What is Google Tag Manager? Benefits of Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a tool from Google and is widely used for those working on advertising campaigns. Using this tool helps businesses measure and track website performance. From there, come up with optimal marketing strategies and attract many potential customers.

What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager is a tool that helps update and manage tags on a website easily and quickly.

Definition of Google Tag Manager

The traditional method requires you to directly intervene in the website’s source code when you want to install code for tags such as conversion optimization, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, etc. This can be challenging for non-technical individuals and may pose certain risks to the website.

This is where Google Tag Manager steps in. It acts as an intermediary for you to install necessary tracking tags on your website without modifying the source code.

Benefits of Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager provides high efficiency in website management and marketing campaigns for businesses:

• Helps website administrators update and manage tags on the website.
• Analyzes and understands customer behavior.
• Measures conversion rates.
• Supports automatic Schema installation if your website does not use WordPress.

Google Tag Manager supports website management and analysis

Why should businesses use Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager is a tool that helps businesses track and measure the performance of their websites. It enables easy, fast, and accurate tracking and measurement of metrics and marketing campaigns.

Easy linking and usage

Google Tag Manager makes it easy for businesses to track and analyze customer behavior on their website:

• Links to websites easily, simply access the tool to complete the registration.
• Helps attach and update tags on websites like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, optimization tags like Google Optimize, etc.
• Enables businesses to understand customer behavior when they interact with the website.

Attach GA tags to analyze user behavior on the online store

Using Google Analytics tags helps businesses optimize marketing campaigns. From there, they can reach more potential customers and increase revenue. These tags offer many benefits such as:

• Provide information about customer demographic data like age, gender, location, user preferences, etc.
• Track and analyze metrics such as user volume, sessions, session durations, bounce rates, most visited pages, etc.
• Support real-time reports such as overview, location, traffic sources, conversions, etc. This helps evaluate the effectiveness of online stores.
• Identify external sources that help customers find said online stores, such as social media platforms, marketing campaigns, etc.

 

Use Google Analytics tags in Tag Manager to analyze user behavior

Attach marketing tags like Google AdWords and Facebook Pixel

Google AdWords and Facebook Pixel tags help increase conversion rates and support remarketing.

• Collect demographic data of website’s users.
• Track customer interaction metrics on the website through advertising campaigns from Google and Facebook. This helps evaluate campaign effectiveness.
• Display 4 important customer metrics such as viewed content, products added to the cart, payment information, and successful purchases.
• Help businesses target specific customers to build marketing campaigns.

Attach Google Optimize tags to optimize the conversion rate of the online store

Google Optimize is a tool that helps website administrators optimize the business website to enhance user experience and increase conversions.

• Easily use Google Optimize tags through Google Tag Manager without the need to modify the website’s source code.
• Support A/B testing, a method to test the effectiveness of two website versions (A or B).
• Assist with optimizing landing pages and websites to better suit customers.

Google Optimize tag in Google Tag Manager helps optimize conversion rates

Track user behavior based on goals on your online store

Google Tag Manager helps analyze user interactions to improve the quality of content of online stores.

• Displays metrics about customer visit duration and website traffic during specific time periods.
• Provides the ability to analyze customer behavior, which involves identifying what they view, where they exit the website, and their actions on the online store.
• Helps understand customer interactions with different components of the online store before they make purchase decisions.
• Enables creating appropriate call-to-action prompts for different customer segments.
• Through the provided metrics, businesses gain insights about their customers, allowing them to develop effective marketing campaigns and grow their businesses.

Track user behavior with Google Tag Manager

Manage interested audience to implement Remarketing strategy

Tracking user behavior with Google Tag Manager helps manage interested audiences for remarketing strategies. It allows businesses to store user information when they access the website

• Helps store the number of interested users who interact with the online store.
• Segments customers into groups based on their behavior for suitable remarketing campaigns.
• Supports brand recall campaigns to remind users about the products and services offered by the business.

Remarketing can be effectively implemented using Google Tag Manager

The influence of Google Tag Manager on SEO Marketing

Google Tag Manager has a significant impact on SEO marketing on top of its benefits related to businesses’ conversion rates.

