Introduction: Navigating data collection and analysis duties is hard for website administrators. To make this task simpler, Google introduced Tag Manager. This free tool makes it easier for site admins to manage the code needed to collect and track customer data.
Tag Manager gives users the ability to add/update their own “tracking tags.” They can use these tags to track conversions, user scrolling behavior, clicking behavior, etc.
On the GTM platform, there are several ways to track different types of user activities across multiple websites and apps. The free tool’s intuitive and user-friendly design lets users change their “tracking tags” whenever they want.
Updated on: April 14, 2022
Name: Google Tag Manager
Referred to as: GTM
Category: Analytics tool
Correct Use: n/a
Description:
Want to run multiple complex integrations and tracking codes on your website? Simplify this task by using Google Tag Manager (GTM). This free tool allows site admins to manage the bits of code needed to collect and track customer data.
Site admins can manage their websites’ code and functionalities from the unified GTM platform. Site admins don’t need advanced programming skills to use GTM. They can add and integrate various capabilities to their websites with GTM.
Our take:
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a must-use site management tool for all website administrators. It’s free, and it simplifies the process of performing in-depth analyses on digital and marketing campaigns. Users can easily add snippets of code or “marketing tags” to their websites to collect and track marketing data.
Before GTM, site admins had to hard code their Google Analytics tracking codes. On every individual webpage, site admins had to create different snippets of code to set up tracking systems.
· Let’s say your website experiences hundreds of events.
· You want to track each one of them.
· Manually integrating Google Analytics tracking codes to every page on your website would require a lot of time & effort.
Google Tag Manager addresses these challenges by allowing users to effortlessly implement different tracking codes (also known as GTM tags). Site admins don’t need to modify the code of their web pages to add GTM tags.
They can find all their tags stored in one location – their GTM accounts. Users can update their tags and change how they function without actually changing their websites’ source code. They simply need to edit the tags in their GTM accounts.
The user interface of GTM is very user-friendly. Site admins can publish changes to their websites’ tracking systems with a click of a button.
GA vs GTM
Google Analytics (GA) is the ultimate hub for site admins who want to analyze their website data. GTM is the ultimate tool for these admins to transmit their data points. With GTM, users can effortlessly control what data is tracked and sent to Google Analytics for in-depth analysis.
Site admins who know how to use GA and GTM can consistently track and create new analytics. They can measure these analytics to consistently improve their websites.
To understand the importance of GTM, we must understand how tracking codes used to be deployed in the past.
· A site analyst aims to track specific user behaviors on his website (e.g., track form submissions on a landing page).
· The analyst gets the tracking code needed to perform this function (from free code repositories). This tracking code is sent to the web developer.
· The web developer takes one or two days to integrate the tracking code into the website.
· All this back-and-forth between site analysts and developers (just to get the tracking codes installed) takes a lot of time. If the analyst wants to track more events, this cumbersome process repeats itself.
With Google Tag Manager, site admins and analysts can avoid developers altogether. They can implement those tracking codes (called “tags” on the GTM platform) by themselves. Overall, GTM speeds up the process of adding new tracking codes (i.e., tags) to websites.
Marketers can deploy different “tags” on their own. They can test their impacts on their marketing plans. More importantly, they can easily track all their tags from their GTM accounts.
Extra reading:
Do:
With GTM, site admins have the potential to track thousands of website and digital marketing activities. They must use this free tool to track –
· PDF downloads and determine their most/least popular downloads; use the data to increase the number of downloads on your website.
· Scrolling behavior. Site admins can understand how their users interact with the different elements on their websites.
· Link clicks. GTM also allows site admins to track link clicks. They can track their users’ clicking behaviors to understand what makes them click more.
· Users can also track form submissions and measure their digital marketing campaigns’ ROI with GTM.
Don’t:
Although Google Tag Manager has an easy-to-use, centralized interface, people still require some expertise to use this tool. Learn the specifics of the GTM tool from experts before using it.
Tip:
Find free information about this tool from GTM communities like the GTM subreddit or the GTM community on Facebook. Stay up to date on the latest GTM updates.
Introduced:
What Google Says:
What experts say: