Benefits of Google Tag Manager: 14 Reasons to Start Using GTM

Updated: July 19th, 2021

Google Tag Manager is awesome and I cannot imagine a work day without it. It lets me, as a non-developer, manage tracking codes, control simple and complex rules, and much more. What if my colleague wants to start tracking a particular form? Easy! Need to implement a heat map tracking tool? No problem! And the best part, I don’t have to wait several weeks when a developer becomes available.

Want something even better? The reasons I mentioned above are not the only ones. In fact, I know at least 10 more why you should use GTM. In this blog post, I’ll show you the benefits of Google Tag Manager and you’ll find the list really useful if:

You are new to Google Tag Manager and want to know if it’s a right fit for you.
Or you need to convince someone else to start using GTM.

Ready? Let’s go. Also, if you want a brief introduction to Google Tag Manager, take a look at the video below:

By the way, if you found this guide trying to convince someone to start using GTM, you should also read this guide. I think might find it useful. Anyway, back to the main topic. Here are the key 14 benefits of Google Tag Manager:

Fast deployment of tracking codes
All tags are controlled in one place
Built-in and 3rd party testing tools
Reusable container templates (recipes)
Simple (kind of) event tracking
It’s free
Built-in tag templates
Custom templates
Versions
Workspaces and environments
Security
User permissions
Growing popularity
Friendly and helpful community

#1. Fast Deployment of tracking codes

Let’s take a step back and remember the classic way of how tracking codes used to be managed:

A marketer (analyst, or anyone else) decides to start using a new marketing platform to track user behavior.
He/she gets a tracking code and sends it to a developer.
The developer says he’s busy and will do that next week.
What if you need to track additional events? In that case, you’ll need to write a detailed task, send emails back-and-forth with the developer in order to get those codes installed. This can take even more than several weeks.

What if I said that you could avoid the developer (in most cases) and implement those tracking codes by yourself? With Google Tag Manager, this dream comes true.

Every tracking code is called a tag and you can add/edit/remove them via GTM interface.

Google Tag Manager speeds up many processes. Changes and new tags can be made rapidly and a lot of them do not require code changes to the website. This is great for marketers because it can really speed up launch time by testing each change themselves and deploying when ready.

In fact, Bounteous have published a short case study where their client experienced a 600% improvement in tag implementation time.

And that’s exactly why I put this reason as #1 item in the list of benefits of Google Tag Manager. But it’s definitely not the last. Let’s continue!

#2. All tags are controlled in one place

In the old days, when tag management was just a myth, all tracking codes were coded directly in website’s/app’s source code. The worst part, those little pieces of JavaScript code snippets were scattered across different files. So if you need to do a minor change, the developer needs to: (1) find all those codes, (2) update them.

I’ve seen many cases when due to a human error some codes were missed, therefore this caused inaccuracy in data collection.

Thanks to GTM, this process is made easier: all tags are controlled in one place.

#3. Testing tools

Troubleshooting and correcting tag errors is simplified via Google Tag Manager’s Preview and Debug mode that shows which tags are fired on a page and which are not. It also includes information about triggers that fire tags and data contained within tracking tags.

Why is it important? With GTM debugging solutions, you’re making sure that your tags work before you publish them to the live site. Also, let’s not forget other useful browser extensions suchData Layer Inspector, etc. I’ve listed a lot more of them in a blog post called Top Google Tag Manager Extensions for Chrome.

Additionally, in 2019, the GTM team released new features for monitoring the performance of your tags. Here is a quite technical guide to get started.

Still not convinced? Continue reading and I’ll show you all the benefits of Google Tag Manager.

#4. Reusable container templates (recipes)

Another awesome benefit of Google Tag Manager is the possibility to export all tags, triggers, and variables into a single file (which can be imported later). What does it mean? Well, you can create your own templates with commonly used tracking codes/settings.

This is especially useful for marketers in agencies who have to implement standard Google Analytics events: Page view tracking, outbound link clicks, etc. for every client.

In fact, this feature is so popular that my library of Free GTM Recipes (templates) is one of the most visited sections of this blog. Go ahead, click this link, download any template you like, follow instructions, and start tracking in minutes.

#5. Simple (kind of) event tracking

As I have mentioned before, event tracking involves custom JavaScript codes that you have to add to a website to track events like clicks, form submissions, etc. To make things easier, Google Tag Manager comes with a feature called auto-event tracking.

Once you enable certain triggers in GTM, it will start automatically listening to particular website interactions. There is still some setup required, but it is relatively straightforward to do. You can use those interactions to fire tracking codes, e.g. Google Analytics Event Tag.

Basic events that you can track (by default) in GTM are based on:

Clicks
Link clicks
Form submissions
Time spent on a page, etc.

But wait, there’s more! Thanks to the growing community of GTM users and enthusiasts, the number of auto-event tracking functions constantly increases. You can also add custom features that record things such as scroll depth, new comments, video players, and much more.

Why is this important? Well, it enables you to gain insight into what actions users take on your website. Are they engaging with the content? Are they filling in your forms? You can then use these events to create goals specific to your business in Google Analytics.

