Find out how GTM works, its benefits, and how to use it for easy website analytics and tag management.
Google Tag Manager aka GTM easify tracking codes and collecting website analytics such as user clicks, form submissions and streamlining data gathering. Unlike GA4, GTM focuses on effective tag management. Google Analytics 4 on the other focuses on data analysis only. So when these two tools are integrated together, we get a free user friendly tool that helps us tag management and tracking user interactions.
Below we talk about how GTM works, what are its advantages and how to use it to make your work easier.
Google Tag Manager is a tool used to add or modify tags on your website without manual work. If you don’t know what tags are, they are small code snippets that track user interactions on your website. Common examples include Google tags for Google Analytics, Google Ads conversion scripts, Meta Pixel, and remarketing tags. These codes live in your website coding. The problem arises when they start losing and breaking themselves. GTM helps with it by keeping all the codes in itself and injecting them to the website only when it’s needed.
As a result, you can test your website code, change or edit it, and it won’t break your website. GTM saves your time and money. It works automatically and saves you from hiring expensive developers to take care of your website code. It takes data from Google Analytics, collects that analytical data and organizes it. This way it eliminates the lengthy process of updating codes by using tags, triggers, and variables: tags send data to tools like Google Analytics, triggers signal when data should be collected, and variables define the conditions for data collection.
Checkout: What Is PPC? Learn the Basics of Pay Per Click Marketing in 2024
By now you already have many reasons to use GTM. If you need them in a more detailed way, keep on reading. Below we’ve presented a list of advantages of Google Tag Manager.
Just sign up on Google and you can access this tool. GTM is easy to use for non-technical people and those who have limited resources. By saving your time and resources, GTM reduces the strain on your developers and allows them to focus on important tasks. It also lowers their chances of causing errors that could break your site.
GTM is a free tool but has premium features. It lets you track a wide range of activities such as video plays, form submissions and more. And since security is a big concern in today’s world, GTM uses advanced security strategies to keep your account and data safe from unauthorized access.
Unlike other tools, GTM’s feature User ID Tracking collects data from real users. It handles all marketing and analytics codes without requiring additional coding. This allows you to control which tags to use, when they should fire, and where the information should go.
For instance, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook, Hotjar, and CRM platforms, without the technical hassle of coding. It’s designed to simplify integration with these tools so you can track different types of user actions or events, such as clicks on links or buttons, form submissions, sales conversions, and even how users interact with videos or scroll through pages.
This lets you monitor when users click on links, submit forms, abandon shopping carts, or engage with videos or call-to-action buttons. This flexibility reduces the pressure on developers and plugins. It makes it easier to manage website analytics and marketing efforts securely and independently.
What Google Says is that GTM is a simple tool that any marketer can use without needing a web developer. But the reality is using GTM has appeared to be challenging for people with lesser technical knowledge or training. GTM has a learning curve. You need some initial technical knowledge or training to get started. You need to understand tags, triggers, and variables. Tags are bits of code that track information on your site. Triggers tell GTM when to run a tag. Variables are used to store information GTM needs.
And if you’re adding Facebook tracking pixels, you need to know how Facebook tracking works. To track events (like clicks or form submissions) with GTM, you need to understand what events are. You need to know how Google Analytics works, what data you can track with events and how to set up categories, actions, and labels for your events.
Google Tag Manager instead of embedding multiple codes across different pages, place one code snippet on each page. You avoid the hassle of rewriting code for each page individually. And when it’s integrated with Firebase SDK, Android, or iOS platforms, it updates tags automatically. You can also manage tags across multiple websites simultaneously, when handling numerous sites or businesses. Note that you’ll need separate accounts for each entity, however.
Once your website or app is connected to GTM, it automatically puts the needed codes on your pages. This makes it easy to set up triggers in GTM. Triggers are rules that tell GTM when to collect and send data, like when someone loads a page, taps the screen, selects an option, or submits a form. When these actions happen, GTM gathers the data and sends it to tools like Google Analytics.
In Google Tag Manager, tags collect data, triggers specify when to collect it, and variables store needed information, all working together to track user interactions on your website or app.
Tags are bits of code that help analytics, marketing, and support platforms connect with websites and apps. Think of them as observers that you place on your website. These tags monitor what users do, such as clicking on links or viewing pages, and then send this information to tools like Google Analytics or ImpactHero. This tracking is essential for understanding user behavior and improving site performance.
Commonly used tags include those for Google Analytics, Google Ads, Crazy Egg, Hotjar, and ImpactHero. Other examples are Pinterest Tag, LinkedIn Insight, Twitter Universal Web Tag, Facebook/Meta Pixel, SplitSignal, Appcues, HubSpot, Intercom, Mixpanel, and Salesforce. Additionally, tags can be customized for specific events and tracking needs, often installed using Google Tag Manager (GTM).
Triggers are instructions that tell Google Tag Manager (GTM) when to activate tags based on certain criteria. Common triggers include page views, form submissions, and link clicks. When a user views a page or clicks a link, the associated tag will fire. Every tag needs at least one trigger so GTM knows when to execute the tag. For instance, analytics platforms like Google Analytics use page views as a trigger to collect data from every page a user visits. Alternatively, a conversion tracking tag might only fire when a user adds an item to their cart or completes the checkout process. Without the trigger, the tag won’t fire, and GTM won’t run the code snippet.
