In the usual Google spirit of jumping in and demolishing the competition in growing industries, Google has launched Google Tag Manager. But it is not all bad. On the contrary, Google Tag Manager looks like an excellent option for better aggregating and analyzing specific data. In this post, we will go over the basics of Google Tag Manager.
First, What is a Tag?
A tag is a code that can be placed on your website that measures traffic and visitor behavior. Tags can help a website owner understand how online advertising, email marketing, social media management, remarketing, or different tests influence their website. If you are not using tags and are involved in many other marketing avenues, there is a good chance that you are misinterpreting data.
Why Have a Tag Management System?
It is true, tags can be created manually. But why do anything manually when there is a faster way? A tag management system such as Google Tag Manager will automate and simplify the process.
How Does Google Tag Manager Work?
According to Google, “Google Tag Manager keeps track of a set of tags and tag-firing rules that define when those tags should be made available on your site. Then, when a user visits the site, the most up-to-date tag configuration is sent to the end-users browser with instructions for which tags should fire.”
The tag manager is implemented site wide and can load Google and non-Google tags. Once the system is set up, it runs from there. It is good to know that Google tag manager is an asynchronous tag, so when it loads, it doesn’t block other elements on the page. According to Google, “It also causes the other tags deployed via Google Tag Manager to be deployed asynchronously, meaning that a slow loading tag won’t block other tracking tags.”
Setting Up Google Tag Manager
Setting up an account with Google Tag Manager only takes a few minutes. First, you create an account and copy and paste a piece of code onto every page of your website. Then, place it immediately after the opening <body> tag.
But migrating over from an old tag system can take hours. What is nice is that Google Tag Manager already has a built-in template for AdWords Conversion Tracking, Google Analytics, DoubleClick Floodlight, and AdWords remarketing. It can also be deployed on mobile sites and has specific mobile tagging options.
Here is what it looks like when you get a tag set up.
The Final Word on Google Tag Manager
I am pretty excited about Google Tag Manager. It’s like other tag managers, but it’s by Google, asynchronous, and integrates with all the main Google products you need tags for. This is definitely a product to test.
