Google Tag Manager for beginners: manage tags without code

Do you know the feeling? You want new tracking on your website, Google Analytics, a conversion counter, maybe a pixel from Facebook. And every time you have to call your developer, because a code snippet has to be built in somewhere. This very back-and-forth is what the Google Tag Manager solves.

In this post I'll explain to you without jargon what the Google Tag Manager actually is, how a container and triggers work, and why it's worth it even for a small Swiss company.

What is the Google Tag Manager anyway?

Picture a central control centre for all the little code snippets that run along on your website. Such snippets are called tags, these are, for example, the Analytics tracking, a conversion code or an advertising pixel.

Normally you'd have to build each of these tags into the page code by hand. With the Google Tag Manager you instead build in a small piece of code once, the container. After that you manage all further tags conveniently through an interface in the browser, entirely without tinkering with the page code again. That's the whole trick: set up once, then self-sufficient afterwards.

The container: the heart of it

When you sign up for the Google Tag Manager, the first thing you create is a container. The container is the box in which all your tags will later live. Per website you generally need exactly one.

After creating it, you get two short code snippets that have to be built into every page once, one in the head area, one directly after the start of the page. That's the only moment when someone briefly has to touch the code. After that the connection is permanently established, and you work only in the interface.

The container consists of three building blocks that work together:

• Tags: the actual snippets that do something, such as reporting a page view to Analytics.
• Triggers: the condition for when a tag is fired, for example "on every page view" or "when someone clicks the button".
• Variables: small placeholders the Tag Manager uses to insert values; you'll barely need these at the start.

Setting up triggers: the when decides

A tag on its own does nothing. It needs a trigger that tells it when to fire. That's the part many find a bit abstract at first, yet it's entirely logical.

A few typical examples from an SME's everyday life:

• "All pages": your Analytics tag should fire on every page view. That's the most common trigger and usually the first one you create.
• "Click on a button": you want to count how often someone clicks "Enquire now". The trigger then reacts to exactly this click.
• "Form submitted": as soon as a contact form has been sent successfully, a conversion is counted.

You select the tag, attach the matching trigger to it, and you're done. This is exactly where the advantage shows: you change the behaviour of your tracking without touching a single line of code.

Preview and publish: test first, then go live

A detail I particularly value: changes aren't live straight away. The Google Tag Manager has a preview mode. With it you open your site in a test window and see exactly which tag fires on which action, before any visitor notices a thing.

Only once everything is right do you click Publish. Only then do the changes go live for everyone. This safety net takes away the fear of breaking something, and that's exactly what makes the tool so pleasant for beginners.

Is it worth it for my small company?

A fair question. If you only need a single Analytics tracking and never change anything else, you could also have the code built in directly. But as soon as more comes along, a second tool, an action to measure, an advertising pixel for a campaign, the Google Tag Manager saves you a lot of time and dependency. You stay able to act, without commissioning someone for every little thing.

What matters is the correct first setup. If the container is built in cleanly and the basic framework is well thought out, a lot runs by itself afterwards. This is where things most often stall for SMEs, and it's exactly this that I'm happy to set up cleanly once for you, so that you can then work with it yourself. Also think of the cookie consent: tags that collect personal data may only fire after visitors' consent. That can be mapped cleanly in the Tag Manager.

If you're unsure whether your tracking is set up correctly, I'm happy to take a look, just get in touch via the contact form. And if you'd like to dive deeper into topics around websites and visibility, you'll find more posts in my blog.