Happy 7th Birthday Google Tag Manager!
Yes, that is right, this month we, well at least I, will celebrate the 7th anniversary of Google Tag Manager.
You know, the tool that makes it easier for anyone to start collecting digital data by implementing fancy online marketing solutions on their websites or apps.
Alright, I’ll be honest with you, this blog is not just about celebrating the 7 wonderful years we have been able to use Google Tag Manager, that would make this a very short article. At the end, I will tell you what you can do to regain control over your Google Tag Manager implementation.
So enough with the shenannigans, let’s get down to business.
Business, gotcha.
In October 2012…
…Google released Google Tag Manager, the free solution for placing and maintaining digital marketing scripts on a website with ease. Now although the learning curve was quite steep the adoption was enormous. So, regardless of its clunky interface and (at the time) abstract concept, it set upon a path of greatness.
Keep in mind that the concept of tag managementsystems was not new in 2012 but with Google Tag Manager being free it did open the door for many looking to get their hands on such technology.
Was the use of tag management systems easy back in the day? Not exactly, unless you had fundamental knowledge on topics such as HTML, CSS and Javascript you would be lost like stars during the day.
Because of this, many non-technical marketeers were left out in the cold. This was not only the case for Google Tag Manager but also for other tag management systems at the time like TagMan, with which I first learned about tag management. TagMan was later bought by Ensighten and assimilated.
So the early adopters of Goolge Tag Manager, who now had free access to a tag management system, were the true pioneers.
It didn’t take long, relatively speaking, for Google to update Google Tag Manager to a much more user friendly and visually intuitive version 2.
Fun fact, this month it has also been 5 years since that update, so…
5 years on, and with a recent cosmetic upgrade Google Tag Manager version 2 is still standing strong. However, don’t be mislead by versioning. A lot can change in 5 years, eventhough it feels like decades in the realm of “marketing technology”.
The only thing that has changed with me in the last 5 years has been my hairline that is in full-retreat and my fluctuating weight.
Google Tag Manager has changed
Google has implemented a series of minor and major updates over the past 60 months offering end-users a very professional, mature and robust tag management solution.
Feature updates included among others:
- localization
- look up table sorting
- improved error messaging
- dom element variables can use CSS selectors
- 2-factor authentication
- syntax highlighting in Custom HTML tags
- Youtube video trigger and variables
- support for Accelerated Mobile Pages
- element visibility and scroll depth triggers
- auto suggest dropdown when creating a Custom HTML of Javascript tag
Most notable updates of course included the introduction of:
- Tag Sequencing
- Folders
- Environments
- Workspaces
- Vendor tag template program
- Tag Manager API version 2
- Zones for 360 clients
- Trigger Groups
- Custom Templates ← my personal favorite 😁
…and most recently Google Analytics App + Web properties tag templates.
Be honest for just a second, even Jerry Bruckheimer or Christopher Nolan couldn’t come up with a script that exciting (pun intended). Well maybe Interstellar, but that’s a different story.
The oddball at parties
Now, I don’t know about you, but I often sound like an oddball at parties professing my enthusiasm for Google Tag Manager updates and tag management systems in general, but I have to say it does put a smile on my face.
Other people, including my wife and friends, they compare me to Chandler Bing from the hit television series FRIENDS. For those of you without Netflix or the DVD box set, Chandler is the guy who the other characters love and respect yet have no clue of how he earns a living.
Yeah, that’s me in a nutshell. Tag management is so under appreciated.
Back to the features, yes it’s true Google Marketing Platform 360 clients can make use of an exclusive feature set such as Zones, Unlimited Workspaces and Workspace Approvals, but when you compare it all against other free or competitively priced alternatives Google Tag Manager is still the defacto solution for many.
Awaking from the long nap
Remember back at the beginning of this article when I mentioned that Google Tag Manager was released 7 years ago, and updated 5 years ago? Did you feel a twitch in your brain? Well, if you did, you probably just realized that it has been a long time since you last had a look at your Google Tag Manager account and implementation.
That is okay. You are not alone. From experience, I can honestly say that Google Tag Manager is not getting the love and respect it deserves.
Yes, I get sentimental at times.
The main problem with tag management is that it has no direct influence on any profit and loss processes, merely indirect. In that case it is important to remember that to get the most out of your Google Tag Manager implementation, it needs commitment. Maybe not full-time but it does require active maintenance and monitoring. The performance of your digital marketing activities and quality of your digital data really depend on it.
Tag Managment First Aid
Here are my 5 tips on getting the most out of Google Tag Manager:
Tip #1 Login once in a while
Why would you own a car and not use it? Google Tag Manager is powerful, but it simply isn’t a tool you implement and forget about. Logging in will give you a moment to refresh your memory about what you are tracking and why. Of course, thorough implementation documentation should do that, but that’s a different topic.
Logging in will also allow you to look at the logs, see what changes have been made, who made them, and when. Accountability should be top of mind.
Tip #2 Clean out unused tags, variables, triggers
Scan through your account and check to see if any of your tags, triggers, variables and folders are inactive or empty. First of all, don’t worry, anything inactive won’t be deployed to your production environment, so you are not wasting bandwidth on empty overhead.
The best place to start are Triggers since the table view actually shows you how many tags are linked to a specific trigger. If it says ‘zero’ then you might be better off deleting that trigger.
Then with Variables, click on each individual Variable and see if it is linked to any tag or other variable. If the variable is not linked to anything, again, you are better off deleting the variable.
With tags, there is a caveat. Since you can trigger a tag from another tag through tag sequencing you will need to pay extra attention to what you delete. In most instances, Google Tag Manager will warn you if you are trying to delete a linked resource.
Then, folders… well, an empty folder is an empty folder. Nothing much more to say.
Tip #3 Perform basic data quality checks
Monitoring your collected data’s quality is slowly becoming a hot topic in the tag management and digital analytics community. The challenges of collecting data have in most parts been overcome by solutions like Google Tag Manager. However, it is slim pickings when looking for solutions that will help you pro-actively monitor and notify you when you collect bad data.
Sure, there are some superb monitoring solutions available like Verified Data, DataTrue, Columbo, ObservePoint to name a few, but you’ll need to dig deep in your wallet to actively use them.
Other methods include self-made and managed technical solutions like my dataLayer monitor using Google Tag Manager’s Custom Templates and Firebase Functions and Real-Time database.
Either way, if you are serious about your data, you need to start planning to focus data quality if you want to stay ahead in the game.
Tip #4 Verify you are collecting data legally
If you haven’t logged into Google Tag Manager since May 2018, then this one is for you.
This is a tip for any company bound by privacy legislation in their respective countries. And with this I mean laws like the European GDPR law that requires explicit opt-ins from visitors before you start unloading all those marketing tracking tools in their browser window.
When adding tags to Google Tag Manager, without effective workflows in place, it can quickly escape your attention that certain tags require opt-ins from users before they can be loaded. Building these rules into Google Tag Manager is not the challenge, consistently applying these rules is. So make sure you keep your guard up.
Tip #5 Catch up with new Google Tag Manager features
Alright, this one might be a little tough for anyone not technically inclined or who’s job it really isn’t to maintain Google Tag Manager in the first place.
Google regularly updates Google Tag Manager and they post their release notes online, but unless you are dedicated, or read the Google newsletters on Data, which includes topics like Google Data Studio, Google Analytics and the works, you will miss out on potentially implementing worthwhile features.
Stay up to date if you can. If not, embrace people who can help like myself.
Bottom line, don’t wait for data collection to control itself, you need to make that happen. Stay vigilant!
