Data collection and analysis are essential in today’s digital age, especially if you want your business to continue growing and thriving online.
Of all the data collection tools out there, one of the most useful and most popular is Google Analytics. More than 4.4 million companies currently use Google Analytics to learn more about their business’s online performance and make decisions about their online marketing campaigns.
There are other tools worth using, though, including Google Tag Manager. Read on to learn everything you need to know about Google Tag Manager and why you might want to start using it alongside Google Analytics.
What is Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager is a free tool that allows your marketing team to have more control over the tracking codes that are embedded within your company’s website. In the past, if you wanted to have access to these codes or have new ones embedded into your website, you had to reach out to your development team and wait for them to respond. With the help of Google Tag Manager, though, your marketing team is able to bypass this step and manage the codes directly.
Benefits of Using Google Tag Manager
At this point, you might be thinking something along the lines of “that’s cool and all, but why do I need to manage those codes? What good does it do me to be able to access them more easily?”
The truth is that there are a lot of benefits that come with using Google Tag Manager. One of the main benefits is the ability to set up “triggers.” When you set up triggers, you can automatically send data to your Google Analytics platform when users take a specific action on your website.
The following are some of the most popular triggers people are set up with the help of Google Tag Manager:
Clicks
Clicks are one of the most popular things marketing professionals want to track when they’re monitoring the performance of a website. It lets them know how many people are clicking on ads or the site itself and visiting different areas of it.
User Engagement
You can also use Google Tag Manager to track user engagement. You can use it to monitor scroll depth and figure out how far down onto the page people are going before they click away from the website.
Page Views
Many people use Google Tag Manager to track page views. It can tell them how many people are viewing a page, and you can set specific conditions that set off that trigger, such as page location or the existence of certain types of cookies on the user’s device.
Outbound Links and Downloads
You can track outbound links and downloads easily with Google Tag Manager, too. This helps you figure out which pages on your site are most popular and which downloads people are most drawn to.
Form Submissions
Keep track of form submissions and form abandonment with Google Tag Manager, too. With this information, you can determine whether you need to make changes to your form to increase the number of people who complete it.
Tag Manager vs. Google Analytics
Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are two different programs. However, they can work together very well to provide you with more information that you can use to streamline your website and improve your marketing campaigns.
The key difference between these two programs is the fact that Google Tag Manager does not do any kind of analysis or reporting for you. It’s meant just for tracking and managing code.
You need to use Tag Manager and Analytics in conjunction with each other if you want to make any significant improvements to your business’s website or online presence.
Who Should be Using it?
There are lots of people who can benefit from using Google Tag Manager. If you are able to answer “yes” to at least a couple of these questions, there’s a good chance it’s worth it for you to start using this tool:
- Does your marketing team do a lot of custom tracking for your company’s website?
- Do you have to send a ton of requests to your development team (too many for them to manage) to have your tracking and analytics codes updated?
- Do people on your marketing team create their own web pages from scratch?
- Has your marketing team specifically asked for tools to help them track aspects of your website performance in a better way?
If any of these situations apply to your business, Google Tag Manager may be a worthwhile tool for you. It’ll give you more data to work with and help you ensure you’re on the right track toward accomplishing your specific marketing goals.
As long as you have some people on your team who are relatively tech-savvy (Google Tag Manager does require some more advanced technical knowledge), you should be able to start using and benefiting from it right away.
How to Set it Up
Are you ready to get started with Google Tag Manager? The good news is that it’s quite easy to set up on your business’s website. Just follow these steps and it’ll be up and running in no time at all:
Sign Up
The first thing to do is sign up for Google Tag Manager. It’s easy and totally free. You just have to visit this website: marketingplatform.google.com/about/tag-manager
Copy and Paste the Code
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll have access to some code that you’ll need to copy and paste onto each page of your website. This code will come with instructions to help you ensure you paste it in the right place.
Set Up a Tag
After this, you’ll be able to set up a tag (or several). To do this, just follow the instructions laid out after you click on the “Add a New Tag” button.
Start Using Google Tag Manager Today
Now that you know more about Google Tag Manager, do you think you could benefit from it? Most businesses can, especially those that want to gather more data and make sure they’re maximizing their marketing efforts.
If this appeals to you as a business owner, you definitely ought to make the utilization of Google Tag Manager a priority. Keep the tips listed above in mind so you can ensure you’re setting it up and using it in the correct way.