Benefits of Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Most businesses are familiar with Google Analytics, but not with Google Tag Manager (GTM). This feature is available in much the same way as Google Analytics: add a snippet of code to your website, add your Google Analytics tracking ID to GTM, publish to GTM and get started. It’s as simple as that.
The main difference is that GTM makes it easy to track different aspects of your website without having to write custom code (for the most part). This means that you, your marketing team or your agency can collect custom data on your website without hiring or commissioning a developer – saving you time and money.
Getting better data
Tracking the data that matters to your business will help you better understand your audience and which areas of your website are working well or can be improved. You can also pinpoint which micro conversions led to macro conversions.
If you want to learn how to set up Google Tag Manager on your website, then read the article below. If you’re short on time, we’d be happy to help. Contact us using the contact form.
How to set up Google Tag Manager
Setting up Google Tag Manager involves a few preliminary steps. First, you’ll need to add your Google Tracking ID to GTM. Then, simply copy the GTM container code and add it to the header and body of your site. Don’t forget to remove the Google Analytics code, as this is now implemented via GTM.
Check out macro and micro conversions
Take a moment to explore your website and mark out the different macro conversion points (the main goal of your website) and micro conversion points (the steps that lead to the main goal). In most companies, these points will include:
Use the correct identifiers
One of the advantages of Google Tag Manager is that it provides different ways to track the information on your website. You can use classes, form IDs, page URLs and much more. To explore a page and find the relevant element you want to use, click the arrow in the top left code box and scroll through the different parts of the page.
Set your tags, triggers and variables
After reviewing your website, you have now figured out what you can track and how to track it. The next step is to set everything up in Google’s Tag Manager. Tags answers the question, how will you be able to track what you want to track? Although GTM has many different types of tags, you will mostly use the Universal Analytics tag type. In most cases, you create a tag and can fill in the settings if you wish. We recommend that you define a naming convention for events and triggers at the outset to make tracking your data as easy as possible with an organized approach.
When do you want the code to be triggered? This is where the conversion tracking information you (or your marketing team) have collected comes into play. For example, you could choose to trigger a tag when a contact form is submitted or something similar.
Finally, there are variables. These allow you to create custom filters and ways to enter data. The latest updates to GTM include many of the common variables you will need to make your job easier and your data richer.
Test your GTM installation
One of the benefits of Google Tag Manager is that you can test your settings before you go live and ensure that new tags are triggered correctly. Simply navigate to the PUBLISH button, click the arrow and select PREVIEW. Open your site in the same browser and click on the different conversion points to make sure the tags are triggered.
Publish your tags, triggers and other changes
Once you have confirmed that all the tags are working correctly, you can publish your changes to the GTM service! Google Tag Manager allows you to name the latest version you commit and provide a description. I recommend filling them in with notes about what was done, so it’s easy to remember what changes were made when checking data from months ago.
Create a dashboard and set goals
The final step is to create a custom dashboard and set goals for the conversion points you are tracking. For example, you are most likely tracking events. You can use the event category, event tag and event action to separate or combine different events in a dashboard or goal.