Google Tag Manager vs. Medallia Digital Experience Analytics

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

When we knew that there were some website issues, we were able to use Decibel Insights to really pinpoint the issue and then work on a fix. Again, if we are doing a CRO test then we could also use the tool for a similar reason. It is less suitable for complex websites or websites that are frequently changing, as a lot of support is required by the team and it takes a lot of admin to keep the Decibel Insights account working as effectively as it should.

Incentivized

• 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

• Heat mapping provides a great understanding of UI pain points/bugs
• Integration with analytics tools (we use Adobe) brings in analytics analysis as well
• Helps to understand the user journey and where dropoff is occurring

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

• Being able to create groups of segments would be useful.
• The interface for selecting page types needs more options, it can be difficult to use if you have lots of similar pages.
• Would be good if top level stats were presented in different ways, or in a more visual way (ie pie charts, graphs).
• Generating reports - it would be nice if I could export charts and graphs instead of just CSV files.

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

I've heard about some new features that are coming online soon to do with tracking forms. They also offer a lead tracking package that we haven't tried yet, but I'm keen to check out.

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

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.

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

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

I have used Hotjar before, and in comparison, the functionality and the abilities in Decibel Insights are so much more advanced. The only downside is the price difference between the two tools, but the adaptability and the customer support you get with Decibel Insights definitely make it a more manageable and long-term tool to integrate with your marketing activity.

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

• We have improved form fills, which has provided more sales leads
• We have been able to tweak UI elements to make the site more navigable so that users want to spend more time on the site
• We have been able to more quickly and efficiently identify bugs on our e-commerce pages, increasing order rates among users

Incentivized