Google Tag Manager: A Beginner's Guide - Nummero

For any webmaster or site owner, Google Tag Manager is a must-have tool. 

The system is essential for handling the tags on any website. 

For those of us who haven’t experienced coders, it makes tag maintenance quick, efficient, and simple to grasp. 

This comprehensive guide will teach you all you need to know about Tag Manager.

Tags are bits of code that are put on the pages of any website. 

They can do a variety of tasks. 

One such example is the JavaScript code tag, which is required for Google Analytics to function. 

This tag collects the information required by Analytics to provide its many reports and insights. 

Other tags can extract and send various types of data to platforms such as Google Ads and others.

As a result, managing your site’s tags effectively is critical to conducting website analytics. 

As a result, it’s crucial to optimize the site’s speed. 

That’s why you’ll want to keep reading to find out how Tag Manager makes creating and implementing all of the tags your site requires so much easier.

What Is Google Tag Manager and How Does It Work?

 

Tag Manager is a ‘Tag Management System’ according to Google (TMS). 

That’s a fantastic way of looking at things. 

It performs for tags what a Material Management System (CMS) does for content on a website. 

The service provides an interface for creating and tracking all of the tags your website requires.

You don’t have to manually code each tag anymore. 

Instead, you may use the UI to generate all of your tags. 

Tag Manager will then put them into action on your website. 

That is if each page of your website has a simple bit of Tag Manager code inserted in it.

There are three major advantages of using tags in this manner:

 

  • Reducing Developer Pressure — You and your web developers don’t have to bother about manually coding tags. This frees up time for other activities, such as managing your website’s content.
  • Greater Accuracy – Human-coded tags are more prone to mistakes. A simple typo or a mistake in the copy and paste might render a tag ineffective. Tag Manager won’t make mistakes like this.
  • Control and oversight of marketing campaigns – The Tag Manager interface make it much easier to manage and track all of your tags. As a result, you’ll be able to generate and employ more tags that are directly related to your marketing goals. It’s simpler to create and use tags to collect data for your marketing campaigns.

How to Get Started with Google Tag Manager

 

To use Tag Manager, you must first create an account with the service. 

Unlike many other Google products, Tag Manager will not automatically log you in if you already have one. Instead, go to Tag Manager’s website and select one of the ‘Create Account’ options.

After that, you must enter a few different pieces of information. To begin, you must give your Tag Manager account a name. Each company should only have one account, according to Google. 

As a result, your company name can also used as your account name.

You must also select a ‘Container Name.’ 

Tag Manager will not operate until you include the container code in your web pages. 

The container name should match the name of the site or sites where the container will be embedded. 

Then just select the appropriate platform from the selection and click ‘Create.’

You’ll notice two pop-ups when you’ve completed that easy page. 

The first is that you must accept Google’s terms of service. 

The next section contains all of the information about the container snippet you’ll need to add to your site’s pages.

The container snippet is divided into two sections. 

The first line of code employs JavaScript to extract data. 

That excerpt should be as high up in the part of your website as possible. 

An HTML iframe is used in the second snippet. 

That code must be placed right after each page’s starting tag.

The container’s HTML iframe element is only used in restricted conditions. 

When a site visitor disables JavaScript, this happens. 

Tags will still trigger if that snippet is present, even if JavaScript is not present.

You’re ready to use Tag Manager once you’ve set up your account and your first container. 

You may now begin to have a better understanding of the interface and the parts that make it up.

Variables, Tags, and Triggers

 

Tags

 

Each analytics platform has its own set of terms. 

If you haven’t used the tool before, they all employ distinct terminology and phrases that you may not be familiar with. 

Google Tag Manager isn’t any different.

The TMS makes use of three labels in particular that you should be aware of. 

It will be easier to get started with the tool if you understand what they are all about. 

Tags, triggers, and variables are the three labels. 

Each is an important part of Tag Manager and has its area in the UI. 

The links to those highlighted parts may found in the image above.

But what are the differences between a tag, a trigger, and a variable?

Tag Manager relies heavily on tags. 

Tags are code snippets. 

Analytics and marketing platforms utilize them to interface with websites and applications.

Tags, for example, are used by Google Analytics to collect data about users of various websites. 

Tag Manager exists to make the creation and implementation of tags easier for you. 

The system functions as a user interface. 

You may use it to generate and publish tags without needing to know how to code.

It’s worth noting that these tags aren’t the same as the ones frequently discussed by web developers. 

Webpages are coded using conventional HTML tags.

Tags like Head>, Body>, and Blockquote> are examples of these sorts of tags. 

Because they’re frequently enclosed by HTML script> or image> tags, we also refer to analytics and marketing code snippets as tags.

Many alternative tag setups are naturally supported by Tag Manager. 

Tags from Google products, as well as several from third-party platforms, are among them. 

If GTM doesn’t support the tag configuration you want to use, you can build custom tags.

Custom tags are not recommended by Google. 

They recommend that you approach a tag supplier to join their Tag Vendor Program instead. 

However, if you wish to employ custom versions, you may use HTML, image, or function tags.

Triggers

 

Tags in a website’s code will trigger when a specific event occurs. 

That event is detected by a trigger. 

Triggers ‘listen’ to your website or app for specified events to happen. 

Page views, form submissions, and link clicks are examples of such occurrences. 

Triggers instruct tags to fire when they detect the event they’re searching for.

One of the first things you must do when creating a new tag in GTM is configuring its trigger. 

You can pick from a variety of trigger kinds. 

Each one corresponds to the type of event you want the tag to respond to.

A trigger you build by default causes a tag to fire every time the appropriate event occurs.

However, you may attach filters to a trigger to further determine when tags should fire and when they shouldn’t.

 

For example, you might implement a filter to ensure that a tag only fires when the URL where an event happens has a specific suffix. 

It may be anything like ‘/products,’ ‘/blog,’ or something similar. 

As a result, you’ll be able to concentrate more intently on occurrences occurring in certain regions of your website.

Variables

 

Tag Manager variables are related to both tags and triggers. 

They’re values that assist specify what the tag or trigger is designed to accomplish more explicitly. 

The simplest method to understand variables is to look at how they function for triggers and tags one by one.

Variables describe when the trigger should inform its linked tag to fire in the case of triggers. 

For example, you might set up a trigger such that its tag fires when the URL variable contains the string ‘website.com/products.’

When it comes to tags, variables describe the specific data that the tag should capture. 

For example, you may set up a tag to extract a product ID and the transaction’s monetary amount. 

Built-In Variables are available in Tag Manager. 

They address the majority of the common trigger and tag setup requirements.

User-defined variables can also be created. 

You can use those variables to adjust for any special needs you might have.

That is, assuming that the Built-In Variables do not meet your needs. 

Later, we’ll go through the two sorts of variables in further detail.

Conclusion

 

GTM is an interface that allows you to manage the usage of tags on any site or site fast. 

It automates the process of creating tags and incorporating them into your pages. 

Furthermore, it guarantees that you always have a current inventory of the tags you’re utilizing. 

You can’t do without GTM if you’re serious about your site’s analytics.

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