Digital marketing thrives on data. No matter what type of site you have, whether it’s a large e-commerce site, a personal website, or a site for a small business, it’s essential to understand how people interact with your site. Google Analytics can provide a lot of the important insights you’re looking for, but when used alone, it does have its limitations. But by tagging your site and using Google Tag Manager in conjunction with Google Analytics, you’re able to collect much more data than you can otherwise.
Tags are snippets of code which are added to a site to collect information and send it to third parties. You can use tags for all sorts of purposes, including scroll tracking, monitoring form submissions, conducting surveys, generating heat maps, remarketing, or tracking how people arrive at your site. They’re also used to monitor specific events like file downloads, clicks on certain links, or items being removed from a shopping cart.
Sites commonly use several different tags and the amount of code needed to create them all can be pretty overwhelming, especially if you’re trying to add or edit tags by going directly into the site’s source code. Google Tag Manager is a tool with a user-friendly, web-based interface that simplifies the process of working with tags. With GTM, you’re able to add, edit, and disable tags without having to touch the source code.
While GTM is, obviously, a Google product, it’s hardly limited to just working with tags for other Google services like AdWords or Analytics. You can use it to manage many different third-party tags, including Twitter, Bing Ads, Crazy Egg, and Hotjar, just to name a few. If there’s another tag which doesn’t have a template in GTM, you can add your own custom code. There are only a few types of tags GTM doesn’t work well with.
The pros and cons of GTM
Lessens reliance on web devs
By far, the biggest benefit to Google Tag Manager is that it makes it easier for marketers to implement tags without having to rely on web developers to do it for them. Developers are usually busy with other high-priority projects, so tagging often ends up on the back burner. But since Google Tag Manager helps you avoid touching the source code, marketers can quickly add and make changes to tags on their own. This is a big advantage if, for example, you only need to use a tag to collect data for a very brief amount of time. Without GTM, there’s a good chance that it would take longer for the tag to be added than it would actually be live for.
Still requires some technical implementation
Although GTM helps reduce the reliance on developers, it doesn’t completely eliminate it. You’ll still need someone to add the container code to each page of your site. And while GTM has plenty of tag templates to choose from which are easy enough for a non-developer to work with, more complex customized tags will likely require the help of someone who really understands coding. If you have existing tags that were manually added to your site’s source code, those will need to be removed first so that you don’t end up with duplicate data.
Most businesses can benefit from using it
Businesses of any size can potentially benefit from GTM. Since GTM makes it so much easier to add and edit tags without a developer, it’s great for smaller businesses that might have limited access to technical support. And since sites for enterprise-level businesses can easily use dozens of tags, GTM makes it easier to manage them all and improves site speed by helping them load more efficiently.
Tags can slow down site speed if fired synchronously
One issue with traditional tracking tags is that if they fire synchronously, they can slow down site speeds. When tags fire synchronously, one tag being slow to load slows down all the other tags that are waiting on it. And the longer a site takes to load, the more likely it is that people will leave without converting. But tags created in GTM load asynchronously by default, meaning each tag can fire anytime it’s ready to. If you need to control the order in which your tags are fired, there is tag sequencing and firing priority functionality to let you do that.
Can be used for AMP sites and mobile apps, as well
You’re not even limited to just using GTM with standard websites. GTM can also be used to manage tags for AMP sites and mobile apps. In the case of mobile apps, GTM can be a huge help since it lets you add and edit your tags without having to issue an updated version of your app, which users might not be quick to actually download. In some respects, using GTM for AMP sites or mobile apps is pretty similar to using it for a regular website, but they do have their differences. In this guide, we’re going to focus on using GTM for web.
Components of tags & GTM
On the surface, tags and tag managers are pretty straightforward. But before you can start working with them, there are a few main concepts you’ll need to know about.
Containers
When you start working with GTM, the first thing you’ll need to do is create a container. A container essentially “holds” all the tags for your site.
After creating a new container, GTM gives you some code to add to your site. This is your container code and it will need to be added to the source code so it displays on each page of your site. Some CMSes, such as WordPress, have plugins to help add the container code for you, but you may need to contact your web developer to have it added. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to add, edit, disable, or remove your tags as needed through GTM.
Triggers
Each tag on a site needs to serve a specific purpose. Maybe you want to have a tag send information when someone downloads a file, when an outbound link is clicked, or when a form is submitted. These sorts of events are known as triggers and all tags need to have at least one trigger assigned to it; otherwise, it’s not going to do anything.
