Do you use tracking codes on your website?
Have you heard of Google Tag Manager?
What is Tag Manager
Tag Manager is a digital bucket that makes it easier to manage website tags such as a Facebook or Twitter remarketing tag, a pixel from an ad tracking system or a piece of java script.
When a website has a lot of pages, or if you use a marketing automation system, such as as Marketo or Pardot to manage multiple websites, things can easily get lost.
You put the code for Tag Manager on every page of your site only one time then, instead of modifying the tags of individual pages, you simply put new tags in and out of the bucket.
If you have a lot of different webpages, websites or use marketing automation services that have their own landing pages, forgetting to put tags on all those pages will ruin your analytics.
You can go to TagManager.Google.com to sign up for a free account. After you set up your website inside of Tag Manager, you’ll get the code for the bucket, which is code that looks a lot like Google Analytics code. Then you add the bucket code to your website pages.
If you use a CMS (Content Management System), such asWordPress, Drupal, Joomla, HubSpot or Ektron, put the bucket code in the header of your website. If you’re using WordPress with the Google Tag Manager for WordPress plugin, it will ask for your Google Tag Manager account number. If you aren’t using a Content Management System, simply copy and paste the code onto every page on your site.
Tag Manager comes with a lot of tags built in, for example all the Google properties such as Google Analytics, Google AdWords and Google Consumer Surveys. It also supports a number of third-party services like LinkedIn, VisualDNA, Neustar andCrazyEgg. There’s even a Custom HTML Tag for your Facebook code, Twitter code, Google+ code or any other services. Simply add your custom HTML and name the tag.
As you set up new tags inside Tag Manager, you’ll decide whether to run each tag on all, some or single pages.
Once you’ve added your first set of tags to your bucket, hit Save. Then click Publish, to push the tag live on your website.
To learn more about Tag Manager, take the Google Tag Manager Fundamentals course, which is part of Google’s Analytics Academy. Once you get up-to-speed and are ready for advanced installations, read Simo Ahava’s blog.