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If you’re not that familiar with Google Tag Manager, you are probably wondering what it is and why you should use it. Let’s answer the most common questions around Google Tag Manager.
Google Tag Manager is a free tag management system that allows you to manage and deploy marketing tags (snippets of code or tracking pixels) on your website (or mobile app) without having to modify the code.
Here’s a very simple example of how Google Tag Manager works. Information from one data source (your website) is shared with another data source (Google Analytics) through Google Tag Manager. GTM becomes very handy when you have lots of tags to manage because all of the code is stored in one place.
A huge benefit of Tag Manager is that you, the marketer, can manage the code on your own. “No more developers needed. Whoo hoo!”
Sounds easy right? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
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“GTM is unfortunately misunderstood, overused, and abused. Although the idea of empowering marketers to easily do technical stuff on websites was/is very appealing, the fallout of not fully understanding the technical implications of code insertion and tagging can be detrimental to page structure and load time performance.” – Angie Schottmuller, Conversion Optimizer |
According to Google,
“Google Tag Manager helps make tag management simple, easy and reliable by allowing marketers and webmasters to deploy website tags all in one place.”
They say it’s a “simple” tool that any marketer can use without needing a web developer.
I may get run over in the comments section for saying this, but I’m standing my ground. Google Tag Manager is not “easy” to use without some technical knowledge or training (courses or self-taught).
You have to have some technical knowledge to understand how to set up tags, triggers and variables. If you’re dropping in Facebook pixels, you’ll need some understanding of how Facebook tracking pixels work.
If you want to set up event tracking in Google Tag Manager, you’ll need some knowledge about what “events” are, how Google Analytics works, what data you can track with events, what the reports look like in Google Analytics and how to name your categories, actions and labels.
Although it is “easy” to manage multiple tags in GTM, there is a learning curve. Once you’re over the hump, GTM is pretty slick about what you can track.
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“Google Tag Manager has made the process of managing analytics and marketing tags easier than ever before. With this, most marketers do not realize what Google Tag Manager is actually doing and what happens when mistakes are made. At Analytics Pros, we never recommend anyone use Google Tag Manager on their live site without a few months of training and experience. GTM is injecting code directly on the site, which means while unlikely, there is a possibility could break your website. We have seen issues where users have injected plaintext on their pages, broken URLs and broken marketing tags and Analytics. The most successful GTM accounts have both marketing and technical resources involved with configuration, maintenance and updates.” – Charles Farina, Analytics Pros, @CharlesFarina |
There are three main parts to Google Tag Manager:
Tags are snippets of code or tracking pixels from third-party tools. These tags tell Google Tag Manager what to do.
Examples of common tags within Google Tag Manager are:
Triggers are a way to fire the tag that you set up. They tell Tag Manager when, where or how to do what you want it to do. Want to fire tags on a page view, link click or is it custom?
Examples of common triggers within Google Tag Manager are:
Variables are additional information that GTM may need for your tag and trigger to work. Here are some examples of different variables.
The most basic type of variable that you can create in GTM is the Google Analytics UA number (the tracking ID number).
Those are the very basic elements of GTM that you will need to know to start managing tags on your own.
If you’re bored reading this right now, you won’t have any issues managing your tags. If you are completely lost, you are going to need help from someone more technical.
Google Tag Manager is a completely different tool used only for storing and managing third-party code. There are no reports or any way to do analysis in GTM.
Google Analytics is used for actual reporting and analysis. All conversion tracking goals or filters are managed through Analytics.
All reporting (conversion reports, custom segments, ecommerce sales, time on page, engagement reports, etc…) are done in Google Analytics.
Once you get over the learning curve, what you can do in Google Tag Manager is pretty amazing. You can customize the data that is sent to Analytics.
You can set up and track basic events like PDF downloads, outbound link clicks or button clicks. Or, complex enhanced ecommerce product and promotion tracking.
Let’s say we want to track all outbound links on the website. In GTM, choose the category name, action and label. We chose offsite link, click and click URL.
In Google Analytics go to Behavior > Events > Top Events > Offsite link.
Now select either event action or label to get the full reports. The data that we set up in Google Tag Manager is now appearing in the Analytics reports. Nifty!
Want to try out a tool on a free trial basis? You can add the code to Tag Manager and test it out without needing to get your developers involved.
Other perks:
1. You must have some technical knowledge, even for the basic setup.
Check out the documentation from Google on how to setup Google Tag Manager. Once you get past the “Quick Start Guide,” it takes you to a developer guide. Not a marketer’s guide. If you are a first time user, this will read like gibberish.
2. It’s a time investment.
Unless you’re a seasoned developer, you will need to carve out a chunk of research and testing time. Even if it’s reading a few blog posts or taking an online class.
3. Make time for troubleshooting issues.
There is a lot of troubleshooting that takes place when setting up tags, triggers and variables. Especially if you are not in Tag Manager regularly, it’s very easy to forget what you just learned. For more complex tags, you will likely need a developer with knowledge of how the website was built.