Triggers can be broken down into two main components: events and filters. When you go to configure a trigger in GTM, you’ll be given a long list of types of triggers to choose from. These are your events. Once you choose an event, you’ll be able to set up your filter.
Filters can be divided further down into three parts: variables, operators, and values. We’ll talk more about variables in just a minute, but in this case, it refers to the type of variable involved. The operator tells the tag whether an event needs to equal (or if it should be greater or less than a certain value, contain a certain value, etc.) And of course, the value is the condition which needs to be met. Even though the word “value” is typically used in reference to numbers and prices, remember that in this case, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a numerical value. In many cases, your value will be something like a URL or a keyword.
For example, let’s say I wanted to see how many people were reading the blog content on my site in depth. I could create a tag with a Scroll Depth event trigger that should fire when the vertical scroll depth reaches 75%. If I wanted this to fire on every page of my site, I could leave the “All Pages” option selected in the trigger configuration box and I wouldn’t have to create any further filters. But since I’m focusing on blog content, I’d choose “Some Pages” and create the filter “Page URL” “Contains” “fakewebsitename.com/blog.”
There might also be some circumstances when you don’t want a tag to fire. In this case, you can create a blocking trigger to prevent it from firing on those occasions. GTM prioritizes blocking triggers over other types of triggers, so if you have a blocking trigger that contradicts a condition set by another trigger, Google Tag Manager will follow what’s specified by the blocking trigger. For instance, if you have a tag that’s set to fire on all of your pages, but there are a few pages you’d like to have excluded from that, you can just use a blocking trigger to prevent it from firing on those few pages.
Variables & constants
While tags depend on triggers, triggers depend on variables. Variables contain the value a trigger needs to evaluate to know whether or not it should fire. The tag compares the value of the variable to the value defined in the trigger and if the variable meets the conditions of the trigger, the tag will fire.
Tags also use variables to collect information that can be passed onto the data layer as a user interacts with the site. A common example of this would be if a tag was set to fire when a person adds a certain amount of products to their shopping cart.
Variables can often be reused between tags. One of the most popular tips for using GTM is to create constant variables with the ID numbers or tracking codes you’ll need to use more than once. For example, if you’ll need to use your Google Analytics property ID number in multiple tags, you could just create a constant string variable with the value being your ID number. That way, instead of repeatedly having to look up and enter your ID number, you could just select the variable name.
When using GTM, you’ll be working with two different types of variables: built-in variables and user-defined variables. Built-in variables are some of the most commonly used types of variables, so Google went ahead and made them easy to access in GTM.
Once you select a built-in variable, you’ll be able to configure its settings however you’d like. Note that these are just a few of the built-in variables for regular web containers. You can find more built-in variables by clicking the “Configure” button. If you’re using GTM for AMP sites or mobile apps, you may see different options to choose from.
If you need another type of variable that’s not included as a built-in variable, you can create a user-defined variable. When you go to add a user-defined variable, you’ll be given a list of types of variables to choose from. For more information on each type of variables, Simo Ahava has a very helpful guide to different variable types.
Variables can be created from the GTM dashboard by clicking on the “Variable” option on the left side menu. You can also create them while you’re creating a tag by clicking on the button next to the field that looks like a Lego block with a plus sign on it.
Data layers
Tags need information to know whether or not they should fire, but how (or where) do they get that information? One way they could find it is by checking the page’s HTML structure, but that’s really not an ideal solution. When tags need to search through HTML to find what they’re looking for, it can take longer for them to fire. And if the site’s HTML structure changes over time, tags can break. Besides, there are certain types of information a tag might need which won’t be found in a page’s HTML, like a transaction total.
A data layer is a JavaScript object which keeps the information tags need separate from the rest of your site’s code. Since tags don’t have to spend time searching through the HTML to find the information they need, this is another way GTM can help improve site speed. Instead, everything they’re looking for can be found in one place and it’s readily available when the page loads.
Technically, data layers are optional. You don’t have to specifically define one yourself; GTM can initiate one for you. But if you want to use GTM to track specific events, you’ll need to have a data layer.
To start off with, a new data layer object will look like this:
When adding a data layer, the object needs to be placed before the GTM container code. If the data layer object is placed after the container code, GTM won’t be able to access the information in it and the data layer will basically reset after loading.
