Google Tag Manager for beginners
Do you need to track user behavior on the site? Test the new callback form? Count certain clicks? Google Tag Manager will help with this.
After implementing Google Tag Manager on the site, you will handle this work yourself. And no more waiting for the programmer to find time to implement your code on the site. Yes, you will not replace the developer 100%, but you can take over most of his actions. That is, you will become a little more flexible in implementing new marketing campaigns and/or tracking web analytics.
1. How analysts worked before the appearance of Google Tag Manager
What used to be the standard procedure for tracking any user activity:
the task is to install Google Analytics or another tracking tool;
solution — the programmer adds a fragment of the JavaScript code of the necessary tools to the site;
the visitor lands on the website;
the added tracking code is loaded;
the visitor is tracked.
By default, GA4 offers many metrics and some automatic event tracking capabilities. And in order to make really correct and well-thought-out decisions, you need to track many more events: interactions (for example, sending forms), sales, etc. And every time you will have to contact the programmer and wait.
The solution is to install the GTM code on the site and activate any necessary tracking codes within GTM itself.
2. What is Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager is a free tag management tool from Google. GTM is the link between the site and marketing tools. Basically, this is the same content management system (CMS or site engine).
After installing GTM, all you need to do is to add the desired tracking codes in GTM and after configuring the events on which they should be activated (page load, click, form submission, etc.).
And then — to test the installed tags. See if they fire when a page loads or a certain button is pressed. And if there is a problem, edit the tags in Google Tag Manager, not the source code of the site. Which is an obvious plus.
3. Google Tag Manager Google Analytics
Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are not the same thing.
Often, beginners cannot decide which of them is more important and which should be put on the site in the first place. Both tools: Analytics and HTM work together, not separately.
Google Analytics tracks data about site visitors and displays the information in reports, while Google Tag Manager is responsible for enabling GA4.
GA is one of the tracking tags
GTM is used to transfer data from one source to another. ITForce wrote more about GA and GTM in the article .
Google Analytics is not the only tag that is compatible with Google Tag Manager. Other examples include:
Google Ads conversion tag;
Facebook Pixel Code ;
any other HTML/Javascript user code etc.
The main advantages of Google Tag Manager:
speed of deployment of tracking codes;
advanced analytics tracking;
all tags are controlled in your GTM account;
built-in and third-party testing tools;
simple tracking of events;
ready-made tag templates.
In more detail about them and 6 others, we wrote about 11 advantages of using Google Tag Manager .
4. How does Google Tag Manager work?
GTM works with 3 main concepts:
tags;
triggers;
variables
Start Google Tag Manager
Rice. 1 – Google Tag Manager
A tag is a piece of code that is triggered on the site by a certain action of the visitor.
For example: track this click and send it to Google Analytics, etc.
A trigger is a condition under which a tag should fire.
For example: A trigger with a condition to activate the tag only when the user views URLs containing the path . When a certain condition (or set of conditions) is met, a trigger is fired and all tags associated with the trigger are sent from the site.
Variable – Values used in triggers and tags to filter when a particular tag should fire.
For example: the class variable click has the name of the value (for example, a word string) assigned to the buttons on the site.
contain a single piece of dat, website domain, product identifier, link extension, etc.);
contains a set of data/settings (the GA settings variable (for Universal Analytics) contains several settings related to GA, such as tracking ID, display ad settings, etc.);
be a complex function (but this is too advanced a point for beginners), etc.
HTM tags and triggers
Rice. 2 – Tags and triggers
Let’s analyze the relationship between tags, triggers and variables in Google Tag Manager using the example below.
Tags, triggers, variables in HTM
Rice. 3 – Relationship between tags, triggers and variables in Google Tag Manager
The Google Ads conversion tag is the . It instructs Google Tag Manager to track the conversion.
When should I activate the conversion tag? On the Thank You Page (the same order confirmation page). This condition is the trigger .
Now you need the trigger to work
The data to go to Google Ads. How to do it?The Google Ads conversion tag can send an order total that is variable . Each time a purchase is completed, the Google Ads tag receives the value of the Total order amount variable and sends it to Google’s servers.
Now the trigger needs to tell Google Tag Manager when to fire. The words on the Thank you page are understandable to a person. But not Google Tag Manager. What is a Thank You Page? This is the page who of the page is a variable. And GTM will constantly check theof the page when it loads. If
So, variables can be used in tags and triggers, as well as other variables.
5. How to create a Google Tag Manager account
Click the Start for Free button on the official Google Tag Manager website .
Start page of GTM
Rice. 4 – Start page of GTM
If you already have a Gmail, Google Ads, Google Analytics, etc. account, you’ll be automatically signed in to Google Tag Manager. If not, you’ll need to create a Google Account first.
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After logging in, GTM will prompt you to create a new account and a new container.
Enter the name of the company in the Name field . If you represent an agency, ask the client to create a GTM account and then give you access to it.
In the Container Settings section, enter the name of the site. For example, his domain. We choose the Web as the target platform.
Add a new GTM account
Rice. 5 – Add a new account in GTM
A Google Tag Manager account works the same way as a GA account, usually it’s per company/business/customer and the container is per site or app. A single container can contain many tags, triggers, and variables.
However, if one person has several sites, and their structure and tracking implementation are similar (for example, they are 2 online stores), then you can use one container on several sites.
Read the Agreement on the terms
of use of HTM and the terms of data processing.
How to install Google Tag Manager?
We already have one container. After its creation, we switzerland business fax data have 2 codes that need to be added to the site. Here you will need the help of a programmer: one code is added to the of the site, and the second – immediately after the <body> tag.
What does the HTM code look like?
Rice. 6 – HTM code
This code activates all configured tags.
How to check if Google Tag Manager is working?
Enable Debug view and see if it appears on the screen.
To do this, click the Preview button in the upper right corner of GTM, then go to the site and check if GTM preview is working .
How to give access to Google Tag Manager?
GTM can be accessed at:
There are 2 types of permissions for an account:
admin – User can view and edit account settings, account anhui mobile phone number list activity and user management. The user gets Read access to all account containers;
user – the user can see the account settings, its activity and user management, but cannot edit the settings, all containers are also not accessible, they are not visible.