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“One of my favorites is content grouping in Google Analytics combined with Google Tag Manager. It allows you to define content groups by Rules/Macros. You can then see which elements of your blog posts (e.g. images, videos, length, title length) lead to the most conversions, longest time on page, etc. I also use it for cross-domain tracking, tracking social interaction and phone number clicks on mobile. – Shanelle Mullin, Analysis Lead, Shopify |
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“Often, it’s not enough to know that a download happened, you want to know what was downloaded? From which page modules? What CTA worked the best? Enriching all user clicks with extra metadata will make all future analysis more clear. Plus you can benefit from analytics automations like Clickvoyant. – Mia Umano, CEO & co-Founder, Clickvoyant |
We are just scratching the surface of what you can do in Google Tag Manager. The possibilities seem almost endless. But, as Himanshu Sharma points out, the more tags and data sources you have the harder they are to manage.
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“The happiness that you get by managing all the tags from one central location is short lived and the trouble is around the corner. As your need for integrating website data with various data sources increases and become more complex, you quickly realize, how hard it can be to create and maintain each integration.” – Himanshu Sharma, Optimize Smart |
I took a live course through Conversion XL with Chris Mercer. It was one of the best online classes I’ve taken. You can purchase the recordings if you are interested.
Other go-to resources are:
Google Tag Manager can definitely make your life easier if you are willing to learn how it works. Make sure that you are actually using the data that you are setting up in GTM. Otherwise, what’s the point?
I’m curious to hear your experience with Google Tag Manager. Has it been easy or hard? How are you using it in your marketing?
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Three years late to the game, but I’d like to know this as well
Thanks for this. It was easy to understand and let me know that I would CLEARLY be in over my head trying to use GTM. I created my own very basic website for my small local business. I’m not a technical person and this guide let me know that my site will survive just fine without having to use GTM.
I searched for Google Tag Manager on Google because I read somewhere that it can help boost my website speed. I’m actually trying to optimize my page speed as GTmetrix is showing me to “Reduce the impact of third-party code” which are some JavaScripts on my pages. This is my first time of hearing about GTM; I will invest some time in the learning curve. Thank you for posting this.
Nice work Amanda.
Hi Amanda, great post! One question: Do I still need to learn Javascript if I’m already proficient in GTM?
I’ve seen some articles report that I need to remove GA code first from my site to avoid duplicating data. That true?
Hey, David!
Yes, if you’re running your GA tag through Tag Manager, you’ll want to remove your GA code from your website.
Great article Amanda! i’d love to see a write up on Google analytics V4 and how it compares to V3
Hi Amanda,
It’s a interesting article and brief knowledge about GTM. If don’t mind can I know that we can use Google Analytic and GTM simultaneously.
Wow! what a wonderful,concise and clear illustration. Thanks
Perfectly explained every scenario.
Just what I was looking for.
Thanks a lot!
You are the BEST. Thanks for this intro
Great starting guide on Google TAG manager. Just started looking into this for my site, mostly to track downloads on my PDF documents. As I don’t have a confirmation page I was trying to workout how to do this and then stumbled across your post. Thanks Amanda!
Glad you found it useful, Adam!
Will GTM work with tracking app store impressions and app downloads? Could it then enable tracking of the consumer’s activity in the app so as to determine lifetime value?
You can get pretty fancy with GTM, it just depends on what you want to do. That might require a custom script. I would ask your developer for some help on that one, Mike!
before reading this i thought GTM or analytics are the same but now you clarified they both are two different things.
This tag manager is quite complex from what i read above but its well explained above. Its more useful for advanced marketing. Very useful tool I guess if we know how to use it. GTM is huge subject in itself. Probably most are happy with Google analytics unless willing to learn tag manager properly. Have to say Great explanation above.
excellent article! thanks Amanda
Excellent post really valuable worlds thank you.
Hey Amanda! This is really very helpful. Clarified all the elements of GTM and their workings for me. Can’t stress enough on how much this has helped in gaining a clear picture of GTM. Thanks!
I wanted to learn GTM from the past few months and here I can see the best piece of blog post to get started with. Thank you for the wonderful post. Bookmarked it for the future reference too.
Best blog about google tag manager
Hi. I watched a YouTube video I how to set up my GTM. But since I started advertising 1 week now. My bounce rate is mainly 0.00% on many pages and a few are showing 7% and other 20-30%.
My developer added Google analytics code to my site.
Could it be that GTM is causing duplicate tags and therefore giving me a 0.00% bounce rate.?
My site is http://www.getagrip.co.uk
Thanks
seem to be bit tough for me as a beginner in digital marketing
I love how simplified this is! Thanks for sharing.
How can we learn the tags for clicking the add to cart attribute or dropping it? Any bright ideas?
You guys are AWESOME. I’ve watched 4-6 Youtube videos telling menhow to set Tag Manager up and none of them has clearly explained what exactly GTM is and what it’s used for. There’s a big difference between dispensing information and teaching.
Just starting to read about GTM now and your article is really detailed and helpful. I will read it again and maybe give it a try. Thanks
Interesting, didn’t even know about GTM until today. Thanks for sharing Amanda.