Triggers can also include variables to make them more specific. For example, you might want your support chat to fire only on checkout pages. In this case, you could add a variable telling the tag to fire only on pages with “/checkout/” in the URL. You can assign multiple triggers to a single tag for more complex tracking needs. Examples of commonly used triggers include page views, link clicks, button clicks, form submissions, file downloads, scroll depth, time spent on a page, and custom events. These triggers help you collect detailed data about user interactions on your website.
Variables are extra pieces of information that Google Tag Manager (GTM) may need to fire a tag or trigger. They help specify exactly what the tag or trigger should do. For example, “Constant” and “Google Analytics Settings” are common types of variables. These are often used to define Google Analytics account IDs, such as the “Tracking ID” in Universal Analytics or the “Measurement ID” in GA4. Instead of entering your tracking or measurement ID every time you create a Google Analytics tag, you can create a variable to store this ID. This way, whenever you need the ID, you simply attach the variable you created.
Another common variable is “Page URL.” If you want to track page views on your checkout page, you would use the “Page Views” trigger. To specify that it should only track the checkout page, you assign the Page URL variable and add the URL for your checkout page. This helps make your tracking more precise. Some examples of common variables include Constant, Google Analytics Settings, Click URL, Click ID, Click Class, Page URL, Page Path, Form ID, and Scroll depth threshold. These variables help you manage and customize your tracking more efficiently.
Google has introduced a small extension for GTM. Although using GTM can be understood and implemented perfectly, if it runs down an error, you can use Google Tag Assistant to help troubleshoot. It corrects your issues with GTM tag implementation. It also ensures that your tags are firing correctly and sending off accurate data.
Below we present a table to clarify the roles and differences between Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics GA4 using straightforward language, focusing on what each tool does and how they complement each other in managing tags and analyzing website performance.
Aspect | Google Tag Manager (GTM) | Google Analytics GA4 |
Purpose | Manages and places marketing tags on websites | Analyzes how users interact with websites |
Main Function | Helps add and update tags without changing code | Collects data about user actions for analysis |
Key Features | Manages tags and external code snippets | Tracks conversions and automatically records many actions |
Integration with GA4 | Installs and manages Google Analytics for tracking | Works together with GTM for extra event tracking |
Event Tracking | Sets up custom events manually | Automatically tracks many types of user interactions |
Reporting | Doesn’t generate analytics reports itself | Produces detailed reports and insights |
Flexibility | Can customize how tags work | Provides advanced ways to track user interactions |
Ease of Use | Simplifies the process of adding tags | Makes it easy to collect and understand data |
Check: What is Google Analytics and How Does It Work? A Brief Guide
Setting up Google Tag Manager (GTM) is straightforward and essential for efficiently managing tags and tracking codes on your website. Begin by logging into your Google account and navigating to Tag Manager. Create a new account, specifying a name and country. Next, set up a container by naming it and choosing “Web” as the platform. This container houses the tags you’ll deploy on your site.
Following these steps it will ask you to agree to Google’s terms. Click I agree and it will give you code snippets that include a JS snippet for the <head> section, and an HTML iframe snippet for the <body> tag. This is perhaps the only part in the entire tag management process people can find hard to follow. You can hire our experts from First Growth Agency to get help with it.
EG:
under <head>
<!– Google Tag Manager –>
<script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({‘gtm.start’:
new Date().getTime(),event:’gtm.js’});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!=’dataLayer’?’&l=’+l:”;j.async=true;j.src=
‘https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=’+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,’script’,’dataLayer’,’GTM-WFLZW7FG’);</script>
<!– End Google Tag Manager –>
under <body>
<!– Google Tag Manager (noscript) –>
<noscript><iframe src=”https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-WFLZW7FG”
height=”0″ width=”0″ style=”display:none;visibility:hidden”></iframe></noscript>
<!– End Google Tag Manager (noscript) –>
*This code is just an example. Code will be generated for your own property. How? read the Setting Up Google Tag Manager above.
Google Tag Manager works with Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel to add and update tags without changing the website’s code.
Install GTM on your website by using the process we described in this article above. Also remove any existing Google Analytics code from your site to prevent duplicate tracking.
Head over to your Google Tag Manager account and click on New Tag or Add a new tag. Name your tag something like GA4 Configuration or some other name.
Hover to Tag Configuration and click on it. Choose Google Analytics from the options and then select GA4 Configuration. There you enter your Google Analytics tag ID.
After that, click on Triggering. From there choose “All Pages” to track on every page of your website. You can save Your Tag by clicking on Save.
Head over to the workspace overview page. Click Preview and it will debug your tags before publishing to make sure your analytics setup works as expected. This won’t affect your live site prematurely.
Enter your website’s URL and click Connect to test the tag on your site. Use the Tag Assistant to verify if your tag is firing correctly.
After testing, click Submit on the GTM interface. Click “Publish” to make your configuration live on your website. Verify the real time data report in GA4 to ensure your tags are tracking properly.
Google Tag Manager (GTM) makes managing website tracking codes easier. It allows you to add and update tags without needing to change your website’s code directly. It saves your time and reduces errors. GTM works with Google Analytics to collect important data about how people use your site. With GTM, you can track many user actions and better understand your website’s performance, helping you make smarter decisions. If you need help deploying GTM on your website, contact First Growth Agency. Our experts will help you install and configure GTM seamlessly on your website.
Hi, I'm Aaqil Abdul Rehman, one of the key individuals behind the success of First Growth Agency. With a spirited blend of marketing savvy and a dash of technical genius, I've dedicated myself to catapulting brands into the spotlight where they belong.
- Aaqil
Unlock your brand's potential with tailored strategies that deliver results.
From SEO to social media, our expertise is your growth. Ready to elevate your online presence?