Once the data layer object has been added to a page’s code, the brackets in the second line can be populated with information, variables, and events. Some types of information can be written directly into the data layer, but other types of information can be pushed into the data layer dynamically as a user interacts with your site, such as if someone downloads a file or if they add a certain amount of products to their shopping cart.
Working with GTM
Creating accounts and containers
To get started, go to tagmanager.google.com and create an account. Under “Setup Account,” enter the name of the company whose site is being managed and hit “Continue.”
Next, you’ll set up your container. Enter your domain name as the container name, choose which type of page or app it will be used on, and click “Create.” If you choose iOS or Android, you’ll also have to specify whether you’re using Firebase SDK or a legacy SDK.
Note that I specifically said to use the company name as the account name and the site’s domain for the container name. In theory, you can name these anything you want. This is just how Google recommends naming them as a best practice. Generally speaking, one of the best things you can do when working with GTM is make sure everything is named very clearly. Otherwise, it’s very easy for mistakes to be made.
Multiple GTM accounts can be managed within a single GTM account, but Google advises creating one container per domain. You don’t have to create separate containers for each individual tag or for every individual page on a site; all tags can all be placed within one container.
For most companies and organizations, one container is all they’ll need. But in the case of a company that has subsidiaries or owns separate businesses, the website for each subsidiary/business should get its own container and all the containers can be managed from one main GTM account. If a site has a subdomain that is treated separately from the main domain, the subdomain should also be given its own container.
When a marketing agency is managing tags on behalf of a company, Google recommends that the company create their own GTM account, then add the agency’s Google account as a user. This way, the agency can access GTM, but it’s easy for the company to revoke access should they decide to change agencies.
After creating your container, accept the GTM terms of service and you’ll be given your container code.
Once the container code has been added, you’re able to start creating tags. But before you get started, it’s a good idea to take some time to figure out exactly which tags you want to add. Even though there aren’t any limits to the amount of tags you can put in a container, for best performance, Google advises keeping the amount of tags you use to a minimum. If you’re migrating your tags to GTM from another tag manager or are making the switch from tags coded in your source code, this is a good time to review the tags currently on your site. In many cases, sites have tags that are associated with services they’re no longer using or were used to track things that aren’t being monitored anymore, so this is a good opportunity to "clean house," so to speak.
Creating a tag
When you create or select a container, the first thing you’ll see is the GTM dashboard. We’ll eventually get around to talking about almost everything you see here, but let’s begin by creating a tag. Click “Add a New Tag” to open up a window where you’ll be able to name and configure your tag.
Before we go any further into the process of creating tags, remember to name your tags very clearly. Since sites often use several different tags, you won’t want there to be any confusion about which tag does what. Google’s recommended tag naming convention is: Tag Type - Detail - Location. For example, a Google Analytics tag that tracks form submissions on a Contact Us page would be named “GA - Form Submission - Contact Us.” Including the location of a tag in its name is a good idea because it helps distinguish it from similar tags on other pages. So if I had other GA form submission tags on my site, specifying that this one is on the Contact Us page would help me avoid editing the wrong one by mistake.
Putting the tag type at the beginning of a tag name also helps keep your tags organized. GTM lists tags alphabetically, so if you’re creating multiple tags for the same service or tool, all of those tags will all be grouped together and easy to find.
Now, back to creating a tag. When you click “Add a new tag” on the dashboard, this is the window you’ll see. Choose “Tag Configuration” and you’ll be given a long list of tag templates, which includes many of the most commonly used types of tags. If any of these are what you’re looking for, click on it and enter the information requested. If you don’t see the type of tag you want to create listed, choose “Custom HTML” to add your own code.
Since the exact information you’ll need to provide will vary depending on which type of tag you’re working with, I can’t possibly go into how to make every single type of tag. But as an example, let’s say I wanted to notify Google Analytics anytime someone views my pricing page. After choosing Universal Analytics, this is what I’d see:
All I would need to do is choose “Page View” from the “Track Type” dropdown menu, then enter the variable with my Google Analytics account information. If I hadn’t created that variable ahead of time, I could make one now by clicking the dropdown menu under “Google Analytics Settings” and choosing “New Variable.”
If I wanted to make changes to the tag firing sequence or create a firing schedule, I could do that by clicking on the “Advanced Settings” option. Click outside the tag configuration window to go back to the previous screen.
