Google Tag Manager vs. Open Web 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

Open Web Analytics is an opportunity for those that like to have skeletons for the start of customized solutions. The package offers several best practices set of features and functions. The possibilities add up to higher performance API for example from Google Analytics. The vast of additional features are of higher value because the market does not have other solutions. There are solutions around Open Web Analytics for example in SAP Design Studio that integrate beyond Content Management systems and attached Shops Systems to Warehousing, Logistics, and Deliverment Management. The market situation are covering all that is possible and has demand. The universality is implemented at the user interface and therefore unmatched and even robust for new kinds of visualization interfaces or input device types. A draw is that against payment system remains a security gap and data security and data safety might be a topic for each customer and user.

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

• High performance track and state-of-the-art analyze the human use of website pages and apps.
• Combines conventional Google Analytics-like-tracking with heatmap-like-tracking features.
• Offers JavaScript and PHP based APIs for web analytics page integration of versatile tracking features.
• Supports best practices established for content management frameworks based on WordPress or MediaWiki.

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

• Open Web Analytics can be available for integration for the broad mass in all PHP- and Javascript-based Content Management Frameworks.
• A shop for custom add-ons of the platform Open Web Analytics may be a big chance.
• Enhance in documentation, examples, best practices are a great chance to get more users active and a broader audience.
• Offer a closer integration to the leading tool Google Analytics in so many features and functions. Learn from Matomy for example.

Incentivized

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

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

Google Analytics is the market leader for web analytics. The package offers search engine marketing that can be integrated into Open Web Analytics. The features and functions of Open Web Analytics compare close to Matomo Analytics. In terms of market share Google Analytics has all and the other two have very little and their other competitors have almost nothing. That changes in specialized markets. Google Analytics is everywhere and much more influential than other search engines because of that particular service. There had been a dying period for such web analytics software packages. There are three kinds of web analytics software packages. Free/open source like Open Web Analytics and Matomo, Proprietary like Urchin from Google, and hosted/software-as-a-service-packages like the market leader Google Analytics. I consider all as rather different in performance. Those closer to the busiest server are the best for traffic. Heat maps are well placed on the hosting server.

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

• Moderate lifetime operating costs.
• Enhances the performances of all online business interests enormously.
• Enables a great customized experience of web analytics.
• Compatible to web analytics standards and references.

Incentivized