Google Tag Manager: How It Works & Why We Use It
What Is Google Tag Manager?
With Google Tag Manager, you can manage your own tags for analytics and conversion tracking of marketing campaigns. This system allows you to create specific tags that activate when a conversion is completed on your website. You can also use Tag Manager as a central hub for installing Universal Analytics, GA4, or any other metrics platform that your website requires. It is particularly useful for marketing campaigns, as it allows you to distinguish between conversions and identify which ones are the result of your marketing efforts. Businesses offering unique products or services that are tracked differently may find value in tag management systems.
How Does It Work?
The tag manager operates using three distinct tools on its platform: tags, triggers, and variables. By utilizing these tools, you can streamline your tag management system as much as needed to develop and implement new tags for your website. Here are some explanations of how these tools function:
When all of these tools are working cohesively, they make way for fast and simple event/conversion tracking on your website. It may seem confusing at first which is fired first, how to know what to track, and how to identify them as variables on Tag Manager. Please see below for the step-by-step guide on how Tag Manager works on your website:
Does My Business Need It?
Tag Manager is a great resource for those running websites that offer multiple conversion actions for their different services or products. For example, a mental health professional would want to keep track of the number of appointments scheduled while still keeping an eye on the number of downloads their coursebook received in the same time period. Tag Manager will allow for two separate tags to be created and tracked simultaneously, ensuring that the two metrics are kept apart from one another. Instead of having to input various snippets of code or launchers on your website for the individual events you want to track, Tag Manager will keep them all stored in one interface.
Is It Relevant To Google Ads?
Tag Manager is connected to Google Ads through the events that you want to track for your campaign. When you create tags, you must also input them as goals into your Google Analytics account. This allows for the data that is collected by Tag Manager to show up in Analytics directly. From there, you can import these goals into Google Ads as conversions, giving you a clear picture of how many conversions are the results of your marketing efforts. This is particularly helpful for businesses that have multiple events they want to count as conversions.
The Filing System Of Conversion Tracking
Google Tag Manager can be thought of as a large filing system that holds the information your website needs to track and manage what you count as conversions. It removes the hassle of imputing manual code snippets into your website and grants easier access to changing, removing, or adding on new code. Additionally, it can act as a safety net for new conversion tracking testing, allowing flexibility to find what works best for you. Using a tag management system will allow your business to grow and your website to be more self-sufficient.
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