Google Tag Manager now logs a new event that can double-fire your tags

Google changed how Tag Manager handles gtag('config') on October 8, 2026. Every Tag Manager container now starts when it loads, and each gtag('config') call now shows up as a visible gtag.config event. If one of your tags fires on every event, it may now fire one extra time per page. If your site mixes a Tag Manager snippet with a loose config line, that line may stop working.

What actually changed

The Tag Manager release note for October 8 is three short paragraphs. It says Google is “standardizing the behavior of tagging snippets.” The key sentence: “all Google Tag Manager (gtm.js) container snippets will initialize on container load, regardless of any gtag(‘config’) commands.”

Two effects follow.

First, config commands now appear in the dataLayer as gtag.config events. Google states: “If your Google Tag Manager containers use wildcard custom event triggers, this change may cause those tags to fire.”

Second, some sites pair a GTM snippet with a stand-alone gtag('config', ...) line and no gtag.js loader. The container used to wait for that line. It no longer does. Google’s fix is one instruction: “make sure all pages on your site are using the Google tag (gtag.js) code snippet.”

Which sites are exposed

The two effects hit different sites.

• The extra event affects any container with a wildcard trigger, such as a custom event trigger with regex matching and the pattern .*. Google’s own help page already warned that .* fires on events Tag Manager emits by itself.
• The initialization change affects only the setup Google calls unsupported: a Tag Manager snippet plus a G-, AW- or DC- tag ID configured with a loose gtag('config') line. PPC Land reports that Google emailed some affected container owners. The report gives no count.

Simo Ahava, a long-standing Tag Manager specialist, flagged the first point in a LinkedIn post quoted by PPC Land. He wrote that a .* trigger “will be an additional firing” and advised filtering the event out at trigger level. We read his words through PPC Land. We did not open the post.

What is not confirmed

Google has not said how many sites are affected. It has not said whether a given conversion tag will double-count. That depends on how each tag is built. We did not test a live container for this article. Treat the double-fire risk as possible, not proven, for your site.

What this means for Georgian Bay businesses

Most Collingwood service businesses have one Tag Manager container, built years ago by a web designer or an agency. Nobody has opened it since. The risk is quiet. A wildcard trigger that sends an extra conversion hit would inflate the lead count in Google Ads or GA4. Smart bidding then learns from a number that is too high.

Run this check once. It takes about ten minutes.

1. Open Tag Manager. Open each trigger of type Custom Event.
2. Look for “use regex matching” with the pattern .*. If none exist, stop. You are not exposed to the extra event.
3. If one exists, list the tags that use it. Any conversion tag, remarketing tag or custom HTML tag on that list is a risk.
4. Open Preview mode on your site. Look for gtag.config in the timeline. Check whether those tags fire on it.
5. Check the page source for a gtm.js snippet followed by a lone gtag('config', 'G-...') line. If you find that pair, move to the full gtag.js snippet or put the tag inside the container, as Google’s setup page describes.

Then compare your Google Ads conversion count for the days before and after October 8. A sudden jump with no change in real calls or forms is the sign to look at. Do not change any budget or bid setting based on this check alone. Fix the tag first. Then let the data settle.

If you want a second pair of eyes, our free audit covers whether your tracking fires once per lead. Tracking cleanup is also the first step of Google Ads management. Our comparison of Google Ads and SEO for Collingwood trades explains why a bad conversion number costs a small account more than a large one.

FAQ

Do I need to change anything if I only use the GA4 setup that came with my website builder? Probably not. This change concerns Tag Manager containers. If your page source has no googletagmanager.com/gtm.js snippet, the container change does not apply to you. A builder that installs gtag.js directly is the supported pattern.

What is a wildcard trigger? It is a Custom Event trigger with regex matching on and the pattern .*. It fires on every event in the dataLayer. Since October 8, that includes gtag.config.

How do I stop a tag from firing on gtag.config? Add an exception to the trigger. Exclude events whose name equals gtag.config. Or replace .* with a narrower pattern. Ahava’s advice, as quoted by PPC Land, is to filter the event at trigger level.

Track

analytics (frontmatter tag note: the schema’s first tag should name the track; ship.sh may need analytics first in tags. Move it if the schema requires.)