, is straightforward to setup with the automatic provisioning steps<\/a>, it\u2019s certainly not the only way to deploy the server.<\/p>\n

In fact, the manual setup guide<\/a> gives you the details on how to deploy a Google Tag Manager Server in any<\/em> environment that runs Docker.<\/p>\n

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Docker is a way to wrap an entire application (such as the GTM server) in a container<\/strong>, which can then be deployed easily with tools offered by most server platforms. Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In this guide, I\u2019ll build on what Mark (brilliantly) wrote about by elaborating on a Cloud Run<\/strong> installation. To make matters easier, there\u2019s a simple install script<\/strong> you can use to automate most of the process.<\/p>\n


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Tip #130: How to deploy a GTM Server using Cloud Run<\/h2>\n
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\"Setup<\/p>\n

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Cloud Run is still fairly<\/em> recent tech, as it entered general availability in late 2019. If Cloud Run had the feature set it has today, it\u2019s likely that it would have been chosen as the native integration in Google Tag Manager instead of App Engine.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an App Engine<\/strong> vs. Cloud Run<\/strong> table I\u2019ve compiled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
App Engine<\/th>\nCloud Run<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Runs on Compute Engine<\/strong> instances.<\/td>\nRuns on serverless containers<\/strong>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
No scale-to-zero (App Engine Flexible).<\/td>\nCan be configured to only run when servicing requests.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Automatically compresses files.<\/td>\nNo automatic compression.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Adds some additional metadata to HTTP requests.<\/td>\nDoesn\u2019t modify the HTTP requests.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
(Probably) more efficient for a large number of requests (>100 million \/ month).<\/td>\n(Probably) more efficient for a smaller number of requests (\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Single-region, difficult to load balance.<\/td>\nCan be setup with a multi-region network using a load balancer.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Established technology.<\/td>\nUp-and-coming technology.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As you can see, the decision on which tech to choose is hardly an easy one. If you\u2019re running a very large number of requests<\/strong>, it seems like App Engine might still have the edge, especially when you\u2019re using auto-scaling<\/strong> and starting off with an appropriate minimum number of instances.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re processing a more modest request load and if you don\u2019t specifically need compression out-of-the-box, you might enjoy what Cloud Run brings to the mix.<\/p>\n

Anecdotal evidence<\/h2>\n

Anecdotes are rarely useful, but I\u2019ll share them anyway. After switching from App Engine (3 instances<\/strong>, catering to ~5 million requests per month<\/strong>) to Cloud Run, this is what I found.<\/p>\n

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\"App<\/p>\n

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The daily cost of running three app engine instances (above) is just under 4 euros per day<\/strong>. This is the recommended setup<\/em> of server-side Google Tag Manager.<\/p>\n

Yes, I could have trivially scaled down to two or even just one instance to save in expenses, but traffic spikes can come without warning, and the cold boot time<\/em> of an App Engine instance can be unbearably long.<\/p>\n

App Engine can also run into resource exhaustion<\/strong> issues depending on region, where even the minimum number of instances cannot be met.<\/p>\n

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\"Cloud<\/p>\n

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With on-demand Cloud Run the cost varies from day-to-day, but on an average week I am paying under 1 euro per day<\/strong>, so even less than what I would pay for a single instance App Engine setup<\/strong> (which would be risky in case of traffic spikes and the long cold boot time of App Engine instances).<\/p>\n

As for latency, here\u2019s what Cloud Run shows:<\/p>\n

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\"Cloud<\/p>\n

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The corresponding values for App Engine were (taken from an arbitrary 5-day sample):<\/p>\n