Optimizing Analytics Metrics

With Google Tag Manager, businesses can track and analyze user behavior. This enables the optimization of website content such as better-quality images, elements, content, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons. This can also improve metrics such as time on page and bounce rate.

Automation Code Implementation

Google Tag Manager allows for the implementation of automation codes. These codes optimize and save time for the schema building process. Additionally, the tool compresses these codes to improve website loading speed and performance.

How to Set Up Google Tag Manager

After learning about its benefits, all that is left is learning how to set up and use Tag Manager:

Create a Google Tag Manager Account

Access the link “https://tagmanager.google.com” and click on “Create Account” to create a Google Tag Manager account.

Account Setup

In the “Add a New Account” section:

• Fill in the Account Name, ideally the website’s domain name for easy tracking.
• Select the country for the account.
• In the Container Setup, use the domain name as the Container Name.
• Choose the Target Platform as Web if you are setting up Google Tag Manager for a website and click Create.

Set up a new Google Tag Manager account

Set up data fields when creating a Google Tag Manager account

Accept Terms

Tick the box to accept Google Tag Manager’s terms at the bottom and click Yes at the top right corner.

Accept the terms when creating Google Tag Manager

Get the Provided Tracking Code

After accepting the terms, you will see 2 code snippets and instructions. To ensure the safety of the website, ask your IT department or website administrator to insert these 2 code snippets into the website.

Insert 2 code snippets received into the website

Insert the Received Tracking Code into the Website

If there is a designated place to insert the code on the website, follow the provided instructions. Otherwise, you will need IT assistance to insert the code.

Notes for inserting the tracking code: The first code snippet should be placed at the top of the <head> tag, and the second code snippet should be placed at the highest position within the <body> tag. After inserting, double-check to ensure that the code and website are functioning properly.

Install the Tag Assistant Extension in the Browser

To conveniently check the tracking codes inserted into the website, use an extension called Tag Assistant (by Google). You can search for it in the Chrome Web Store or use this link.

Check if the Code is Working

There are two ways to check if the Google Tag Manager code is working on the website:

Method 1: Check with Tag Assistant (by Google)

After successfully installing this extension, access the website and click on the extension. It will display all types of code, including Google Tag Manager.

Check if the code works or not with Tag Assistant

Note:

When a GTM account does not have optimized variables or tags, the button icon will be yellow. Once variables and tags are added, the button icon will turn green.

Method 2: Check with Tag Manager Preview

First, open the Tag Manager and website tabs, click on Preview in the top right corner of the screen. Then, refresh the website and you will see the Preview section at the bottom of the webpage.

Instructions for using Google Tag Manager

After successfully registering an account for your website, you can implement and install some tools integrated with it.

Installing Google Analytics

Step 1: Access Google Analytics, then go to Admin > Select Property > Property Settings to obtain the tracking ID.

Step 2: Create a variable for setting up Google Analytics: Log in to Google Tag Manager and go to Variables > New. Click on the Configuration Variable and select Google Analytics Settings.

In the Tracking ID field, paste the ID obtained from Google Analytics and name the variable, then click Save.

Step 3: Create a tag to trigger Google Analytics. In the left menu, select Tags > New. Find the Tag Configuration field and select the Google Analytics – Universal Analytics tag. Once you have done that, configure the following:

• Track Type: Page View
• Google Analytics Settings: Select the variable you created above.
• You can keep it as is or adjust the advanced settings according to your needs.

Next, in the Triggering section, click and select All Pages. Give a name to the tag and click Save.

Step 4: After completing all the setups, click on Submit > Publish > Continue in the top right corner to finish installing Google Analytics.

Instructions on how to install Google Analytics

Installing Google Remarketing Tag

Step 1: Obtain the Conversion ID from Google Ads. Access Google Ads, go to Tools & Settings > Audience Manager. In that section, go to Data Sources and click on Tag Setup of Google Ads Tag and follow these steps:

• Create a Google Ads Tag data source: Check “Collect general data about website visitors to display advertisements to these users.”
• Set up the tag on the website: Switch to the Google Tag Manager tab and copy the Conversion ID.

Step 2: Set up the Google Remarketing tag. Log in to your account > Tags > New. Configure as follows:

• Click on Tag Configuration and select the Google Ads Remarketing tag.
• Paste the Conversion ID you obtained into the tag and click Save.
• Click on Triggering and select All Pages.
• Name the tag and click Save.

