There are three main components of Google Tag Manager. Tags, Triggers, and Variables. We will understand each in detail because you will be mostly working with them.
Use Tag Manager to manage tags (such as measurement and marketing optimization JavaScript tags) on your site. Without editing your site code, use Tag Manager to add and update Google Ads, Google Analytics, Floodlight, and third-party tags.
Google Tag Manager is a tag management system that stores and manages marketing tags and third-party code snippets. There are no analytics or reports in Tag Manager. Google Analytics, on the other hand, is software used for analytics, conversion tracking, and reporting.
Google Tag Manager has collaboration and versioning capabilities. Google Tag Manager lets you to quickly and easily update tags on your website or mobile app from a web interface. Google Tag Manager can only be used to deploy and modify third-party tags.
There is no hard limit on the number of tags that you can deploy on a site using Google Tag Manager. However, the best practice is to keep the number of tags that you have as lean as possible. Note also that Google Tag Manager can only fire tags within the capabilities of the browser.
Google Tag Manager organizes third-party tags that each track user events. Google Tag Manager helps you create new tags that track specific user events such as clicks, scrolls, downloads, or purchases. This data is collected into tools for purposes such as analytics, retargeting, attribution, and more.
You should use the Global Site Tag when you only need to track data for Google marketing tools like Google Analytics and Google Ads. If you require compatibility with third-party marketing tools or additional functionalities like testing and version control, it's recommended to use Google Tag Manager.
Google Tag Manager is an essential tool for website owners, website managers and SEO professionals. It provides a simplified route to implement code onto a site without the need for a developer, or specialist coding knowledge.
Google Tag Manager speeds up many processes. New tags can be added rapidly, and many do not require code changes to the website. This is a great tool for marketers because it can speed up launch time by testing each change themselves and deploying when ready.
The Google tag lets you send data from your website to linked Google product destinations to help you measure the effectiveness of your website and ads. The Google tag is currently only accessible and configurable from Google Ads and Google Analytics 4.
GTM is a free Tag Management System (TMS). This means that even if you, or your customers, don't use Google Analytics, it can still be a valuable tool for your business. As a side note: the same is also true for Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
In Google Tag Manager, variables are sorted into two main categories; built-in variables and user-defined variables. Tag Manager comes with pre-made built-in variables that are ready to use for most trigger and tag configurations.
A single Google Tag Manager account can contain up to 500 Google Tag Manager containers. Google Tag Manager container size limit. The maximum size of a Google Tag Manager container is 200kb. This means that the more tags, triggers, variables, templates you have, the larger the container will be.
If you only require Google Analytics as your tracking tool, you can choose to install it directly onto your website. However, if you plan to use multiple tracking tools or need more advanced tracking options, using Google Tag Manager in conjunction with Google Analytics is recommended.
Google Tag Manager does not replace Google Analytics. Instead, it helps users easily add Google Analytics tracking code (tag) to a website, deploy GA event code snippets, and define rules when each code must fire. Before GTM, GA tracking codes had to be hard-coded, usually by a web developer, on each page.
Data collected by Google Tag Manager
This data does not include user IP addresses or any measurement identifiers associated with a particular individual.
Google Tag Manager functions best when deployed alongside a data layer. A data layer is a JavaScript object that is used to pass information from your website to your Tag Manager container. You can then use that information to populate variables and activate triggers in your tag configurations.
Google Tag Manager makes it easy to add conversion tracking pixels and event triggers to your website so you can see exactly which marketing efforts are driving traffic and sales. Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a powerful tool that gives marketers the ability to create and manage tags on their website.
However, because GTM injects code directly onto your website, if you do not look a it carefully, it can break a website and increase load times. That's why migrating to Google Tag Manager needs to be planned and managed by technical experts.
Benefits of Google Tag Manager:
GTM will not crash and burn your website, nor will it open any new doors for future weaknesses. Separate Site Operation from Site tracking. GTM wouldn't break the site (Create Tags, Triggers & Variables)
Every website can use a different Google Tag Manager container but send the data to the same GA property. This applies to any other tool that you have installed via GTM.
Google Tag Manager is a tag management system (TMS) that allows you to quickly and easily update measurement codes and related code fragments collectively known as tags on your website or mobile app.
Tag: A tag is code that send data to a system such as Google Analytics. Trigger: A trigger listens for certain events, such as clicks, form submissions, or page loads. When an event is detected that matches the trigger definition, any tags that reference that trigger will fire.