Google Tag Manager. 

Say what now?

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a relatively new feature for tagging websites....and by relatively new, I mean it was launched a few years ago (2012). That is about how long it takes for agencies to convince their clients to accept and take action on new digital recommendations anyway, so I figured - hey, why not try to accept it? - I've put it off long enough, plus my boss deemed me the analyst in charge of tackling how Google Tag Manager works.

Looking at the big picture, our digital marketing agency wants to have people in house set up website tracking during the on-boarding process for new clients. GTM is a tool that makes that concept a reality; giving non-developers a way to add tags to websites without any real coding experience. Once the GTM container code is added to a website - using the GTM interface, anyone with access can push additional tracking codes onto the website without needing to manually add new codes on each page in the coding.   

Long story short, with GTM, instead of sending a bunch of separate emails hassling web developers and marketing teams to add codes for Adwords tracking, Google Analytics tracking, Bing Tracking, etc. to their websites so we can accurately do our jobs and see the performance we're trying to increase, we can simply have them drop in one code - the GTM container code, and then handle the rest on our own.  At least that's the plan!

I think GTM sounds a lot simpler than it actually is. I've passed the GTM Certification in Google's Academy for Ads, but I don't feel like I'm truly prepared to tag websites in the "real world." So, this site is my guinea pig where I'll apply what I've learned and test tagging my own website. Obviously this isn't as complex as an e-commerce site since I won't be dealing with any revenue tracking, but it's a step in the right direction. 

Here's hoping it works! Does anyone else use Tag Manager? If so, do you find it easier to use or does it simply bring a whole new set of problems with it that outweigh the benefits?

Eventually I'll let you know my thoughts! Wish me luck!

For more technical details about Google Tag Manager check out these Google Support pages.

If you're not convinced that GTM is the future of tagging, let this article tell you the benefits of using GTM.