You bet, Carlos!
This is a helpful post, Amanda! I remember the first time I fiddled with GTM; I, too, was disappointed that it wasn’t as “simple” as Google had let on.
Anyhow, I wanted to echo what Frank Wade had to say. That is, understanding even a little bit of JavaScript (JS) can help marketers better utilize GTM. You can use GTM rather effectively without knowing JS, but if you’re the type who’s interested in the ins-and-outs of how things like GTM actually work, some basic JS knowledge goes a LONG way.
Hey Amanda,
Jean-Christophe from Elokenz here 🙂
Great intro post! Explaining GTM is a nightmare usually and you did really well.
I learnt really the hars way how to use it . It took me time to get used to it. But now, i’m never adding third party scripts on any site without GTM.
I’m tracking links as you do, I am also using it with AB experiments. But the most important thing for me is that I can use it to send data about my users to all third-party scripts (using the data layer). For instance, when my users login I can start the chat widget with their names.
I totally agree. Once you get the hang of it, there’s so much you can track. Thanks for the comment and kind words, Jean-Christophe!
I recently started setting up Google Tag Manager for all my analytics clients. The reason was that those companies are clients who track a lot, and GTM helps them scale tracking codes as they grow.
I have also been using it for more and more of my AdWords clients. That way, I can launch campaigns quicker thanks to a smaller need for a developer when setting up conversion tracking. I’ve also found that for campaigns where bookings use partners such as Inntopia, GTM makes integration between our own site and the 3rd party booking site easier.
I had confusion about the use of Google Tag Manager until recent days. Then I customized analytics using GTM to reduce bounce rate on my site. Now I can say that it’s an awesome tool which offer wide range of customization opportunities on analytics.
Your writing gave me detailed knowledge on the use of GTM. Thanks a lot for the post.
Thanks Amanda. As always, helpful and honest — and those are two things no marketer can get enough of! It sounds like a case study might come after this post (hint hint) and I can’t wait.
One question — is it you doing the tagging or who is at Orbit and what kind of strategy do you have in place, meaning, are you guys tagging the jebesus out of everything now? Or just more strategic pieces?
Hey, Kelly!
A case study, huh? You got it! 🙂
It’s mostly me, Andy and some of our developers. More of the complex tagging that we are doing for clients has to involve our dev team. It’s too complicated for someone (me) that doesn’t have a deep technical knowledge. Especially for enhance ecommerce tracking scenarios.
At Orbit, we are only tracking things that we plan to analyze or use for R&D. Right now we are tracking outbound links and all link clicks. As an example, I wanted to know who’s clicking on certain industries within the filter of our portfolio. All link clicks is sending me that data.
For clients, it’s all over the board what we’re tracking. Some of it’s pretty simple, others are really complicated. Usually involving several other third-party outside vendors.
Have you tried it yet?
Hope you’re doing great, Kelly. We miss you!
Love the post because it taught me a few things about Google tags, and helped me acknowledge that I and my website are not yet ready to mess with GTM. It’s great to know where the deep water is when you haven’t yet gotten good enough to swim in it. Thanks Amanda!
Hey, JJ!
Great to see in you in our comments. 🙂
Great summary of the post. Although, anyone can use it, not everyone is ready to use it. It’s a powerful tool once you figure it out. Still learning every day what the possibilities are!
Honestly Tag Manager is so much more than just tag deployment and tracking. I’ve recently figured out new ways to use it for the purposes of SEO. I just wanted to leave some advice here because it seems like a very basic but informative article. If you’re just getting started with Google Tag Manager or any other tag manager the best thing you can do for yourself is to start learning javascript via code academy and asking for help in the sources cited in this article. Whenever we learn something in Google Tag Manager we can all benefit from it and most people are very open to helping when posed with questions. This is at least my experience. I wish you all the best of luck in your journey of deploying tag management solutions.
Hey, Frank!
Thanks for leaving a comment. I agree. The tool is pretty amazing.
How are you using it for SEO purposes? I’d love to share (and learn) how everyone else is using it.
Hey Amanda,
I use it to dynamically generate schema data that google uses for structured data and rich cards. It is making it much easier to manage a large eCommerce site on a platform like wordpress.
Hi Frank,
Can you please tell us more about how you’re using it for schema? I’m currently working on developing it for a site that I manage. Thanks!
Hey Brian,
I wouldn’t mind helping anyway that I can. Could you email me at info@flkwade.com
Great comment! I only knew one way to add structured data markup i.e. adding the code directly into the html head. But this knowledge is a blast which many SEO don’t know yet. Love from India!
Ohhhh I’m curious too! Mind if I shoot you an email?
Feel Free.
I didn’t realize it, but I’ve been waiting for this post. Thank you!
Glad you liked it, KC! Thanks for leaving a comment. 🙂
daunting at first but the swiss army knife of code deplyoment
That is an excellent way to describe GTM. How are you using it? Any cool tricks you want to share?
It is not code deployment – it is code injection
i thought it was to track if people tryinna steal your code.