GOOGLETAG MANAGER

How does GTM actually work?

Tag Management the word itself defines the meaning is Management of Tags.

Tags has snippet of codes that are usually placed in the web page and which is used for different purposes. For example, there are third party tracking Tags which is used for analysis and reporting. Multiple platforms such as Google analytics and others which uses tags to collect data. Not only analytics but remarketing, conversion tracking also utilizes tags.

What Is tag: Tag is a javascript which is placed in the source code to collect the data.

What is tag management: Tag management has the ability to manage all the tags from a single interface.

What is GTM: GTM is a free tool provided by Google & it helps us to implement different javascrit on our website which in turn helps to track data from our website.

Need for GTM: It helps to place all the tags at one place which makes the management more easier.

Earlier we need to transfer each piece of JavaScript (analytics code, remarketing code, conversion code) to the IT team & then they implement the same. Also we need to do any changes to the javascript then again we need to run to the IT team which is a pain for all of us :)

If we add more & more scripts on a webpage it will slow down our website which may effect our page load time. This can be solved using GTM.

Summarize

Normal Implementation: we place all the scripts in the web pages. There are 3 different scripts like javascipt 1, javascript 2 & javascript 3 & all of these needs to be implemented on the web page. This is a tedious method & it can led to some kind of errors.Also it slows down our website.

Implementation with GTM: we have single interface which is called container. Here we can have all the scripts managed. we only have to place one code in our website which is the container code in all the pages of website. After this we can deploy all our tags with container.

Normal Implementation (NI) & Implementation Using GTM

How to Configure GTM?

GTM only takes a few minutes to set up an account. Process of GTM Creation:

1.Go to google.com/tagmanager to create a Google Tag Manager account.

2.Create a container for your site in the account

3.Add the container snippet to your site. You’ll then be ready to add tags to your site via the

Google Tag Manager user interface.

Preview of GTM Code:

Accounts

AccountsThe top-most level of organization. Typically, only one account is needed per company. Tags for all the company’s websites can be managed from this account by creating new containers. In order to create an account visit google.com/tag manager and signup for the product.

To create additional accounts, sign in to your existing account, click on "Accounts List" (found on the drop-down on the top-left corner of the page) and click on the "New Account" button shown in the screenshot below.

As a best practice, the account name should always be the name of the company while the container name should always be the website using this container.

Containers

A container holds all the tags for a specific website; as mentioned above it should be named after the website it is being used for. To create a new container select an account and click on the "New Container" button on the top-right corner of the page as shown in the screenshot below.

Once you create a container, you can start creating tags for your website. Google provides a few templates for its own tags, but it also allows custom tags to be used. Below are some of the tags supported by the tool:

AdWords Conversion Tracking DoubleClick Floodlight Counter Universal Analytics GDN Remarketing Custom HTML Tags

In order to add a tag to a container, navigate to the container, choose the tags section and click on the "New Tag" button on the top-right corner of your screen. See indications in screenshot below:

Tags

You will then reach the tag page. In this page you will be able to chose between the different tag types described above. As I wrote above, Google created templates for its own tags in order to minimize the possibility of errors.

Once you decide which tag to add, you will be prompted with a few details to fill for each tag type: e.g. Conversion ID and Conversion Label for AdWords Conversion Tracking. You will also be able to click on "Add Rule to Fire Tag" as seen below:

The rule will define the conditions under which the tag is fired. For tags that should appear in all pages of the website (like Google Analytics) a rule can be created to URLs that match a Regular Expression ".*" Another common usage would be to add tags to the conversion page only, so you might want to add a rule for an URL that equals the page address.

Publishing & Version

Once tags are added to a container they are not automatically published, they must be "manually" published. Publishing is always linked to a container version.

If you click on the "Versions" left navigation menu, you can check versions by clicking on the numbers; it will take you to a page summarizing all tags included in this version and the rules applied to them. This is an excellent way to keep the tags organized for troubleshooting tagging problems.

Users & Permissions

Users are added to accounts and, by default, have "No access" to all containers in the account. For each container, there are four types of user access: No access: user does not see the container listed

in the account. View only: user sees the container listed and

may browse the tags, rules in the container, but cannot edit them.

View and Edit: user may add and edit tags, rules in the container.

View, Edit, Delete and Publish: user may add, edit, and delete tags, rules in the container as well as publish changes to the live site.

Demo Implementation

Google Adwords Implementation

Google Analytics Implementation

If we don’t have the firing rules implemented the code will not track on any page.

To track the users via these tag we need to mention the firing rule always

.* is used to indicate that we want to show the code on all the pages.

Best Practices

• Structure GTM account properly (Account, container, & tags).

• Good naming convention for GTM configuration.

• User Management. If used by different users it should be given proper access to different users.

• Always do proper testing.

ALL THE BEST TO GET INTO GTM

Suvam Patwari