A Smooth Introduction to Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Years ago, when I first encountered Google Tag Manager, I felt overwhelmed and opted to put it off as most of you. So, I want a warmer introduction to be in my Medium that may help someone. I will mainly search for a context to place the basics of the tool since I believe context is the missing part in all other guides.
This post is meant to be a smooth introduction to getting started with the basics since GTM is one of those tools that look intimidating at first, but once you understand how it works, it quickly rises to the top of any digital marketer’s toolkit. We will look at Google Tag Manager (GTM) while keeping in mind that although GTM provides excellent solutions, specifically for someone without an in-depth technical background, it also has drawbacks that should be considered.
What Is Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager is a tag management system that allows you to quickly and easily update your web tags, such as javascript, HTML, and images on your website or mobile application. It provides the ability to implement event tracking for Google Ads s campaign tracking or Google Analytics for web analytics, view traffic sources at a glance, and add information about your customers without having to modify your application or website source code.
When a change is made within Google Tag Manager, code additions and removals occur automatically throughout the pages of the site. This allows for quick turnaround times for implementation as well as a reduction in errors often associated with manual implementations.
Why Do We Need Google Tag Manager?
I think one of the first things to explain is which problems Google Tag Manager solves.
What GTM doing is simply making gathering data processes easier. Since data is the core of any digital marketing effort, we need to gather them. Tags can be used to track anything in a website or mobile app you can imagine, but they are required to be coded. It is a burden for IT departments and marketers.
What GTM offers is employing web tags to track or organize your website most easily. It is a way to connect their tags, pixels, and scripts without having to change the code of their websites.
As the nature of digital marketing becomes more complex, we need more advanced tracking capabilities. Google Tag Manager (GTM) enhances these capabilities by creating code snippets for tracking user activities on a website and embedding it in the website or application.
How To Get Started With GTM?
First, you should create a Google Tag Manager account. The onboarding process is very easy and it’s hard to miss. Simply, you should create an account, then a container.
Then, GTM will provide a piece of code to insert your website. You should copy and paste this code in the <head> and <body> tags for each page you want to control via GTM.
That’s all; GTM is now installed. Tag Manager servers can now connect with your website or app. The web-based user interface of Tag Manager can then be used to build tracking tags, triggers that allow your tag to fire when certain events occur, and variables that can be used to simplify and automate your tag configurations.
Google Tag Manager Basics
What is a Container in GTM?
A container is a group of tags, triggers, variables, and related settings that are installed on a website or mobile app. A GTM container can replace manually added tags, as well as Google Ads, Google Analytics, or any other 3. party tags.
What is a Variable in GTM?
In Google Tag Manager, variables are placeholders for values that are filled in when code is executed on your website.
What is a Trigger in GTM?
The term variable is used in GTM to refer to a helper function that your tags, triggers, and other variables can use to retrieve values.
To summarize, tags are snippets of code added to a website to collect data and send it to other parties. Scroll tracking, form submission tracking, running surveys, creating heatmaps, advertising, and tracking how users reach your site are all possible uses of tags. They can also be used to track certain actions such as file downloads, link clicks, and withdrawn cart items. Or it can save you the need to update a script or copy the tracking code to every page of your site when you want to install a new plugin.
While this is all just the basics, I hope I’ve made you think that the GTM is not as complex as it seems. Google Tag Manager is a powerful tool that can allow anyone to manage tags on their website.
Stay tuned for more detailed GTM posts. 💙
