What is GTM?
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tracking tool and management platform that allows the user to add marketing tags, or snippets of code, to your website to track and collect marketing data. It allows users to easily implement GTM tags without modifying the code while improving the amount and type of information gathered.
Google Tag Manager is an extremely useful tool, especially when used with Google Analytics.
Google Tag Manager vs Google Analytics
Similar to GTM, Google Analytics is a free analytics tool that is used to analyze your business’ website and app presence. It is a comprehensive platform that provides an in-depth measurement of digital and marketing campaigns.
While Google Analytics is the hub for analyzing website data, Google Tag Manager is the tool for transmitting the data points. GTM essentially controls what information is sent to Google Analytics in order to be analyzed. GTM is the platform for deploying and storing the tags without the capacity to examine analyzed reports, which is why the data is sent to Google Analytics.
Together, Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics track and create important analytics to measure and improve your website.
What are the benefits of using Google Tag Manager?
Since Google Tag Manager is an easy-to-use and thorough website and digital marketing tool, it supplies many benefits for your business and team. Below are 4 main benefits of using Google Tag Manager.
1. GTM DOESN’T REQUIRE CODING KNOWLEDGE
Google Tag Manager allows users, such as marketers, to implement tags without extensive knowledge of coding. The user-friendly interface allows users to edit, remove, or add GTM tracking code without the assistance of web developers, although it is favorable to have some background in the field. This allows small businesses, for example, with limited technical support, to still be able to maximize their online tracking.
2. GTM ENABLES FLEXIBILITY AND EXPERIMENTATION
Since GTM does not require a web developer, it provides the opportunity for marketers to play around and test out different strategies or ideas. It provides flexibility to quickly implement experiments and improve strategies that align with new digital marketing trends without waiting for outside assistance.
3. GTM SUPPORTS FASTER PAGE LOADING SPEEDS
Google Tag Manager is set up so the tags are fired asynchronously rather than synchronously. This means that each tag is deployed as soon as it loads, instead of waiting for every tag to load before firing. This eliminates the risk of one tag with a slow loading speed hindering the rest from deploying.
4. GTM MANAGES EVERYTHING ALL IN ONE SPOT
Since all the GTM tracking code is controlled in one area, rather than created and managed on different platforms, GTM simplifies and improves the entire process of using tags. Being able to create and view all the deployed tags on one simple interface eliminates repetition and potential errors, instead, it greatly improves efficiency.
What is Google Tag Manager used for?
GTM has the potential to track a seemingly endless amount of website and digital marketing activity, but there are a few common ones many businesses use.
- Downloads
- Scrolls
- Clicks
- Forms
- Videos
1. TRACK PDF DOWNLOADS
Many businesses offer downloadable PDFs on their websites, such as guides or white papers, as a part of their digital marketing strategies. Yet it greatly inhibits an effective strategy if you don’t have access to data about the downloads.
Google Tag Manager is used to track PDF downloads and learn how it’s performing. Once you are able to track downloads, you turn the collected data into actionable insights.
- Determine your most and least popular downloads
- Understand why a download is performing well or poorly
- Work on ways to improve your download and track progress with GTM
2. TRACK SCROLLING BEHAVIOR
Another reason to use GTM is its ability to track scrolling behavior on your website and pages.
Understanding how users visit your website and interact with content provides significant insight into site activity.
- What page sections are commonly interacted with
- What content is more or less compelling
- Where visitors typically stop scrolling
With the collected GTM data, you can develop a complete picture of how most visitors scroll on each of your site pages. In return, you can create a strategy to improve your site’s user experience.
- How you organize your website
- What content your share
- Places that need improvement
3. TRACK LINK CLICKS
An advantage of Google Tag Manager is its ability to track link clicks, specifically the links visitors clicked on while on your website. Knowing not just a user’s scrolling behavior but their clicking behavior provides valuable information on your visitor’s journey.
- How does your visitor go from one page to another on your site
- What call to actions (CTAs) result in more clicks
But why you should use Google Tag Manager isn’t just to understand link clicks, but to put that data into action.
- Refresh pages with few clicks or review pages with a lot of clicks to capitalize on conversions
- Learn what makes a CTA have a high click rate and update the copy for CTAs with fewer clicks
4. TRACK FORM SUBMISSIONS
Forms are an important aspect of every business’ website; from signing up for a newsletter, completing a questionnaire, or registering for an event, each form serves a specific function and goal. GTM ensures that form submissions are accurately tracked
Why use Google Tag Manager to track forms:
- Report website leads via form submissions
- Measure a campaign’s ROI by the number of forms submitted
5. TRACK VIDEO ACTIVITY
Videos are a trending digital marketing strategy that is becoming increasingly more popular. With the rise of video content, there is a need to understand how users interact with the content.
- How people viewed the video
- How long do they watch the video
- When or if they stopped watching the video
The information collected from your videos can influence your businesses’ video strategies.
- How future videos are produced
- What content does your audience prefer
- Ideal video length for your business visitors
What can Google Tag Manager do for your business?
Google Tag Manager is a powerful tool offered on an easy-to-use, centralized platform enabling marketers to stay on top of digital marketing trends while keeping their website speedy.
GTM provides significant opportunities for improving your website by tracking PDF downloads, scrolling behavior, link clicks, form submissions, video activity, and more. The platform gives the user the ability to measure, analyze, and create actionable steps to improve your marketing and website performance!
While GTM is prized for its simplified website and marketing tracking capabilities, the process of setting up Google tags, integrating with other tools, and knowing what to do with the data can be a time-consuming task.
At Evolve Systems, our team of developers, marketers, and analysts know exactly how to use GTM to benefit your business. Tell us what website or digital marketing activities you want to track or improve, and let’s talk about your strategies!
