Google Tag Manager is a free tool offered by Google that allows you to deploy, manage, and analyze the performance of marketing tags on your website.

The distinguishing feature of Google Tag Manager (GTM) is that it allows you to deploy such tags without having to modify your website’s coding.

In simple words, Google Tag Manager allows information gathered from one data source (in this case, your website), to be shared with another data source (for example, Google Analytics).

So, what are the advantages of using GTM? Let’s take a look:

Rapid Deployment Of Tracking Codes

In a world without GTM, tracking codes (aka tags) were managed through a long and complex process – this process included the person who wanted to deploy the tags, a developer, and a plethora of back and forth emails with specific instructions. Since this task usually comes under the domain of marketing heads, to manage the task without interference from a developer, they had to spend time learning coding skills.

Google Tag Manager has now simplified this process, by eliminating the need for intricate coding knowledge. In turn, this has also significantly streamlined the process of tag management and deployment. According to a study by Lunametrics, clients have reported up to 600% improvement in their tag implementation time with the help of GTM.

Hence, with GTM, marketers can easily add, change and remove tags – speeding up the launch time as they can test each change by themselves, and deploy changes as per schedule.

Organized Tag Management

The previous approach to tag management dictated that all codes were integrated into the website’s source code. This meant that these tiny lines of code were scattered around different files, and even minor tweaks required hours of work. Add in the chances of human errors, which are abundant during such tedious tasks, and we have a recipe for disaster.

With GTM, marketers now have a well-structured management system, where they can view all tags in one place. A minor tweak to any one of the tags only requires minutes to do.

Test Before You Launch

‘Test before you launch’ is the marketing world’s take on the famous adage ‘prevention is better than cure,’ – and GTM is the perfect tool for it.

Google Tag Manager simplifies the process of troubleshooting and corrects any errors in the tracking codes. GTM’s ‘Preview and Debug Mode’ allows marketers to analyze which tags are placed (or ‘fired’) on a page, and which are not.

GTM also has information crucial for firing tags, and the data contained inside tags. This information serves to ensure that the tags are working perfectly before they are added to the site.

Gain Valuable Insights

GTM eliminates the need for integrating customized codes to track website events, through a feature called auto-event tracking.

Once you have enabled a certain trigger in GTM, it automatically records all interactions that occur throughout the website. Setting up such triggers is also fairly easy for marketers, especially since Google has published guides that deal with every aspect of GTM.

What events can be tracked through GTM? Well, for starters, you can track basic events such as:

• Clicks
• Clicks on specific links
• Form submissions
• Time spent on a page

That is not all. The number of auto-tracking events has increased over the years, allowing marketers to include customized features such as:

• Scroll depth
• Comments
• Video plays
• Actions that denote the intention to leave a page or exit intent

If you want to set up triggers to track custom events, you will need at least basic coding knowledge and skills. However, even basic events that can be automatically tracked through GTM provide marketers unprecedented insights into visitors’ behavior. Over time, GTM has become one of the most efficient tag management tools – if you are not using this excellent tool, immediately head on over to the Google Tag Manager site, to see the various benefits you can gain from this platform.