Next, you’ll need to create at least one trigger. Click the “Triggering” box underneath “Tag Configuration” to get started. If you don’t have a previously created trigger to choose from in the list that opens up, click the + sign in the upper right corner of the window. This will bring up a new window where you’ll be asked to name your new trigger. Do that and click on the “Tag Configuration” box so see a list of trigger types. In my case, I’d choose “Page View.”
Since I only want my tag to fire on one page, I’d choose “Some Page Views,” then create a filter specifying that the page URL needs to equal the URL of my pricing page. If I had another filter to add, I could click the plus (+) button next to the filter to set one up. If I had created multiple filters for this tag and later decided to get rid of one of them, all I’d have to do is hit the subtract (–) button next to the filter in question. When you’re done, click outside the window to exit.
Once your tag and trigger have been configured, save it and you can either keep working by creating more tags or you can preview your tag and make sure it’s working correctly before publishing it.
Previewing, debugging, and publishing tags
GTM’s “Preview & Debug” mode lets you test tags before publication so that you can make sure everything is working correctly and that you won’t have any errors throwing off your data.
To enter “Preview & Debug,” click the “Preview” button in the upper right corner of the GTM dashboard and you’ll see an orange banner notifying you that you are now in “Preview” mode. Next, open the site you’re tagging. If you already have your site open in another tab, refresh the page and you should see a “Debug” panel at the bottom of your screen. (Don’t worry, visitors to your site won’t be able to see it.)
The “Debug” panel shows all sorts of detailed information about your tags, triggers, and data layer. On the left side of the panel is an event timeline summary, which outlines all the events that occur in the data layer. At a minimum, you should be seeing at least three events listed here: Page View, DOM Ready, and Window Loaded. It’s OK to see more than three events, but if any of those three are missing, there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.
When you click on any of the events in your timeline, you’ll see all the tags which are set to fire when that event occurs. Click on any of the tags to see more detailed information about its triggers, properties, and if there are any blocking triggers associated with it.
As you work in “Preview & Debug” mode, you’re the only one who can see the information about your tags. But let’s say you’re working as part of a team on a tagging project and you find an issue you want to bring to another person’s attention. There is a way to do that. Switch back over to your GTM dashboard and look at the orange banner. On the right, there’s a “Share Preview” button. Click on it and you’ll bring up a box where you can enter the URL of the page in question. This will generate a preview link you can use to send to another person.
If you’re having a hard time getting “Preview & Debug” to work correctly, Analytics Mania has a great guide to solving some of the most common reasons why this happens.
Even after a tag has been published, Google still makes it easy to go back and check to make sure there aren’t any problems. Google Tag Assistant is a free Chrome extension and once it’s installed, you can visit any page on your site and it will tell you if your tags are firing correctly or if there are any improvements that could be made. GTA uses a three color system to indicate its findings: green, blue, and red. Green means all of your tags are working, blue means GTA has suggestions for how a tag could be improved, and red means it’s not working.
Once it appears that all of your tags are firing correctly, you can go ahead and publish them. From the GTM dashboard, hit the “Submit” button in the upper right corner and you’ll be asked to review your changes. If everything looks OK, enter a name and description for your new container version and publish it.
When you publish changes in GTM, it creates a new version of your container. If there’s ever a problem and you have to revert to an earlier version of your container, all you have to do is click the “Versions” button at the top of the GTM dashboard, choose the version you’d like to revert to from the list, click “Action,” then “Publish.”
If you’re migrating your tags from another tag manager or from hard-coded tags on your site, Google advises setting up all of your tags in GTM, then removing your old tags all at once and publishing the GTM container with your new tags as quickly as possible. You might have a very small gap in your data collection, but there shouldn’t be any more issues after your new tags are live.
Workspaces, workspace changes, and activity history
If you have multiple people working on a tagging project at the same time, workspaces can help make life a little easier. Even if you’re not collaborating with others, sometimes having the option to create separate workspaces can still be very helpful.
In older versions of GTM, all edits had to be made in a common container draft. If one person or team finished adding tags before another person/team, they couldn’t publish their new tags without also publishing the other team’s tags-in-progress. But with workspaces, multiple users can work on tagging at the same time without interfering with each other’s work.
