GTMでページ表示からの経過時間を取得する「Elapsed Time」変数テンプレート

数値の粒度をざっくりとしたものへまとめる

Elapsed Timeテンプレートの変数で得た数値をそのまま計測値としてセットしたら、GAのレポートで見たときに数値が1違うだけで別行になるため、正直見辛かった。
というケースも（高確率で）あるかと思います。

そういった場合は「1刻み」ではなく、「5刻み」や「10刻み」など、単位を変えて複数の数値をまとめてしまうのがオススメです。
これには以前の変数テンプレートの紹介記事で取り上げたIf Else If – Advanced Lookup Tableテンプレートが便利です。

If Else If – Advanced Lookup Tableテンプレートの変数は条件として数値を比較することができますので、上図のように「less than or equal to（以下）」にした行を並べれば0～5→「～5」、6～10→「6～10」のように簡単にまとめられるようになります。
なお複数行が合致した場合は「上の行が優先」となりますので、「less than or equal to（以下）」でまとめる場合は必ず小さい数値を上に、大きい数値を下に、設定するようご注意ください。

ミリ秒を秒以外の単位へ変換する

Elapsed Timeテンプレートの変数はデフォルトではミリ秒（1/1000秒）単位、またはオプション（More Settings > Convert to seconds）で秒単位で取得ができます。
一般的に1つのページが表示され続ける時間はそこまで長くなるケースは稀だとは思いますが、例えばSPAのように「長時間同じページが開かれ続ける」場合にはオプションで秒単位にしたとしても少々利用し辛く、分単位にしたい、といった場面も出てくるかもしれません。

そういった「時間の単位を変換したい」場合は、Time Converterテンプレートが利用できます。

Time Converterテンプレートは以前の変数テンプレートの紹介記事の後にギャラリーへ追加された変数テンプレートで、「Input Value（値）」および「From（単位）」で指定した数値データを、「To（変換後の単位）」で指定した時間単位へ計算して変換してくれるものです。
これを使うと、簡単にミリ秒（や秒）を分単位（Minute(s)）へ変換できます。

“Elapsed time” is a variable template that gets the elapsed time from the page display

Simply put, the value obtained by the variable registered in the “Elapsed Time” template is the elapsed time from the page display.

Point

• A variable that retrieves the number of milliseconds units since GTM snippet tag processing started on the page.
• You can also set an optional field to add a string to the end or convert it to seconds.
• What is acquired is the elapsed time “after page display”. It is not the elapsed time of the session starting from the inflow of the site.

Strictly speaking, what is acquired is the “elapsed time since the start of GTM snippet tag processing”.
If the GTM snippet tag is installed at the top of the page, it will be closer to the “elapsed time from page display”, but if it is installed at the bottom of the page, the difference in the numbers will be large. Please be careful.

Therefore, it is not an accurate “elapsed time from page display”, so use it as a guideline value.

Import method

Importing is very easy because it is posted in the community template gallery.
You can always import the latest template from the GTM management screen.

1. Open the GTM container that uses the Elapsed Time.

   

2. Open the template list screen from “Templates” in the left menu.

   

3. Click the “Search Gallery” button in the upper right corner of the Variable Template block.

   

4. Find and click “Elapsed Time”.

   

5. The details of the template will be displayed, so click the “Add to workspace” button on the top right

   

6. A confirmation alert will be displayed. Click the “Add” button at the bottom right.

   

7. Done (Create a version and use it in other workspaces)

Example usage: Include elapsed time when measuring user actions in GA

The main application is GA measurement such as button click, form submission, page scrolling and so on.
When measuring these events, it is recommended that you include them as labels, custom dimensions, or event values.

For example, suppose you add a custom dimension to an event measurement when you click the Add to Cart button in the product details.

The measured elapsed time may then be interpreted as “time to consider adding to the cart”.
In addition, you can compare the retrieved data with products with high and low input rates in the cart to see if there is a difference, or enable PDCA to improve the content of each page.

• Category：Button Click
• Action：Add Cart
• Label：{{Product Name}}
• Custom Dimention（scope:hit）：{{Elapsed Time}}

For example, suppose you add a label to an event measurement when the end of article text appears on a reading page.

Then, you can see “Time taken to finish reading the article”.
You can also manually calculate the average read completion time for each article, compare each article, and use the retrieved data compared to articles with a high percentage of people reading in small articles. It may be interesting to see if there is a difference in “read time”.

• Category：Reading Complete
• Action：{{Article Title}}
• Label：{{Elapsed Time}}

In addition, inclusion in GA measurement data means that it can also be used in user lists used for delivery in Google ads.
For example, depending on the measurement content, you may be able to create conditions such as “Add product to cart after 30 seconds” and “Not moved from cart (purchase flow)”.

Advanced usage

“Elapsed time” is a variable template with several options and simple functions.
However, this may be a little difficult to use.

In such cases, you can use other templates posted in the community template gallery for added flexibility.

Summarize numerical granularity

If you set the numerical value obtained with the variable of the “Elapsed time” template as the measured value as it is, it will be displayed on a separate line if the numerical value is different, making it difficult to see the report.
I think there are cases.

In such cases, instead of using “1 step”, it is recommended to collect multiple numbers by changing units such as “5 steps” and “10 steps”.
Use the “If Else If-Advanced Lookup Table” template from the article introducing past variable templates.

Since the variables in the “If Else If-Advanced Lookup Table” template can compare numerical values as conditions, if you line up the rows as “below” as above, 0-5 → “-5”, 6-10 → “6- 10 ”can be easily summarized.
If more than one line matches, the upper line takes precedence, so when summarizing with “less than or equal to”, make the upper number smaller and the lower number larger. Please be careful.

Convert milliseconds to units other than seconds

Elapsed time template variables can be retrieved by default in milliseconds (1/1000 second) or optionally in seconds.
In general, I think that it is rare that a page is displayed for a long time, but it is difficult to use it for a few seconds in an optional second, for example, when the same page is open for a long time like SPA. In this case, it is recommended to convert the units to minutes.

For “convert time”, you can use the “Time Conveter” template.

The “Time Converter” template is a variable template that is added to the gallery. The numerical data specified in “Input value” and “From (unit)” is calculated and converted to the time unit specified in “To (unit after conversion)”.
This makes it easy to convert milliseconds (or seconds) to minutes.

In this way, you can use more comfortably by combining not only templates but also templates.