Google Tag Manager 101: Features and Benefits
When Google Tag Manager (GTM) was released in 2012 (initially a beta version), the way specific actions on your website were tracked changed. Despite being a free product offered by Google, few companies are aware of what the product does and how it can benefit you.
What Is Google Tag Manager?
GTM allows you to easily add & update your own tags. As your website grows, there's likely more tags which can be time consuming to implement and update. By enabling the simple to use GTM to capture all your tags using a piece of code for all your tags related to analytics, conversions and remarketing you don't have to go back and forth between developers so much.
Benefits Of Google Tag Manager
Ease of use: There is a learning curve to GTM like any software product. With a simple understanding, you'll be able to use GTM to add tags to your site without needing to go back and forth with a developer every time therefore increasing efficiency.
Version control: When dealing with any form of code, coding errors potentially harming your website happen. This may have caused you headaches before when there's no undo button after hitting save only to then realise your mistake. GTM eliminates this pain with its version control allowing you to revert back to any saved versions.
No ill effects of updates: Regardless of how good a developer is, there's a chance bugs will be found when a new software update is released. GTM eliminates this with a built-in debugger allowing you to see errors effecting your site before pushing through the update.
Event tracking: If you have a website, there's likely a purpose of doing so. If you have a goal for your website, GTM helps you manage this. Common measurements include PDF downloads, email subscribers and clicks on outbound links.
Pixels are collated: Programmatic advertising allows you to gather an audience wherever they find you on your website and social media. You'll gain a lot of pixels over time, not all of which will be active at one time. With GTM you can have all of the tags centralized where you can activate, deactivate and delete pixels as required.
Why Not Get a Site Audit?
Take a short break from reading this blog post and get a free page audit for your website!
SEO benefits: SEO experts agree site speed is a factor in website rankings. When you have multiple tags, this leads to code scattered across you site creating a slower load time. With GTM you only need to load the tag container snippet holding all the tags, speeding up your site which Google appreciates.
Multiple users: You're able to add multiple users to the same GTM account making the product suitable for teams working on similar tasks.
It's hard to keep track of every product released by the big companies in the internet marketing space. If you weren't aware of GTM until recently, there's most likely a way you can use the product to benefit your company in terms of organisation, time saving and most importantly, improving your conversions.
By Roy McClean