Each workspace uses the current published container version as a basis, but tags in each workspace can be edited, previewed, debugged, and even published independently from the tags in other workspaces. If you’re working with the free version of GTM, you can have up to three different workspaces, one default workspace and two others, but if you use Google Tag Manager 360, you can create an unlimited amount of workspaces.
When one workspace is published, it creates a new version of the container. If there are any other workspaces with unpublished changes saved in them, the user(s) working in those spaces will see a notice saying that they need to update the workspace. Updating the workspace syncs the changes in the container to their workspace. While it’s not required to do so to continue working, it’s generally best to stay on top of updates so that you’re not working with an outdated version of the container.
After syncing changes in a workspace, you’ll be notified if there are any conflicts which need to be resolved. If any conflicts exist, you’ll be asked to review them and either ignore the conflict or copy the change. When you copy the change, the field in question in your workspace will be overwritten with the information from the latest container version.
If necessary, you can set user permissions on workspaces to prevent users from making unwanted changes. For example, if you had a developer working on some really complicated custom tags, the developer might want to create a separate workspace to work in and limit the user permissions so that only they can make changes to it. This way, marketers will be able to go in and make changes without accidentally making changes to the custom tags.
Another great thing about GTM, particularly if you have more than one person working on tagging, is that it lets you see which changes were made, when they were made, and who made them. On the dashboard, you’ll see a Workspace Changes section, which outlines some of the most recent changes that have been made to tags and triggers. If mistakes any mistakes have been made, you can use the “Abandon Change” option to delete those changes. Beneath Workspace Changes, there’s Activity History, which shows all activity on a GTM account.
Additional resources
Google Tag Manager has a lot to offer, but learning how to use it in depth can be pretty overwhelming. This guide helped introduce you to the tool, but there’s still a lot more to learn if you want to use GTM to its full potential. LunaMetrics and Simo Ahava have written about GTM very extensively, so they’re excellent places to start if you have any questions or want to learn more. Of course, Google also has a lot of helpful information. Even if you’re not a developer, Google’s Tag Manager Guide for Developers is worth taking a look at since it does a great job of explaining some of the concepts related to GTM and has a lot of good information about how to use it. With all these resources, you should have all the information you need to get the most out of GTM.
This is a fantastic write up, especially for beginners. Lots of good info all in one place. Google's leaning towards tag manager, so like or not we need to get familiar with it.
'Measure School' on Youtube is a great way to learn GTM as well. Julian has about 15 videos and he takes a deep dive, from basics to some more complicated capabilities that GTM offers. For someone who is a more visual learner, that may be a great way to get started (or continue learning)! Hope it helps!
Holy cow great insight! I'm one of the many who just feel GTM is too technical and would take a gazillion hours to learn! This video series is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!
Love the insight on using GTM so that all your individual tags don't load one at a time and slow down the site loading speed. Thank you so much for sharing and for going through the "Working With GRM" steps.
This is a really helpful write-up for people wanting to go into Google Tag Manager. I've been using this for about 18 months now and one of the big benefits is that it let's me implement complex tracking solutions without having to go through a web-agency. With traditional google analytics the coding requires a person in a web-agency to make changes and go further back to legacy analytics and then you are having to hardcode and hack into code that will most likely change...particularly if it is a website in Wordpress.
A problem with tag manager is that is can take some time for information, particularly revenue tracking information to be passed to Google Analytics. This can be a problem when you are trying to sort out cross-domain tracking.
Probably cross-domain tracking is the biggest headache of all for Tag Manager. I don't know how many hours I have spent in debug getting this to work. Factor in the time delay and when you need real-time feedback it compounds debugging. By the way, if anyone is having problems with this there is an option to look for called "decorate forms". For some reason I have solved many cros-domain tracking issues (particularly in the hotel sector) especially when going from forms that are fixed with this simple tick-box. Try it if all else fails. :)
However, the benefits faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr outweigh the challenges.
With GTM I can track as events:
It's a good idea, as you mention to look for elements that do not change. So, on a button you would look to try and match the CSS class rather than the click text, or use the URL.
