Google Tag Manager: What It Is & Why You Should Use It

Google Tag Manager is one of the most powerful tools that you can on your website or mobile application.
In this video, we’ll define exactly what Google Tag Manager actually is, why you should use it and how to set it up.
What is Google Tag Manager?
Picture Google Tag Manager as a bridge that connects your marketing scripts to your website.
In a nutshell, Google Tag Manager acts as a bridge between your website and your marketing scripts such as Google Analytics, Facebook pixel and many other tools that track website traffic.
Google Tag Manager consists of three core components:
- Tags
- Triggers
- Variables
Tags are marketing scripts or measurement codes that collect information such as Google Analytics or Facebook pixel.
Triggers to tell your tags where and when to fire.
Variables then allow you to set specific controls and functions on how you want your tags and triggers to work.
Why you should use Google Tag Manager?
The benefits of using Google Tag Manager can be broken down into three things.
First, using the tool saves you precious time.
Aside from being a time-saver, it also allows you to save on money. If you’re hiring people, you may have developers or marketing consultants on your staff. If the platform is already set up, it will save them a stack of time, therefore you save money and allows you to simply get more done.
It unlocks a lot of the functionality that would be very difficult to achieve prior to Google Tag Manager being put in place. It allows you to do more with your marketing scripts and with your tracking and analytics that otherwise would have been difficult to achieve in the past.
Setting Up Google Tag Manager & Installing Google Analytics
Here’s how to set up a Google Tag Manager account.
1) Create an account – Once you’ve logged into Google Tag Manager, the first thing you’re going to want to do is hit the ‘Create Account’ button.
2) Account name – Next, you want to start filling out the details of your Google Tag Manager account name. For this example, let’s use a demo site, the Google Merchant Store.
3) Country – Since this is actually a global store but it’s headquartered in the U.S, let’s set the United States as the primary country of origin.
Container name – Grab the URL and place it in the container name. Don’t include the https component and the backslash (/) and set it as a Web container. Then, click Create.
4) Accept terms – Next, review the terms of service and click ‘Yes’ if you agree to the terms. And you now have your Google Tag Manager container set up.
Here's how to install Google Analytics into Google Tag Manager
1) From the tag screen, hit the ‘New’ button.
2) Call the tag ‘GA-Universal Analytics’, where GA is short for Google Analytics.
3) Choose ‘Google Analytics’ as the tag type because you want to track page views of your website.
4) Let’s call the new variable ‘Google Merchandise Store GA’ where GA is for Google Analytics.
5) Set the Cookie domain to Auto.
6) Next, go back to your Google Analytics account to get the Google Merchandise Store demo tracking ID, which in this case is UA-54516992-1.
7) Paste the tracking ID in Google Tag Manager and hit Save.
8) Next, set a trigger for this tag to fire on all pages and hit Save.
You’re done! You have created your first tag. If you were to go ahead and drop Google Tag Manager into your website, Google Analytics will load on all pages and will be delivered into the site via the Google Tag Manager script. It’s that simple!
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