1. Overview 

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a no-cost tool that empowers you to incorporate tracking scripts and ‘tags’ into your website independently, eliminating the constant need for a professional developer whenever you wish to add a new tracking element. If you manage Google Analytics or engage in online advertising that necessitates the addition of various tracking tags to your website (like Google Ads or Facebook ads), then Google Tag Manager can be an effective solution for implementing your tracking needs.
 

2. What are tracking ‘tags’?

To collect insights on how visitors engage with your website, it's essential to implement tracking 'tags' on your site. These ‘tags’ are pieces of JavaScript code that gather and log details about your visitors, transmitting this data to platforms like Google Analytics or Google Ads. 

In the past, each of these code snippets had to be crafted and manually integrated into the backend of your website, typically by a developer. This manual tagging process may take considerable time for developers, potentially leading to increased costs and delays for website owners.

3. Google Tag Manager is a powerful tool that allows businesses to manage and deploy marketing tags 

(snippets of code or tracking pixels) on their website or mobile app without having to modify the code directly. It simplifies the process of tracking user interactions and helps in optimising marketing efforts.
Using Google Tag Manager, business owners and marketers can efficiently create, add, and update tracking tags on their own, eliminating the necessity for each tag to be ‘hard-coded’ into the website.

This is a complimentary online tool that enables you to generate tracking tags and seamlessly integrate them into your website through its user-friendly online interface. It is frequently utilised alongside tools such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Facebook Ads to integrate their tracking scripts into your website. Additionally, it can be utilised to incorporate tracking scripts and tags from various other platforms, including Search Console verification, heatmap trackers like Hotjar, and several others.

GTM differs from Google Analytics, which serves as a reporting tool to track user interactions on your website, and Google Ads, an advertising platform designed for running PPC campaigns. GTM is a tag management tool that enables you to integrate tracking codes from various platforms into your website, allowing you to leverage the reporting features of Google Analytics or Google Ads. 

GTM allows you to enhance your website by incorporating an empty tracking ‘container’ into its back-end, which can subsequently be populated with the tags and pixels you prefer. Consider it as a gateway straight to the backend of your website!

In the interface, you can easily create your own custom tracking tags, like Google Analytics event tags, to monitor specific features on your website that would typically require a developer's expertise. GTM accomplishes this by generating the necessary tracking code for these tags according to the parameters you provide.

4. What advantages does GTM offer for small enterprises?

Google Tag Manager truly shines when Indian businesses need to continuously create and implement various tracking tags on their websites. It offers a centralised platform for all your tracking needs, enabling you to create, modify, and deploy your tracking tags within a single online interface.

This is highly advantageous for:

Businesses driven by digital platforms with websites are essential for generating sales. For instance, companies that offer their products or services through online platforms, those whose website serves as their primary service or product (like online training), or businesses that rely on their website for attracting new customers. 
Companies managing various online advertising campaigns need to implement extra tracking tags to enhance their campaign optimisation in the long run.
However, GTM might not be essential for every business. For instance, if you operate a small website with limited features that don't need extensive custom tracking tags, or if your marketing efforts are minimal, it may not be required.

5. When you require assistance from developers 

While it's possible to create and implement tags on your own with basic technical skills, you may still need assistance from a developer for certain aspects, especially if coding isn't your forte. 

Incorporating the container script. At the beginning, you will require assistance in incorporating the GTM container script into your website's back-end, unless you are familiar with coding it yourself or your web-building tool provides an easy integration option. 
Intricate monitoring. If you need to set up complex tracking tags or if the functionality you wish to monitor necessitates the addition of extra HTML elements to your website, seeking assistance from a developer might be essential.
Tailored script. It is advisable to consult with a skilled developer prior to adding any custom HTML or JavaScript to your website, as improper code may disrupt your site's performance. You might come across various pre-made scripts available online that promise to assist you with intricate tracking setups, which necessitate the addition of custom HTML to your website. A developer should review these before implementation.
Insufficient resources. On the other hand, you might believe that the time invested in mastering this tool could be more effectively utilised in other areas of your business. In that case, you may opt to delegate the setup of your GTM account and tags to an agency or freelancer who has expertise with the tool. This will clearly necessitate an increased budget.

6. What you can accomplish on your own 

While GTM may seem technical at first, after you’ve integrated the container script into your website, you can easily plan, add, and test simple tracking tags directly from the GTM interface on your own. 
To achieve this effectively, it's essential to dedicate some time initially to explore the tool and understand the workings of GTM, along with the fundamentals of tracking code and JavaScript.
A wealth of information is readily accessible online and within the Google Tag Manager help centre.
Here’s a summary of essential GTM terms along with a guide on the crucial steps to implement your initial tracking tag.

