When your digital marketing requires developer time and communication across multiple teams, the inevitable result is frustration and delay.
Tag Manager by Google is a solution that both sides will absolutely love. Marketers will be able to quickly and easily add tags and customized analytics tracking to multiple websites, and the programmers can stick to what they do best - programming.
On top of empowering your marketing team and staying in the good graces of your devs, Tag Manager provides benefits such as:
- Faster website speed and page load times (helps UX and SEO)
- Increased capability for a/b testing
- More accurate marketing data
- Scalable event tracking for Google Analytics
- Integration of 3rd party tags
“From the day Cort stepped on board, he provided massive value to the Hack Reactor organization by planning and executing online, email marketing and search engine optimization strategies." - Doug Calhoun, Co-Founder
How to Use Google Tag Manager's Top Features
My experience with data tracking and working with dozens of companies has led me to believe that the following are the top reasons people want to learn and use Tag Manager:
- Setting up event tracking, especially on large websites where the number of buttons, links and forms is immense. Remember, with Tag Manager you'll be able to apply rules for firing event data into your Google Analytics account. This means you can select a common element for an outbound link, PDF or form, and in the process of tagging it just once, actually tag it across your entire website.
- Implementing Ecommerce tracking. Similar to event tracking, you can also set rules to fire Ecommerce data across all products relatively quickly. You'll need to create a data layer that interacts with Tag Manager to fire information into your Google Analytics account. If you're not familiar with the amazing Ecommerce insights Google Analytics has, you should consider getting Google Analytics training as well.
- Firing virtual pageviews for PDFs. PDF views are not tracked by default in Google Analytics.
- Outbound link tracking - particularly important for websites that get paid to send referral traffic to other websites.
- Cross-domain tracking so companies can see the visitor flow and user behavior of their audience between websites or subdomains
- In-app analytics for companies that need more product data involving their mobile app
Get Expert Training in Google Tag Manager's Less Common Features
Learn not just the items above but also gain insight into the following user actions on your website.
- Scroll tracking
- Hover tracking
- Video plays and pauses
- Logged in user tracking with user IDs
- Custom dimensions (i.e. literally anything you can think of)
Tag Manager has three distinct components that work together to properly fire tags and data.
These components are called Tags, Triggers and Variables. To the right is a brief definition of each item from LunaMetrics.
- "A tag is used to collect and report an interaction to Google Analytics, or some other reporting tool.
- A trigger is used to observe an interaction and to decide whether a tag should be fired or not.
- A variable is used to capture some information off the page and provide that info to the triggers or tags when needed."
During your Tag Manager training session you will get a detailed explanation of Tags, Triggers and Variables and do multiple configurations so the process of adding them to your account is ingrained into your memory.
Below I'll explain how we can work together to create the most beneficial, custom training outline.
Process for Creating a Custom Tag Manager Training Proposal
Developing the perfect training outline for your team is the goal of any good instructor. To do this we need to take stock of the different marketing and data tracking goals you have.
We also want to review what 3rd party marketing systems you want to sync your data with.
The most common questions I ask potential clients who want Tag Manager training are:
- How big is your marketing team?
- What ongoing marketing activities will your company be conducting? This will allow us to anticipate different uses for Tag Manager down the road
- What is their experience with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager?
- Do you want user data beyond typical lead gen information (think video plays & scroll tracking - not just form submissions)
- How granular would you like your data to be? We can customize events down the exact page they occured on and not just apply general rules to firing tags
Conversely, the following are questions most companies ask me before we begin any training.
Think of these as a checklist for you during our phone call:
- What is your training style? (Answer -interactive, Q&A, live application of the tool)
- What projects have you completed with Tag Manager in the past? (References and past project info can be emailed upon request)
- What new Tag Manager features can we use to improve our marketing (Tag Manager can track any user action on your site)
- Can you integrate part of the material with Google Analytics info (I definitely can and it's a must to ensure the training provides the most value. We'll dig into Google Analytics and watch events fire in real time so you know your data tracking is working)
Contact a Bay Area Tag Manager Expert
Whether your business is located in San Francisco or another Bay Area or Northern California location, I can definitely help.
Onsite in-person training is hard to beat. The knowledge transfer is rapid and efficient and the most satisfied customers I've had are the ones who request that I come teach at their office.
Furthermore, we will implement your most pressing data tracking needs.
Not only will you learn the skills needed to independently handle complex marketing activities, you'll also start getting the data you've been looking for right away.
To get in touch, email cort@bayareaseosolutions.com. You can also learn more about my S.F. Google Analytics training or SEO consulting.