Google Tag Manager (GTM)

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What is Google Tag Manager?

Google tag manager (GTM) is a free tag management platform that enables marketers to deploy and track marketing data by easily adding code snippets to their website or app. It allows marketers to track conversions, website analytics, retargeting, and more without the intervention of webmasters.

How do Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics (GA) Work Together?

Google tag manager was not built to replace Google analytics. Instead, the two work harmoniously to give marketers an easy-to-manage, flexible system of tracking various analytics. Google tag manager enables users to deploy tracking code on chosen pages and Google analytics uses that code to track various data, including conversions. GTM is a game-changer tool in a way that it provided marketing professionals with the freedom to add, edit, or remove measurement tags without any hard coding, making the process much simpler and faster.

Key Benefits of using Google Tag Manager

#1 GTM eliminates the hassle of hard coding tags

Prior to Google tag manager, every time a tag needed to be added, edited or removed, a web developer had to be involved to hard code the website. Now, the same code snippet (GTM container code) that can contain various marketing and analytics tags is placed on all pages of the website. It takes a few clicks to edit, remove or add new tags and it can all be done through a user-friendly GTM interface.

#2 GTM enables businesses to move faster

Over-dependence on web developers is an issue for many businesses with limited resources. It stalls the growth and experimentation that is vital in the fast-paced digital world that we live in. A marketer can’t afford to wait around for weeks for the IT team to free up some time and deploy a bunch of tags. Google tag manager is a cost-effective and reliable solution that helps businesses adapt to changing marketing conditions and move from one experiment to another much faster and without any additional costs.

#3 GTM makes advanced tracking a breeze

Google tag manager allows users to perform the same task that used to take days or even weeks in a matter of minutes. It comes with an array of built-in tags and functions that enable users to implement advanced tracking in a short window of time. For example, instead of having to add an event tracking code to every “Submit” button on the site, a user can turn to GTM to create one tag with a certain set of rules to track clicks on all buttons across the site.

#4 GTM can boost the website speed

Google tag manager tags are deployed asynchronously, which means a slow loading tag wouldn’t prevent other tags from being fired.

#5 GTM centralizes tag management

By giving you one place to manage all the marketing and analytics tags used on your site, GTM significantly improves the efficiency of tag management and simplifies the process of adding, editing, and removing tags by eliminating the repetition and reducing the chances of errors.

How to Set Up GTM?

If you use Google Analytics (GA), getting started with Google Tag Manager won’t be that difficult. Here’s a basic step-by-step guide to setting it up on your website.

Step #1: Create a Google Tag Manager account

Step #2: Add the container code to every page on your site

Step #3: Create your first tag (typically, it’s the GA code snippet)

Step #4: Enable the Preview Mode to see if the tag is firing

Step #5: Head over to the GA real-time report to ensure visits are being recorded

Step #6: Publish the container

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