Usually, when one code needs to be changed, all other code on a website also needs to be changed. Google Tag Manager (GTM: Google Tag Manager) is a free tag management platform that allows marketers to distribute and track marketing data by easily adding code snippets to their websites or applications.
Here is a very simple example of how GTM (Google Full Manager) works. Information from one data source (your website) is shared with another data source (Analytics) via Google Tag Manager. As the number of tags to manage increases, GTM becomes very useful as it stores all the code in one place.
The tag is part of the code you use to send data to Google Analytics or other third-party tools that you track. The trigger is the action that signals that data should be collected, and the variables are the conditions under which the data was collected. Google Tag Manager makes the setup process much easier by making it possible to avoid putting each code in your files separately.
While the idea of empowering GTM marketers to easily do technical things on websites is very appealing, the consequences of not fully understanding the technical implications of embedding code and tagging can be detrimental to page structure and load time performance.
What Can You Track in Google Tag Manager (GTM)?
- Events (Link Clicks, PDF Downloads, Add to Cart Click, Remove from Cart Click)
- Scroll Tracking
- Form Abandonment
- Cart Abandonment
- Watching Video Views
- All Exit Link Clicks
You can also group content combined with Google Tag Manager in Google Analytics. It allows you to define content groups by rules / macros. You can then see which elements of your blog posts (eg images, videos, length, title length) are helping the most conversions, the longest time on the page.
Why Use Google Tag Manager?
There are many important benefits to using the Google Tag Manager tool. First of all, it is free to use. All you have to do is have a Google account. It will also eliminate the need to work with outside developers. It works with Google Analytics, making it easy to have everything you need right on Google. This ensures website administrators know where to find their information and stay organized. You can watch almost anything you want on your site and see how people are using it.
Another great feature of GTM is that you don't have to worry about security. Uses strategies to protect your username and password; no one will be able to log into your account and find your data.
As mentioned earlier, this tool also allows you to work directly with Google Analytics, which makes it unique from other online tools. User ID tracking is a feature that ensures that data is collected from real users rather than just their devices. This means that the data collected will be more accurate, allowing you to cut ties with expensive developers.
When Google Tag Manager is ready to go to your website or mobile app, you don't need to write any additional code. Your marketing and analytics codes will suffice.
When you think you need to change some code, you don't have to rewrite the rest of your code when using Google Tag Manager.
When using it, you have full control over which tags to use, when a tag should or should not be triggered, where the information should go, and what happens when it is triggered.
GTM has a preview and debug mode so you can see what works and what doesn't before making anything live. It shows you which tags are triggered on the page.
Key Benefits of Using Google Tag Manager
GTM Takes the Hassle Out of Hard Coding Labels
Before the Google tag manager, a web developer had to hard code the website every time a tag needed to be added, edited or removed. Now editing, removing or adding new tags is as easy as a few clicks and all this can be done through a user-friendly GTM interface.
GTM Makes Businesses Move Faster
Over-reliance on web developers is a problem for many businesses with limited resources. It delays growth and experimentation, which is vital in the fast-paced digital world we live in. Google Tag Manager is a cost-effective and reliable solution that helps businesses adapt to changing marketing conditions and move from one trial to the next much faster and at no additional cost.
GTM Makes Advanced Tracking Easy
Google Tag Manager allows users to perform the same task that takes days or even weeks in minutes. For example, without having to add event tracking code to every “Submit” button on the site, a user can resort to GTM to create a single tag with a specific set of rules to track clicks on all buttons on the site.
GTM Can Increase Website Speed
Google Tag Manager tags are placed asynchronously; this means that a slow-loading tag will not prevent other tags from firing.
GTM Centralizes Tag Management
Giving you a single place to manage all the marketing and analytics tags used on your site, GTM dramatically improves the efficiency of tag management and simplifies the process of adding, editing and removing tags by eliminating duplication and reducing the chance of errors.
You Can Customize Data Sent to Analytics
You can set up and monitor key events such as PDF downloads, outbound link clicks or button clicks.
Suppose we want to monitor all outbound links on the website. Select category name, action and tag in GTM. We selected the offsite link, click it and click the URL.
In Google Analytics go to Behavior > Events > Top Events > Offsite link.
Now select the event action or tag to get the full reports. The data we created in Google Tag Manager now appears in Analytics reports.
What are the disadvantages?
Even Basic Installation Requires Some Technical Knowledge
How Google Tag Manager Works
Google Tag Manager can be embedded in your website pages and has its own container tag. The same code is placed on every page so a site does not have to be rewritten for individual pages. There is also a way to work with this tool to keep track of what's going on with your mobile apps. All you have to do is use it with Firebase SDK, Android or iOS. Instead of manually coding the tags on your site, you can use GTM to have them update automatically on your site without doing all the hard work. You can tag multiple websites at a time, so you're not limited to how many tags you manage at once. This makes this extremely easy, especially when managing multiple websites.
How to Install GTM?
Step #1: Create a Google Tag Manager account.
Step #2: Add the container code to every page on your site.
Step #3: Create your first tag (usually this is the GA code snippet).
Step #4: Enable “Preview Mode” to see if the tag is triggered.
Step #5: Go to the GA realtime report to make sure the visits are recorded.
You can now publish the container!
