Tracking link clicks with Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a foundational step in understanding user behavior on your website. While clicks alone aren’t the ultimate measure of conversion, they offer valuable insights into how users interact with your content. Whether you’re tracking PDF downloads, internal links for cross-blog promotion, or navigating around stubborn, analytics-unfriendly platforms, GTM gives you a flexible, reliable way to capture those critical touchpoints.
Not a reader? Watch the full tutorial in the video below.
All Link Clicks GTM
The All Links trigger in Google Tag Manager is a handy tool with a couple of key uses. First, if you’re looking to capture every link click across your site without filtering anything out, this is your go-to general trigger. Second, and more importantly for most use cases, it sets the foundation for finding specific links you actually do want to track—making it easier to zoom in on exactly what matters.
1. Create a new trigger
2. Choose the Just Links trigger configuration
3. Choose “All Link Clicks”
When you choose “All Link Clicks,” you’re telling Google Tag Manager to fire any time someone clicks any link on your site. While most setups lean toward more specific tracking, there are definitely times when this broader approach makes sense. It’s also a useful first step if you’re trying to uncover which links you actually want to track more intentionally later on.
4. Save, Submit, and Preview
Save your trigger, submit your changes, and click “preview” on the dashboard to start testing.
Finding The Links You Want To Track
There are two main ways to find the exact link you want to track. The first uses the general “All Link Clicks” trigger we just set up, while the second is a quicker method that involves inspecting the page directly. Let’s start with the first option and walk through it step by step.
1. Open Google Tag Manager Preview Mode.
2. Click a link you want to track on your site in preview mode.
For me, I will be choosing the get started button on my site. This button leads to the Email Click Insights app sign up page.
3. Review your preview page
In the preview page, you should see a link click event pop up. From there, open the Variables tab. Look for a variable called “Click URL”—this shows the exact link you just clicked. You can copy that value directly and use it to build more specific, targeted link click triggers.
Finding Links Using the Inspect Tool
A slightly more technical—but simpler—way to find a link is by using your browser’s inspect tool. This method works best if you only need to grab one or two links. If you’re tracking a bunch at once, the preview mode approach is still the better option since it lets you gather everything in one go.
1. Go to your website and open up the inspect tool
To open the inspect tool, just right-click anywhere on the page and select “Inspect,” or use the shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+C on Windows, or Cmd+Option+C on Mac.
2. Select your element and inspect.
At the top of the inspect panel, there’s a small icon that looks like a cursor inside a box. Click it to activate the element selector. Then, just hover over the part of the page you want to inspect—like a button or link—and it’ll highlight the corresponding section of code for you automatically.
Here a block of code will become highlighted. In this block, look for the “href=” tag. The link that follows the equal sign will be the link you are looking for. Copy this link and save it!
Tracking Specific Links On Your Site
Now that you have the link you want to track, you can create a trigger that fires specifically on it! To do so we’ll need to go back to Google Tag Manager and create a new just links trigger.
- Create a new just links trigger, like above.
- Choose “Some Link Clicks”
- In the “select a variable” field choose the “Click URL” variable
- There are a few conditions to choose from, if you are looking to track an exact link then use the “equals” condition for the highest level of accuracy.
- Your fully built trigger should look like this by the end!
As always, test what you’ve created to make sure everything works properly. Now you are ready to track your link clicks!
A Full-Funnel Approach to Email Link Conversions
If you’re specifically looking to track mailto link clicks, a standard GTM setup only gets you so far. That’s where Email Click Insights comes in. Built to go beyond simple click tracking, it connects email interactions to traffic sources and campaign data, giving you a complete view of the customer journey. No more guessing how that email link contributed to the conversion funnel—just clean, actionable insights.Try it free and see how closing that last attribution gap can elevate your tracking strategy.
Sign up for a free trial and see the difference for yourself.