Then another good point is the ability to create the categories. I tend to sent the category for an event using a constant, so you might align those to the categories of the business. This then means that in reporting you can pul in all th events alongside the business category, and if the client wants a different name, then you just change the constant. Things like page scroll can be quite good for adsensers, as you can fire events to see where most people go in a page and drop and ad-unit there :)
Something I didn't see written in this guide was about the importance of determining whether or not the event you fire is considered an interaction event. In a nutshell when you fire an event you can tell google to consider that the event is like an interaction. For example, if someone comes to your website and arrives and there is a video and you fire an event that triggers when someone clicks the play button:
- If you set the event to count true, as a non interaction event, and the person clicks the video, and then leaves the page, they may be counted as a bounce - They arrive and then leave without doing anything.
- If the non interaction event is not set and so False what will happen is that the person clicks the video and GTM tells Google Analytics that they have completed another action. Therefore not counted as bounce.
What this means is that unless you are careful you can essentially model you bounce rate! I dare not think the nefarious uses that could be done for this technique, and if you are not careful, you might login and find that you suddently have a bounce rate of zero..which would be fantastic no! Therefore it's worth thinking about how you want the events to fire and the impacts they really should be having on your measurement.
I hope these extra notes are useful for anyone trying to get into GTM and compliment what is a great guide.
GTM's great, ultimately I think it keeps the advertising model alive for Google, but I personally think it's a good trade-off, particularly if you like to get really granular with your user tracking. Pretty scary the amount of information you can pull from a web-page...
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Definitely the best walk-through/ intro tips for Google Tag Manager that I have come across. Thank you so much for sharing, and I am excited to start implementing it now that I know the benefits and hassles it could save me from getting into in the future.
First of all i really want to appreciate your efforts for this well detailed and with full of information article. as a developer i would agree with you that it's not totally independent if you going deep tracking and sometime i have to create bunch of extra markup for detailed tracking.
but with the detailed depth of tracking option sometime GTM is not provide enough data for data scientist so they can analysis and predict customer forecast. That's why they has to look for other third party tools like insider or lucky orange and i am not in the favour of them because at end they make website performance slow. i wish if GTM get more improved and provide some live recording behaviour of customer so only one script will be enough for monitoring / tracking.
PS: This is totally my point of view and everyone has right to disagree with me
Junaid,
LuckyOrange isn't tool like GA or GTM. Their own different class for heatmap analysis and watching real users. I think that their competitors are HotJar, CrazyEgg.
You can't exchange them (GA <-> LO) because as i said they're different class. Friend of mine has eCommerce and seen that on one step of his checkout process was highly drop-off rate. So he install LO in exactly that step and found that people are confused to confirmed coupon code or to proceed without coupon code. So after that analysis with LO he just exclude that step from checkout process.
And here is Catch 22 - w/o GA he didn't know on what step they're confused, without LO he can't know what confuse people.
That's why isn't good to install that tools on each page because you will be flooded with information and you can't see the forest from the trees.
Nice post Angela!
So the Google Tag manager is a tool that would make marketers less dependent on developers and that would, therefore, speed up your marketing process.
Great Blog Angela Petteys.
Thanks!
Intuition Softech
Thanks for such an informative write up, although I have already used the GTM before but still this post proved to be very helpful and I bookmarked it in my browser. Keep up the good work.
Thanks so much for this in-depth and detailed post, Angela!
We've recently started implementing GTM for all of our clients at our agency, and this will serve as a great resource moving forward.
I did not have idea of Google Tag Manager, i spent lots of money in premium apps and there is a lot of thigs i have to learn from the free google ones.
It's a nice guide to those who start using GTM. Congratulations Angela!
As a negative point, I miss more information about Data Layer.
I love tag manager, there are still too many marketers who seem intimidated by the misconception of GTM being "too technical" - hopefully your useful overview will help with that :)
Interesting Angela, I've never tried GTM before, but I will after reading your article.
I won't get enough time with so many interesting things coming up on this blog!
Отличный материал. Пока что в закладки внес. Возможно позже начну изучать/пользоваться. Спасибо!
Диспетчер тегов Google для меня новая тема.
Хорошо, что я увидел Вашу статью.
Nice intro about Google tag Manager. What's the criteria for native GTM tags? Do they get added based on popularity? If yes, then where are Facebook and Twitter?
Note: By native I mean those predefined in GTM, allowing only for an ID, instead of the full snippet. I still prefer Custom HTML to the native ones, as they're not always up to date.
At last a really good article about Google tag manager. Sometimes Google's instructions are not too much clear (at least for me) and this kind of posts/articles are really usefull, and make save a lot of time.
Tnaks again.