Step 3: After completing all the setups, click on Submit > Publish > Continue to publish. To ensure the tag is functioning correctly, use the Tag Assistant (By Google) extension to perform a check.

Instructions on how to install Google Remarketing

Setting Up Tracking Events: Click Hotline and Button

1. Log in to your Google Tag Manager account, go to Variables > Configure.

2. Check all the options under Clicks and Scrolls.

3. In Triggers > New, assign a name like “Click Hotline.”

4. In the Trigger Configuration field, select All Elements under Clicks. Then, tick Some Clicks and configure the three fields as follows:

• The first field allows you to select the variables according to your purpose. Typically, you would choose Click URL and Click Text.
• The second field selects “contains.”
• In the third field, you can specify the hotline click using the format: “tel:phone number” or use the format: “Click Class/Clicked + contains + Class/Id” for button click.

5. After creating the trigger, you need to create a tag for it in the Google Analytics section.

Tracking Events in Hotline and Button

Setting Up Tracking Events: Scroll Depth

The process is similar to the Click Hotline and Button tracking event. In the trigger section, select Scroll Depth under User Engagement. Then, give a name to the trigger.

Tick Vertical Scroll Depth, enter the desired percentage to measure, and select Some Page Views.

At the bottom, there are three fields for configuration, choose these three options respectively:

“Page URL + contains + Web page URL to measure”

After completing the setup and publishing, access Google Analytics to create a tag for this trigger. Measure scroll depths such as 10%, 40-50%, and 90% to gain a comprehensive understanding of how users interact with your website.

You can check if your Tracking Events are working by accessing the website. Click on the hotline or scroll then use Tag Assistant to verify.

Tracking Event in scroll rate section

Limitations of Google Tag Manager

Alongside the benefits it brings, Google Tag Manager is not without limitations:

• Requires technical knowledge: Setting up tags through Google Tag Manager can be challenging for newbies. Google provides instructions mainly for website administrators rather than general marketers.
• Time-consuming: Understanding and implementing GTM requires a significant time investment, unless you are an experienced web developer.
• Troubleshooting also takes time: Issues may arise during the setup process. If you do not use the tool frequently, it can be difficult to remember how to troubleshoot each problem. Therefore, it may result in more time spent on resolving them.

Some limitations of Google Tag Manager

Frequently Asked Questions about Google Tag Manager

Here are some common questions that arise when using the tool:

Does Google Tag Manager work with products other than Google’s products?

In addition to Google’s products, it works well with various platforms and tools. You can add code to use tags like Hotjar, Facebook Pixel, Twitter Universal Tag, and more.

Does Google Tag Manager charge a fee?

Currently, there are two options for Google Tag Manager: Free and Paid (Tag Manager 360). The choice between the two depends on your requirements. For larger businesses, consider Tag Manager 360 to fully leverage all features.

Is coding knowledge necessary to use Google Tag Manager?

You do not need coding knowledge to use the tool. When setting up information in Google Tag Manager, Google provides you with code snippets to insert directly into your website. However, having basic coding knowledge can make the process easier.

Does using Google Tag Manager slow down the website?

Using this tool may slow down the website’s loading speed. However, the benefits that it brings outweigh this drawback. You can address this issue by using plugins to optimize the website’s loading speed.

Does Google Tag Manager affect SEO?

Not only does it have no negative impact on SEO, but it also provides many benefits for your campaigns.

Why does Tag Assistant show a yellow color even after completing the Google Tag Manager setup?

Tag Assistant shows yellow in two cases:

• Tag Assistant shows yellow because there are no tags set up. In this case, simply create tags and it will automatically turn green.
• If the issue persists after creating tags, there may be an error in the tag creation or the account setup process.

Does Google Tag Manager collect user data?

This tool collects information through deployed services and tags. Google uses user data to maintain and improve its services. With that said, they will not share user data without your permission, as described in their privacy policies.

Read more: The most common Google penalties are key pitfalls that you need to avoid.

Final thoughts

We hope that the knowledge provided by On Digitals about Google Tag Manager will help you understand the concept, create an account, and set up tags. If you still have any questions or need advice on building campaigns for your online store, feel free to contact On Digitals.