7. Glossary of important terms 

Several terms frequently arise when dealing with GTM.
The GTM container –
It has been highlighted that in order to incorporate the tracking tags into your site, you must include the GTM container script within your website’s code. The container script is a brief piece of JavaScript code provided by GTM that must be placed near the top of the code on every webpage.

Labels, Indicators and Parameters 

After integrating the GTM container into your website, you can utilise the GTM interface to set up the tracking tags within your GTM account for your site.

To create these tags in GTM, you will utilise ‘Triggers’, ‘Variables’, and ‘Tags’. These are the essential components of tracking tag creation, making it crucial for you to grasp their significance and functionality.

Tags are the essential snippets of tracking code that need to be integrated into your website.
Triggers decide the timing for each tag to record – you define your trigger based on a particular event or a series of events, and when a user accomplishes them, your tag will activate. For instance, you might need a Google Ads conversion tag to activate when a customer finalises a purchase, or you could require a tag that tracks videos to trigger once a user clicks to play a video. Every tag needs to have a trigger.
Variables represent the values associated with each trigger or tag that can be modified – they enable you to specify the precise conditions under which a trigger will activate or what specific information a tag will convey. 
For additional details, please refer to the Google Tag Manager help centre.

8. Prior to starting 

Organise your setup 
Before diving into tag creation in your GTM account, it's essential to develop a tracking implementation plan once you grasp how to utilise the tool.

This strategy should encompass aspects such as:
Identify the tracking codes that should be integrated into your website, such as those from Google Analytics, Facebook pixel, Google Ads conversions, Hotjar, and others.

Learn how you will put these into action 
Identify the necessary triggers for these tags, considering whether they should be implemented across all pages, similar to Google Analytics, or restricted to particular pages, like the Google Ads conversion event snippet. 
Keep the tracking code for each one (provided by the platform) ready at your fingertips.
Identify the essential interactions that require measurement on your website.

Which interactions should be prioritised for recording? For instance, metrics such as page views, video plays, and file downloads.
What interactions offer valuable insights into user intent? including transactions, registrations, completion of particular forms, and more. 
How will you track these interactions – what information is necessary to gather? 

For instance, when monitoring video interactions, is it essential to identify the video title, the names of downloaded files, or the particular products that were enquired about, and so on? 
Are you looking for professional assistance with this?
How will you name and structure your GTM tags and parameters for your reports? 

Establish a clear naming structure for all your tags, ensuring they accurately describe what is being tracked. This will help you easily identify the purpose of each tag.
Strategise the tags, triggers, and variables that need to be monitored for every interaction.
Determine the names of the Google Analytics event parameters for every GA event being monitored to guarantee they are understandable in reports (for instance, if you are setting up an event to track video interaction, label the event in a way that is logical, such as “video plays”). 
Gain insights into PII, privacy, and GDPR regulations.
When tracking users on your website with JavaScript cookies and tracking tags for any platform, it's crucial to be aware of your legal responsibilities regarding data collection. This can be a challenging aspect, and it's essential to ensure accuracy. For instance, it is essential to obtain consent for tracking users and to ensure compliance with GDPR along with adhering to all privacy and data protection regulations. For more details, please visit the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

When utilising Google Analytics, it's crucial to ensure that you refrain from collecting any personally identifiable information (PII) like email addresses, names, and so on. This is something that could happen unintentionally during the implementation of GTM, based on how your website is configured. For further insights on this topic, refer to the help resources provided by Google.

9. Steps to Begin 

In this section, we will provide a brief overview of the essential steps to begin using Google Tag Manager and to set up a Google Analytics Universal tracking tag. 

1. Create a GTM account.
The initial step involves setting up a GTM account. To achieve this:

Visit the Google Tag Manager website and select the ‘create account’ option.
Enter your information by naming your account after your company and your ‘container’ with the name of your website. Then, choose your platform type, such as ‘web’.
2. Integrate the GTM container script into your website 
After setting up your account and agreeing to the terms and conditions, a pop-up will appear displaying your GTM container script snippets that must be integrated into your website. 

As noted, you might need assistance from a developer to incorporate this container script into your website or web builder platform (unless you are sure you can hard-code it yourself or if your website builder provides built-in integration or an easy step-by-step process). 

Kindly be informed that you can exit this pop-up to start creating tags in your ‘workspace’ even before the container script is added. The script is readily accessible under ‘Admin’ > ‘Install Google Tag Manager’. However, please remember that the container script must be added to your site before you can activate any tags you create.

After incorporating the container script into your script, navigate to your GTM ‘workspace’ and publish your empty container by clicking ‘submit’ in the upper right corner and following the subsequent steps. 