Super detailed post Angela, nice work! I've been using GTM for quite a while (since the first version, where it was a bit difficult to install or understand). They have made it much easier to get it installed into projects these days. Your post really does a great job explaining the initial setup. I've also written on the topic and dive in a further with setting "push" events, and I hope Moz readers can find some additional value from my post here:
https://zadroweb.com/gtm-data-layer-event-tracking-guide/
Thanks!
Very Cool! I was always a little nervous to use Tag Manager as I didn't want the current Tags in my website to conflict with a new tag manager account. Definitely more confident and excited to try it out now, especially since it keeps everything organized and easy to access. Thank you for covering this!
Nice post Angela! I´ve never use GTM before, becouse the implementation in the sites that I managed before, but I´ll took it as a must for the next project ;-)
Well that was a new one on me, Thanks for the post. I guess I'd class myself as a beginner in this area and that really helped. Echoing Simon, has anyone tested ant Wordpress plugins to manage this?
Very good post Angela
I don't think GTM has a huge reason of use verious place. I know it have advantgues for controlling diffrent third parties adds. BUt we can handle it manuualy.
Hello! Great post! GTM is such an awesome tool. There is just one question I could never get a straight answer.
Is it OK to have to GTM containers within a same site (i.e. 2 advertising agencies)? If yes, is there anything we should be careful with when implementing it?
I know you've given a hint on how we should procede by being given access, but it is not always easy to do this in reality. So, when we have no choice but adding 2 containers, is it ok?
I've been looking for an answer for this for a while now!
Thanks!
Very nice article on Google Tag Manager.
Fantastic article, Angela. This would be a great guide for beginners and advances SEOs alike. The fact that Google rolled out this tool tells me that monitoring all that data is going to be more crucial than ever. At MediaSmack, we're working on adapting all this information to best fit our clients (not online commerce sites, to which this granular approach seems best suited) - but of course that's what all SEOs are up to!
Actually, one of my friends asks me have you heard about GTM (Google Tag Manager)?
I say “NO”. And he tells me you working on SEO platform and you don’t know, what is GTM.
I reached my home and finding some information about Google Tag Manager on Google and finally came across your blog article;
I especially liked how you describe this topic and your article stops my searching because I got what I want.
Nice Blog post for Beginner who wants to learn basic GTM Tag manager work..But Still there are lots of things we have to do Like for Custom Tracking, How you will trigger those page?
Nice post Angela,
I have not used GTM before but your post just made it a whole lot easier to get into it! Thanks!
Fantastic post. I always want to learn about this tool, but i have a little free hours. With this post, I'll start to learn next month. Thanks!
Being someone who's being working with tag management for the past 3 years I would say that Google Tag Manager is rather not as flexible and supportive in comparison to other tools like Tealium. Not only does it require less technical expertise for basic tags in Tealium but it also offers better customization and the ability to literally do almost any implementation including schema markups without much difficulty. That said, I think GTM is a great tool for SMEs, bloggers etc but I strongly recommend that they setup separate staging and production environments in order to ensure that they thoroughly test whatever tag changes are being made prior to going live. And also make use of the data layer variable in GTM as its really great and an awesome way to get technical and get more value from your data. Lastly, for those who who are looking for technical resources with GTM I recommend Simoa Hava and for Tealium unfortunately the only resource available would be within their Learning Community, but the support there is great.
Excellent guide Angela!, I will implement it from today
thanks for this guide!
Interesting article. I was unaware of the possibilities of the Tag, it is an option that may not be too exploited, being something too technical, I trust to be able to use them from now on my site thanks to this article. A greeting from Spain
I have recently started using GTM and found this article very useful, first of all thank you for nice article. Furthermore, Google analytics is not sufficient for analysing complex behaviour of e-commerce platforms GMT can help a lot.
Has anyone tested the Wordpress Google Tag Manager plugins? (To place all the google-related scripts into)
Which ones work best for asynchronous loading? (if you tested)
Awesome Article Angela, Tag Manager is really helpful for website but there is little panic to implement it as you mention in your article that "One issue with traditional tracking tags is that if they fire synchronously, they can slow down site speeds."
As Google set it's 1st priority to rank any website is "Page Speed" or if your website take time to load on web browser then it's little panic for us.
Nice & very informative post Angela,
I have never used GTM before but after reading this article it seems very interesting, I'm definitely going to try GTM.
Thank you for sharing your research.