Google Tag Manager, is that something for you?

Despite its dull name, it’s a product that can save you a lot of time and effort. Here’s what it is and whether it can benefit you.

A website is to marketing what the trunk is to a tree: the foundation of your online presence. This might be obvious for e-commerce companies, but it’s just as true for B2B enterprises. In this era of mobile internet and social media, ideally, all marketing and communication efforts of a company lead back to the website. There, you can map out visitors, engage them, and ultimately sell to them: convert them.

To track and follow visitors, modern marketers have a plethora of tools at their disposal. Popular examples include Google Analytics, Facebook Advertising, Google AdWords, and LinkedIn Insights. These tools only truly shine when they can link your visitors to their accounts on platforms like Facebook.

Following and ‘tagging’ visitors

To link your visitors to their accounts on, say, Facebook, you need to place a so-called tag on your website. This tag is a piece of code that loads Facebook unnoticed and tells it who the visitor is and what they’re doing on your site. In Facebook’s case, you can then advertise specifically targeted at that visitor.

Another example you’re probably familiar with is Retargeting. After visiting Cool Blue and searching for a vacuum cleaner, you suddenly see vacuum cleaner ads everywhere. Cool Blue has ‘tagged’ you and uses a platform like Google AdWords to entice you into making a purchase.

Do these companies then have all my information? No, this data is always anonymized in practice, though it’s scary how much can be learned from anonymous data. But that’s a discussion for another time.

What is Google Tag Manager?

As the name suggests, Google Tag Manager is a platform that manages your various tags. You only place Google Tag Manager’s tag on your site and then specify which information it should share with which platform. This makes it easy to add a code, for example, when a new social platform emerges where you want to advertise.

But there’s more; instead of placing the same tag on every page, you can link tags to individual pages or even specific clicks! These are known as triggers. It probably sounds very micro, so here are some practical examples of what you can achieve.

Three advantages of Google Tag Manager

Optimizing your website
Using triggers and tags, you can determine which page performs best. Maybe a different photo on a product page leads to more sales, and tags can help you figure that out.

Tracking and enhancing advertising results
What happens when someone clicks on your ad or advertorial? Sometimes, they leave quickly, not because the offer isn’t interesting but maybe because their kitchen timer goes off. It’s a shame if you’d lose that person forever. Tags allow you to bring your offer to their attention again.

A uniform basis for every platform
Setting up things like conversion goals, tracking, and retargeting is a lot of work. Using one central platform ensures you’re using the same factors across all platforms. This makes reporting easier and gives you better insight into the variables.

Use Google Tag Manager in B2B or B2C?

The answer is simply ‘Yes’, to both!

Implementation takes some time, as it’s a new platform, but you’ll get the hang of it. Adding a new tag then becomes a breeze, allowing you to use the latest analysis and marketing tools with minimal time loss.

A common argument among B2B marketers against online marketing is that it’s ‘too big’ and you can’t be sure if you’re reaching the right audience. With this, you can precisely determine if your marketing and communication efforts are hitting the right target, focusing much more on results. This last point can be particularly persuasive within a B2B environment when convincing the rest of the company of the value of ‘alternative’ marketing methods.

In B2C, it’s a no-brainer. You want to follow your target audience across various social media and websites, and this is the most practical and efficient way to do so.

You can open an account at tagmanager.google.com. If you need help, we’re of course happy to assist.