Getting started with Google Tag Manager
Like most businesses, you’re probably using Google Analytics to track your website performance and measure how well your marketing campaigns are performing. With the sun setting on Google’s old Universal Analytics and everyone moving onto GA4, it might also be time to jump onto the Google Tag Manager bandwagon too.
Sister product to Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a tag management tool that helps you create, manage and launch HTML or JavaScript tags. That might sound a bit complex but these tags allow you to track user activity and site performance easier, as well as share the data with reporting platforms like Google Analytics.
With GTM, you can create custom tags, triggers and variables in a container (more on that later). These components streamline and automate the process of tracking user behaviour on your website. It also eliminates time-consuming steps involved with manually adding tag tracking to the back end coding of your website. GTM automatically replaces manually coded tags so, if you’re using Google Analytics and Google Ads, you can replace, update and manage them all within one platform.
Whenever you update these tracking tags, you can count on the changes going live immediately, versus copying and pasting the new code onto dozens of pages. In short, GTM helps automate a process that used to rely on many tedious manual steps.
Components to Google Tag Manager
Before you get started using GTM, you need to understand its core components:
Container: The container snippet is one bit of code that you place on your website. This houses all your tags and lets you update them automatically. We recommend setting up one GTM account and one container for each of your websites. In every container you will have the following – Tags and Triggers.
Triggers: Triggers are the core of GTM. Triggers describes the action taken by the end users that will launch the respective tag. For example you may want to track specific button clicks or page views for all your page views – you can specify those actions with a trigger. For accurate tracking, you can create multiple triggers for a single tag but we recommend carry out multiple testing to ensure data is being collected correctly.
Tags: Tags tracks actions, whether it’s a page view, form submission or conversion for a PPC campaign. You can create as many tags as you like within your container and send the data to reporting platforms like GA4.
Variables: Variables are used in both triggers and tags. They are named placeholders for values that are populated when a tag is fired. There are already a range of built-in variables with Google Tag Manager, including page URL, click text and more, but you can also create custom variables too.
Benefits of Tag Manager
Report on what matters to you
GTM give you the ability to add and update your tags for conversion tracking, site analytics, remarketing and more. There are endless things you can track that suit your business goals – whether it’s specific buttons clicked or time spent watching a video, within GTM you can create as many custom tags and change them whenever you want.
Check for errors and fix problems fast
As there is some hands-on learning required with GTM, their error-checking process helps put your mind at ease. Their easy-to-use error checking and speedy tag loading ensure your tag, triggers and variables are working, saving time and incorrect data tracking.
Works with third-party tags for convenient data tracking
Depending on your business goals and strategy, you may currently only use Google tags like Google Ads and Google Analytics. As your business grows, you might start to use other platforms to manage your marketing campaigns, which is where GTM can help! With GTM, you can create tags for a range of third-party platforms. You can even create custom tags if needed. If you’re not technical, GTM also provides tag templates for its array of Google and third-party tags. You can use this handy feature to get started with Google Tag Manager fast.
Whatever your marketing goal is, whether it’s to get more contact forms or calls, GTM can help track and report on them better. We understand that there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to setting up the correct tags and triggers but this is where we can offer a helping hand. We previously wrote a blog on the difference between the Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager and our expert SEO team can support you, no matter what your end goal. Get in touch with our team today on 01202 677 277.
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