Just keep in mind, that more complex events might require the developer’s input. Although GTM gives you some superpowers, it doesn’t make you almighty.

#6. It’s free

Nothing much to add here, actually. Just like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager is free. Although there’s a premium version of it in Google Analytics 360 Suite, the free version is more than enough for a lot of business (small and medium).

#7. Built-in Tag templates

Item #7 in the list of benefits of Google Tag Manager is Tag Templates.

GTM comes with a number of important built-in tags for classic and Universal Analytics, Google Ads conversions, remarketing, and more. This allows a marketer with little or no coding knowledge to customize tags, without implementing a complicated code or asking for developer’s help.

Currently, there are more than 80 templates at your disposal.

#8. Custom templates built by the community

Before 2019, you had two options on how to implement tags:

Use built-in Tag templates (those were created by Google Developers (I guess?)).
Use a Custom HTML tag to add custom tracking codes that are not supported by default (e.g. Facebook Pixel).

But those times are now gone because, in the first half of 2019, the GTM team released a new groundbreaking feature called Custom Templates. They empower the community-created templates themselves (like FB Pixel or other pixels). And to make things even better, Google introduced the gallery of all templates that were submitted by the generous industry peeps. You can browse it and add templates to your container.

Why is this a benefit? Simple. Instead of having to deal with custom codes and Custom HTML tag or Custom JavaScript variables (that require technical knowledge), you will be able to continue working with a more user-friendly interface by clicking buttons, dropdowns, etc.

While this does not fully replace the Custom HTML tags or Custom JS variables, Custom templates reduce the need for those.

#9. Versions

Every time you publish a change to a container (where your tracking codes are stored), GTM creates a new version. If at any time you need to restore to a previous (or any other existing) version, you can do really easily.

Accidentally published changes to a live site although some tags were still incomplete? Not a problem. Just head over to the Versions page and publish a previous version. That’s an easy way to solve all Ooops… situations.

#10. Workspaces and Environments

These two features are great for enterprises with multiple teams that can make changes to the website, companies working with outside vendors, or projects that can span weeks or months.

Environments enable you to control your tag manager installation across live/production websites or apps, and their development/staging counterparts. This tag manager feature lets you publish your tags to different environments, for example, a testing server, so you don’t affect or change your live version when publishing.

Workspaces enable several team members to work in the same Google Tag Manager container without overwriting each other’s changes. After their job is done, changes of both workspaces are merged into one essence. Without this feature, the work with GTM would look like this:

#11. Security

Google automatically scans all tracking scripts added with Custom HTML tags in GTM accounts and pauses if they match a known malware domain, IP address or URL. Additionally, you can control who has access to your GTM accounts and can revoke access at any time.

You can also set up Whitelists or Blacklists by adding some commands to your data layer on your website. This is controlled by the website server, so even if GTM gets compromised you’ll have final say over whether or not Custom Tracking Scripts are allowed to run on your site.

Bounteous have published a great blog post demystifying various Google Tag Manager Security Issues. Give it a shot!

#12. User permissions

Google Tag Manager allows you to give account access to multiple people, with different levels of viewing, editing and publishing privileges. This feature provides convenience for agencies wanting to give multiple employees access or needing to share access with clients while ensuring only certain individuals have master control.

You can choose from the following permission levels.

No Access
Read
Edit
Publish
Approve
Publish

#13. Growing popularity

Google is known for launching and killing a lot of products, like Google Glasses, RSS Reader, etc. But it looks like Google Tag Manager’s future is bright: its popularity is growing, more and more people are using it as their work tool, the number of free and paid GTM resources is also constantly increasing.

What does it mean? Well, the more people are using GTM, the more blog posts, tutorials and other types of content will be available. To name a few:

The Ultimate list of 90+ GTM Resources
The Library of Google Tag Manager Recipes (ready-made container templates)
The Ultime Google Tag Manager Glossary

#14. Helpful community

Another reason why I adore using Google Tag Manager is a helpful community. If you have a specific issue and don’t find the answer, just publish a post on Facebook Community and you’ll definitely get some help.

If Facebook is not your cup of tea, you can try joining Google Tag Manager subreddit, MeasureSlack.

Benefits of Google Tag Manager: final thoughts

That’s it (at least, for now). I hope it helped you decide to join the Team-GTM or to convince someone else to do it. In my opinion, starting to use Google Tag Manager is a no-brainer. It’s an easy-to-use solution to control tracking codes in one place.

Obviously, if you want to track more complex stuff, you’ll definitely need to invest some time in order to learn. But from my experience, learning was really fun, interesting, and engaging. What’s the next step?

If you’re new to GTM, I’d recommend downloading my free e-book Google Tag Manager for Beginners. If you’re already familiar with it and want to dig deeper, read my GTM Tips, Simo Ahava’s blog, or keep looking for other sources of information.

Finally, I don’t think that I listed ALL the benefits of Google Tag Manager. I’m pretty sure there are still some I’ve forgotten. Did I miss anything? If yes, let me know in the comments.

The post Benefits of Google Tag Manager: 14 Reasons to Start Using GTM appeared first on Analytics Mania.

Read MoreAnalytics Mania