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Last updated: 2026-04-06
Reference

Action Groups

Action groups organize related actions into logical units within a rule. They control how actions are selected and executed when a rule fires.

How Action Groups Work

Each rule contains one or more action groups. When a rule fires:

  1. The Tag Manager evaluates which action group to execute
  2. If the rule has a distribution configured, one group is selected based on the distribution type
  3. All actions within the selected group execute sequentially
Text Only
Rule Fires → Distribution Selects Group → Actions Execute (in order)

If no distribution is configured, all action groups execute.

Creating Action Groups

  1. Open a rule in the Tag Manager dashboard
  2. In the Actions section, click Add Action Group
  3. Name the group descriptively
  4. Add actions to the group
  5. Set the execution order for actions within the group

When to Use Multiple Action Groups

Multiple action groups within a single rule are useful for:

  • A/B testing: Create two groups with different tracking approaches and use a distribution to split traffic
  • Variant content: Serve different HTML content to different visitor segments
  • Staged rollouts: Gradually shift traffic from one configuration to another

For most rules, a single action group is sufficient.

Action Group Configuration

Setting Description
Name Descriptive label for the group
Actions The list of actions in execution order
Distribution How this group is selected relative to others (see Distributions)

Execution Order

Within an action group, actions execute in the order they are listed. You can reorder actions by dragging them in the dashboard.

Actions that depend on earlier actions (e.g., a script that reads a state variable set by a previous action) must be ordered after their dependencies.

Best Practices

  • Use descriptive names so the purpose of each group is clear in the dashboard
  • Keep groups focused -- each group should serve a single purpose
  • Minimize the number of groups per rule -- most rules need only one group
  • Use distributions only when you need traffic splitting or A/B testing
  • Test group selection using the debug overlay to confirm the correct group fires

Continue to Action Group Distributions to learn how traffic is split between action groups.