One of the most important actions in marketing is analytics. Measuring is vital to understand how our campaigns and promotions are working, where users are entering or leaving, what actions are working and what we can do to improve them.
Google Tag Manager allows you to create tags for most data analysis services and tools easily.
For analytics there are many different tools such as Google Analytics, Search Console, Google Ads, Meta Ads and so on, each with their own tags, small code snippets that are installed on the website to track user actions and collect data.
What is Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager a Google tool for manage tags (code snippets that are added to web pages) used by most tools such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console.
Google Tag Manager is a tag management system that allows users to configure tags for different tools from a simple and easy-to-use interface.
At the same time, avoid having to manually paste the tag into the code of the web page, as Google Tag Manager takes care of implementing it correctly. All this, by installing a simple tracking code on the different pages of a website.
Once configured, Tag Manager allows you to track almost any event or user behavior such as: clicks on links or buttons, form submissions, conversions, cart abandonment, online store behavior, file downloads, scrolling through the page or CTA performance, among others.
How Google Tag Manager works
First, a single JavaScript code snippet is added that will function as. container for all tags we want to manage. Once installed, every time a user activates a tag, Google Tag Manager will execute it.
The tags are executed when a trigger is fired, i.e., when a performs a particular action such as submitting a form, clicking on a link or visiting a certain page, among others.
In Tag Manager, a trigger must be assigned to each of the tags so that the tool knows under what circumstances to trigger each of them. For example, Google Analytics tags are activated with page visits, which allows to obtain website traffic analytics.
Tags can also contain variables, which are extra pieces of information that help further define when a tag is triggered.
How to set up a Google Tag Manager account
Unlike other services of the company, Google Tag Manager does not automatically log in with the user’s Google account, but an account must be created.
We access Google Tag Manager from our Google account. We click on “Create Account”, enter an “Account Name” and select a country. Next, we create a “Container Name”, which will be the code snippet we will add to the website. As only one container is used per website, it is best to name it the URL of the site.
We select the “Target Platform”, if it is a website, we choose “Website”, if it is an App, Android or iOS, etc.
To finish, we click on “Create” and we already have an account and a container created. When doing so, two windows will appear, one with the terms and conditions and the other with two code fragments; the first one we must copy and paste inside the “head” tag of the website and the second one inside “body”.
Once configured, to create a tag, we must click on “New Tag” and “Add New Tag”. We select what we want it to do, for example, “GA4 Settings” to create a Google Analytics 4 tag.
We click on “Tag Settings” to bring up a list, select “Google Analytics: GA4 Settings”, enter the ID of our GA4 property and click on “Activation”. Select “All pages” and click on “Save”.
Ready, now on the main page we can see “Preview” where all our changes appear. Enter the URL of the website on the next screen and click “Connect”. Once connected, the website should open in a pop-up window with the wizard in the lower right corner.
How to create a tag?
Once configured, to create a tag, we must click on “New tag” and “Add new tag”. We select what we want it to do, for example, “GA4 Configuration” to create a tag that collects all the information from Google Analytics 4 .
We click on “Tag Settings” to bring up a list, select “Google Analytics: GA4 settings”, enter the ID of our GA4 property and click on “Activate”. We select “All pages” and click on “Save”.
Ready, now on the main page we can see “Preview” where all our changes appear. Enter the URL of the website on the next screen and click “Connect”. Once connected, the website should open in a pop-up window with the wizard in the lower right corner.
Next, we need to configure this tag. First of all, we must give it a name. Although we can give it any name we want, the ideal is to follow a nomenclature that allows us to correctly identify and organize all the tags that we will generate in the future.
Once the name of the tag has been created, we must select what type of tag it is. We will have a list of possible tags that are native configurations supported by Tag Manager. Simply select the appropriate one from the options, as you can see in the following image:
We will have to configure the ID of the tags with the information provided by the tools.
Finally, you can choose to include the built-in variables, which are those that Tag Manager has preconfigured, or you can create your own variables. To finish the process, we will have to click on “Save” to finish the creation of the tag. For the tag to start collecting data, it will be necessary to publish it.
Types of tags in Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager works with three types of tags: tags, variables and triggers.
-Tags: These are the code snippets used by analytics and marketing tools and platforms to integrate with websites. Tag Manager supports most of the tags that exist and, at the same time, allows you to create custom tags for those services that do not have their tag in the tool.
-Activators: These tags are triggered in response to a specific event. These tags monitor the activity of a website and wait for certain events to occur (visits to certain pages, filling out forms, clicking on certain products…).
-Variables: These are values that help define what a tag or trigger should do. In the case of triggers, variables specify when to tell the tag to activate. For tags, variables define the exact data to collect.
