Adobe Dynamic Tag Management (discontinued) vs. Google Tag Manager vs. Hitch

If you're on the Adobe stack at all, you absolutely need DTM. It will make your life infinitely easier. It's so simple to update your Adobe Analytics code and have version control, and when we implemented Adobe Target, it took literally less than 15 minutes for me to do. I also think it's significantly simpler than Google Tag Manager. I went through all manner of difficulty when implementing tags on that and have not had similar problems on DTM. If you're frequently placing pixels, it's a great tool that will speed their deployment. The only situation in which I think a tag manager is not appropriate is if you have a dev with too much time on their hands. Otherwise, get a TMS and get DTM.

Incentivized

I use Google Tag Manager (GTM) daily and create tags/triggers for all of our client's websites. It is easy to set up but for some of my tasks, the process does get repetitive so it'd be nice to have a default setting I can use when I have to create accounts, and then tweak/add things to them as needed. It is a great way to collect data and have code on the site without having to log into the site builder all the time. It makes it convenient to make edits or add code after our client's sites go live with us.

Incentivized

• It is a rules based tag management system that allows the application of tracking pixels much easier than hard coding.
• By placing 2 pieces of code on the top and bottom of each page of a website, we can create rules that track certain events and relay the information back to Adobe Media Optimizer and Google analytics.
• It has simplified the coding process so one doesn't have to generate tons of gory javascript to deploy on each individual page to get tracking.

• Selecting elements on a site [object, class, cookie, etc] (to later fire an event, send some data, etc) is very easy with triggers. Want to add an event when someone clicks on a button? Super easy. It was many many DOM selectors and you can even add custom functions if you need to do something more specific
• In general, firing events in different circumstances is very easy mixing triggers and tags. You can track almost any element of the DOM and do whatever you want with it.
• Testing is a great functionality. Only you can see what's on the site and you can debug it easily by seeing which events or tags were triggered and all the DOM elements involved (and why they matched the trigger).
• Working in environments (staging, production) and versioning is easy to do, deploying changes in 2 clicks.

Incentivized

• It is only available with Adobe Marketing Cloud so you can't buy it as an independent product.
• It is easier to use than Google Tag Manager, but not nearly as popular.
• Whereas Google Tag Manager is free, Dynamic Tag Management must be purchased as part of Adobe Marketing Cloud.

Incentivized

• There are several good integrations, but there can always be more. Native tracking for call tracking solutions, analytics providers, non-Google advertisers would be top of my list.
• Documentation is just dreadful. Luckily there are some awesome folks out there doing crowdsourced tutorials (shout out to Simo Ahava) but by and large the Google Tag Manager instructions are worth what you pay for them.

Incentivized

As it interfaces so well with AMO, we shall be utilizing the DTM for any future client additions.

Google Tag Manager makes tracking traffic to our websites effortless, which enables our developers to focus on other tasks. Setting up a new instance takes only minutes and additional scripts can be added/modified without touching the source code of a site in production. This enables our marketing directors to coordinate tests and experiments with minimal effort.

Incentivized

It is easy to use at a basic level, however without JavaScript resource you will struggle.

No difficult obstacle to overcome but Google Tag Manager can still be difficult for many users to deploy. Sure the basic HTML script can be deployed quite easily, but when you start to require triggers, variables, etc, it can be a little daunting.

Incentivized

Although it is a newer product to Adobe, they seem to truly care about our challenges and are very proactive in making sure that we have the most knowledgeable support available in a timely manner.

GTM does not provide support. This is one of GTM's biggest issues but it's due to the level of customization for each website. If your team thinks they would heavily rely on the need for a support staff it is probably better to invest in a paid service with a team that can support your needs.

Incentivized

I thought there was a little bit too much emphasis on AdWords stuff, not enough on the generic application of GTM.

It was quite seamless with the outstanding support from our Adobe account manager.

Planning and communication will help greatly with an in-house implementation. If there are large teams, try to limit the number of people involved to 1-2 developers (back-end dev may be necessary depending on your platform), one analytics marketer and one project manager.

Incentivized

Adobe DTM provides a more secure data analytics solution. It is customized and best used on large scale deployments of websites with pages 10,000+. The Adobe Analytics tool, once learned, is very easy to use and provides more robust, customized graphics and ability to export data to "securely" via FTP from the cloud to SQL database.

Incentivized

We moved to GTM from a standard Google Analytics implementation. GTM is much more flexible and easier to make changes, especially as the changes relate to multiple sites and environments. While there is a learning curve when figuring out how to use GTM, I believe the change has been worth it because it helps us understand at a more fundamental level how our tracking works and gives us a lot more control over what we track and how.

Incentivized

• The key factor is that my devs are not tied up with petty things like adding JS or advertising pixels. Simple work like that can be handled by me while they work on feature development.
• Release cycle is much shorter when a dev is needed, say for a direct call rule that involves JS being written. We don't have to go through the normal release cycle and can do it on an ad hoc basis without all the rigmarole of a hot fix.

Incentivized

• GTM is very useful to determine if a particular element on the site is useful (i.e. is it being watched, is it being clicked, does it help customers navigate through more pages). As an SEO person, I can use this information to decide what to optimize for but also to track progress and see improvements in engagement.
• With the use of Google Tag Manager, I was able to easily inject an A/B testing tool which lead to several improvements in lead generation.

Incentivized