In this digital era, most of us need to track our website traffic or AdWord traffic from various platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Adwords, etc. And for the same, we need to add a particular code for tracking.
Adding a tracking code is not a difficult thing, but adding all these tags in a code may reduce the speed of your website. Handing these tags is also one of the problematic things. So now maybe you wonder about a solution to make it easier?
Yes, It’s easy with Google Tag Manager!
If you’re not that well-known with Google Tag Manager, you are questioning what it is and why you should utilize it. Let’s learn Google Tag manager here with a step by step guideline!
What is Google Tag Manager (GTM)?
Google Tag Manager is a free tool for efficiently managing and deploying various marketing tags on your website or mobile application without doing any change in the code.
Tracking codes or pixels are small pieces of code that track data of your website or mobile app users. Google Tag Manager shares information about your site with other data sources like Google Analytics. All the tags can be stored in a GTM so it becomes able to handle all the Tags at a place.
Here’s the significant benefit is that a marketer can do it by his/herself only and does not need a developer to do it.
GTM has gained global approval and praise in the marketing and analytics areas and is recognized as a useful, reliable, and effective way to handle website tracking.
There are three essential elements of Google Tag Manager:
- Tags: It is a Tracking Code of Javascript. Tags templates do most of the difficult tasks for us. But still, you require to set up triggers to start your tracking tags run.
- Triggers: This direct Google Tag Manager when or how to fire a tag. A trigger is defined as a set of rules that inform the tags to begin the fire. The essential trigger in GTM is the all pages trigger which tells your tag to shoot on every page when the webpage loads. This trigger is generally applied with the Google Analytics tag.
There are so many other built-in triggers also. Each trigger has its own set of rules for shooting your tags.
- Variables: Variables are essential if you need to compare your tag management. There is various type of variables like:
- Constant Variable
- Built-in Variable
- Video view variables
- Data layer variables
Why Do We Have to Setup Google Tag Manager?
The marketing field is growing in various aspects, and each latest tool or system gives multiple access points to connect with clients, and they also intercross with each other. And the main point here is that each offers a tag to track For example,
Want to track your website in Google Analytics? or Want to track the effects of your Facebook or Twitter ads? Then you are required to set a Facebook tracking code on your website.
We can understand it by a simple example of an empty glass. Now adding cold drinks of various brands in the same empty glass may be overflowed and mixed every drink in it.
The same thing happened when we added those all tracking tags in the website code. And the tracking code decreases your site loading capacity, and because of it, maybe visitors leave the site. Also, slow speed and loading websites get punished by Google and impact the ranking of it.
Is There any Difficulty between Implementing the Tracking Tag and Website Development?
Yes, the tracking code can create difficulties in the process of web development as it is slow and problematic. New tracking codes have to be tested and validated; otherwise, sometimes it could break a website.
And that’s why the website development team may refuse to add the tracking code or install it without giving you any support or directions.
Google Tag Manager Templates
Tags provide you access to vital marketing information. But you don’t have to overload your website by adding the tracking tags. You require secure and simple access to notice your tracking code on your website. GTM can assist you in working on these difficulties.
Tag templates are ready-made tracking codes with minimum input required. They are specially optimized for website speed, cross-browser compatibility, and Google approves them. You can set these GTM templates without affecting any part of the code.
To connect to your website, you need a tracking Id generated by the marketing platform. Tag templates also decrease website management work. When merchants do any update in their tracking code, your template will automatically renew.
It is not compulsory to use Google Tag Manager as if you have to apply only one tracking code then you can add it directly to your website code.
What is the Process of Implementing Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager gives you the specific code and directions for where to append it to your website. Let’s go through the step by step installation process here:
- Open https://tagmanager.google.com/#/home and create your account using your Gmail Account.
- Now under Setup Account, add the name of the company and click on Continue button
- Then you have to fill your container data like container name, select where to use it like Web, iOS, Android, AMP, and then click on Create. Now here if you have selected iOS or Android then you have to also choose either you’re working on Firebase SDK or a legacy SDK.
Here I would like to suggest you add the company name as the account name and the site’s domain as the container name.
- After clicking on the create button, a window will be shown where you have to accept the GTM terms of service
- Now you can see your GTM code in the next window, just copy them and paste in your website as per the given instructions here.
- After creating a container, you will see a Tag dashboard where you have to click “Add a New Tag” to start a window where you’ll be capable to name and configure your tag.
- When you click on Add a new tag you will see below window:
- Now click on the Tag Configuration and you will see a long record of tag templates, which covers many of the most usually utilized varieties of tags. Choose one related to you and add the data asked. If there is not any related then click on Custom HTML to add your code.
- Now click on the Triggering box, click on the + symbol and give your trigger a new name. And after that click on the Tag Configuration box select a trigger type. Here, I have created a Tag named “Page View” so I will choose it here:
- To add more URLs or remove any URL you can use + and – Sign here.
- Now click on save to save the data here.
But before publishing these all tags, triggers and variables, ensure that these all are working correctly. For this, you can use the preview button to view the review of it. There are various choices you can pick from:
- You can enable preview and debug mode and check whether it looks on the window. Click the Preview button available at the top right corner of the GTM dashboard and check the preview.
- You can find it on your website code too. Right-click on-website page and view page source and find for gtm.js.
- You can use the Tag Assistant extension to verify whether GTM is adequately done or not.
Once you’ve completed settings and testing tags/triggers/variables by using the preview button in the container, now publish it.
- In the dashboard of Google Ta Manager’s top right corner, you can click on the SUBMIT button.
Here, you have two choices:
- Publish all changes to make it live
- Or only create a version. Modifications won’t let you live on the website, but you will have a stored version to which you can then restore the latter.
Once you publish the changes, it will go live, and you will begin tracking your website.
Google Tag Manager Migration Process
Now, what about those projects or websites which already have various tracking code implemented?
Here we have two different solutions for it:
- The most advised answer is migration. Migrate all the hardcoded tracking codes from the website’s source code to Google Tag Manager. This method is not simple and will need both your and the developer’s work. With GTM, you could perform tracking much quicker.
- You can execute new tags with Google Tag Manager, while earlier tags are still hardcoded. But ensure that you’re not creating tags for the same code; otherwise, your information in reports will be repeated.
The migration procedure runs like:
- Classify and list all the available tracking tags that are operating on your website
- Create the same tracking tags in GTM again
- Now apply preview mode to examine your current tags
- Remove all your tracking code
- And publish your GTM container soon to make new changes live
But when you are working with the migration process, you may give some gap in tracking. Don’t worry here we have a solution to track records while migrating tags. We can create a suppression trigger that informs GTM about not to fire the latest tags if there is any old tracking code available.
Once the old tracking is eliminated, the suppression trigger will quit firing, and the latest tracking tags will begin recording data. By using suppression triggers we can stop double-tracking.
Advise by GTM Experts to Beginner
- Always go through the preview of your new tags to ensure that they are working well.
- If you haven’t done any changes, then do not publish the same tag again and again as it will produce so many versions of your container.
- If you find any relatable built-in variable then only use them as they can increase the value of your report
- Use event tracking to know to make your website and business better. Some of the event tracking examples like scroll tracking, button clicks, lead forms, etc.
If you are a developer, then Google Tag Manager is very easy and useful for you, but you are a non-tech person, then this post will help you a lot.