3. Develop tracking tags 
The next step is to set up your initial tracking tag in your new GTM ‘workspace’ (the section of your GTM account where you develop the tags to be implemented on your site). In this instance, we are implementing a fresh Google Analytics Universal tag to monitor pageviews for the very first time:

In your workspace, select ‘add new tag’ 
Assign a clear and descriptive name to your tag, such as “Google Analytics Universal – Pageview – All Pages” 
Click on the ‘tag configuration’ box and choose ‘Google Analytics: Universal Analytics’ (if you are adding a Google Analytics 4 tracking tag, you would select ‘Google Analytics: GA4 Configuration’). 
Choose your track type – in this instance, select ‘Page View’. However, if you are configuring Google Analytics (Universal) event tracking to monitor a particular site interaction, you would opt for ‘event’ instead.
Establish a fresh Google Analytics Settings Variable 
○ Include your Google Analytics ID, which can be obtained from the ‘property’ > ‘tracking info’ > ‘tracking code’ section in your Google Analytics account admin panel.
○ Set your cookie domain to auto (assuming this is your first time adding Google Analytics).
○ (To include extra settings like custom dimensions, metrics, or content groups, please add them under ‘more settings’.) 
○ Assign a name to your variable – for example, ‘Google Analytics Universal – Google Analytics Setting’ 
○ Preserve 
Choose the new Google Analytics Settings variable 
Click on ‘triggering’ and choose ‘All pages’ (this ensures that our Google Analytics tracking script is active on every page of our site – if you were monitoring a specific event, you would opt for a different trigger). 
Preserve the label 
IMPORTANT – When setting up Google Analytics through GTM, ensure that your Google Analytics tracking code is not already embedded in your website. Adding it again through GTM will result in duplicate tracking and distort your data. 

To learn how to add Universal Analytics tags to your site for the first time, check out this helpful article from Google Tag Manager. For details on incorporating the Google Analytics 4 tag through GTM, please refer to this link.

4. Check out your label 
Before you make any new tags live on your site, it is crucial to test the tags you have created in ‘preview mode’. This ensures they are functioning as intended and allows you to address any issues that may arise. The GTM Preview mode enables you to explore your site as if the tags were active while keeping this experience exclusive to you and not accessible to other visitors.

To evaluate your new Google Analytics tag:
Press the ‘preview’ button located in the top right corner of your workspace – this action will open two new tabs along with a pop-up window.
Input your website's URL in the pop-up and hit ‘connect’. You will then be directed to the first new tab – your website, now in preview mode. By navigating through your website using this tab, you will activate the tags you have set up, enabling you to observe their functionality in the ‘debugger’.
The other new tab is Google’s Tag Assistant (tagassistant.google.com) – this is the ‘debugger’ screen where you can view all the details about the tags being activated on your site and ensure they are functioning correctly and capturing the information accurately. 
This may seem a bit complex and might require some time to adapt, but it's important to focus on the ‘tags fired’ section, as it will indicate which tags have been activated. 
To verify your new Google Analytics pageview tag, simply click on the ‘container loaded’ link located on the left side. (This appears immediately after your webpage has loaded.) 
In the ‘tags fired’ section, you will find your newly created Google Analytics tag labelled as “Google Analytics Universal – Pageview – All Pages”.
This indicates that your tracking tag activated as soon as the page was loaded.
To verify the implementation, go to your Google Analytics Universal account and check the ‘real time’ report – you should observe your pageview there.
For additional insights on preview mode and the process of testing your tags, refer to this helpful article on Tag Manager.

5. Launch your latest tags 
Once you are satisfied that your tags are functioning correctly and capturing data accurately, it's time to publish them on Tag Manager.

When you publish your tags, it generates a new ‘version’ of your container that will go live. Whenever you publish new tags, a fresh version of your workspace will be generated. Versions are incredibly beneficial, as they enable you to revert your tags to an earlier version if you need to correct any implementation errors.

To launch your new Google Analytics tag:

Press ‘submit’ located at the top right corner 
Choose ‘Publish and create version’ 
Include a version name along with a detailed version description that clearly outlines the modifications you have implemented. For instance:
○ Title “Google Analytics Universal Tag Integrated” 
○ Description: “First implementation of Universal Analytics tracking tag, activating on every pageview” 
6. Review your reports 
Once you have implemented the tracking tags, the last step is to verify that the data is being recorded as anticipated in the appropriate reporting platforms like Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and others. 

It is important to review the data promptly after your tags are launched and then again after a week to ensure that the data aligns with your expectations.

If you wish to modify your tags, you can easily do so within GTM, allowing you to create and publish a new version seamlessly.

Choose the new Google Analytics Settings Variable 
Click on ‘triggering’ and choose ‘All pages’ (this ensures that our Google Analytics tracking script is active on every page of our website – if you were monitoring a specific event, you would opt for a different trigger). 
Preserve the label 
Click ‘publish’ to activate the tag on your website.
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