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From Google, the Google Tag Manager is a tag management application that facilitates creating, embedding, and updating tags across websites and mobile apps, thus gaining the benefits of data standardization and speed of deployment. Google touts an agency friendly system with multiple user access, and tools to improve tags performance like debugging, and rules, macros or automated tag firing. The Google Tag Manager also integrates with Google product DoubleClick. Moreover, Google Tag Manager is free.https://dudodiprj2sv7.cloudfront.net/product-logos/E9/OK/85ZMR50VVOQL.PNGGTM gives speed and tools to really increase your ROI (for free!)We use Tag Manager in the marketing department, but we do it in conjunction with the technology department. GTM makes it extremely easy to add code to the site, which can be extremely useful if you want to add a tracker, snippet or something related to a marketing, tracking, analytics or similar software (Adwords, Facebook Ads, Email marketing, Hotjar, Analytics, etc.) Before GTM you had to add the code yourself to the site, which (1) can be very slow depending on your org bureaucracy or technology department and (2) can be way more inefficient that doing it with GTM, because it optimizes the code to keep it smaller. This way you can be very agile from a marketing perspective without wasting time on technical issues.,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.,For someone who's just starting, it can be overwhelming to understand how it works. Onboarding is not easy and even thought it has improved a lot since it started, still has a way to go so you can actually understand what's going on. Documentation is very poor and generally you are on your own if it doesn't work right. Try searching for GTM gurus like Simo Ahava or ask forums, but general use cases or more docs don't exist. Debugging is a bit hard. Even thought you have the test functionality (which is useful) in some cases when you reload the page or the action takes you to another page (form submit, redirect, etc) it can be hard to debug.,10,Impact is in many ways. First, how much money and time we save by not having to add each piece of code every time, just load GTM once and then make changes over there. Second, how much money we have saved by being able to change course fast with our marketing campaigns and business objectives. We are able to measure the things that return value to our company, so we've been able to change landing pages, buttons, events and more complicated processes after realizing that they weren't working as expected. This might sound obvious (you should measure everything) but in practice is not that easy and it may take a lot of time. GTM makes it easier.,,Customer.io, Bitbucket, Google Analytics, Trello, Facebook for Business, AWS Elastic Beanstalk,6-10 vendorsFast, Lightweight, a Great Entry to Tag ManagementGTM makes creating scalable, repeatable analytics setups much easier for franchises. It's also great for marketers who want to be more nimble and not be locked behind IT or engineering to get new systems or optimizations deployed. We keep a standard implementation for those just getting started using GTM with easily swappable variables, and then layer on additional tracking / prompts / software tags as needed.,Code injection is simplified with Tag Manager. Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, Marketo Munchkin, HubSpot tracking, Hotjar, CallRail, the list goes on. One stop, no constantly bugging the devs to install new code. Need to track onsite events? Build a single listener or trigger, and apply that trigger to countless different applications. A user form fill can trigger an AdWords and Facebook conversion, tag a Hotjar recording, signal deployment of a pop-up or just about anything else javascript-driven. GTM is basically coding light. For non-developers who might be terrified of GitHub, it makes features like version control, forking/branches and draft / deploy mode approachable.,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.,8,Less time spent communicating internally and faster installation always means money savings. I was able to build an entire tracking hierarchy system using GTM for the website of a given client in around half the quoted time, so that was a big win. Having a preset "starting template" means new deployments don't have to go from scratch and we spend less time reinventing the wheel.,Zoom, Hotjar, Unbounce, Marketo, Basecamp,6-10 vendorsGoogle Tag Manager is a huge time saver!We use Google Tag Manager to implement many tracking codes across our website. Saves a ton of time not having to update code.,It allows for super easy implementation of various code tags. You can easily add new tags or disable old tags no longer needed. You can implement tags site-wide or just on certain pages.,I haven't come across any problems with using Google Tag Manager to date.,10,Saves a lot of time when changing or adding tags to our website.,Google Analytics, vCita, Google Drive,2-5 vendorsGoogle Tag Manager: A must have free tool for tracking!I work in a Digital Marketing agency, and Google Tag Manager (GTM) is being used across all our services (SEO, Analytics, Paid Search and Social) and with the majority of our clients. It is a very effective tool to track clicks, campaigns, revenue, leads (etc) without the need of involving the dev team of our clients. With GTM, we can quickly tag everything ourselves, which makes us save time, email communications and let us see results almost instantly.,GTM does a very good job in updating their predetermined triggers. Every so often they will add a new trigger that they see is needed. For example, the latest update was a Youtube trigger, element visibility trigger and scroll depth trigger. This helps in keeping up with digital marketing trends and tracking. There is a fairly good integration with other Google products like Google Analytics (of course), Google Optimize and Adwords. For example, GTM makes it easy to set up A/B testing with Optimize, since a there is a specific tag created for that. Having the option to create DOM variables and using them in the tags opens a world of possibility for tagging.,There is no real tutorial for GTM, and the one that exists in google analytics academy is very basic. Google should create a library or a document that specifies how to use each of the elements available in GTM. Earlier today I was trying to use a feature for a GA tag that I've never used before, but couldn't find any information about it. They are not great at integrating with Facebook. FB is one of the most popular platforms for advertising, they should have created a specific Facebook tag by now to help marketer with their tracking. It's hard to connect several actions taken by the same person in 1 tag. For example, there is no easy way of tagging a multiple step action. Each tag will fire individually on each action instead of firing on conditions.,9,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.,,Optimizely, Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, Adobe Experience Manager,2-5 vendors,10GTM - Get free of the release scheduleWe use Google Tag Manager for Google Analytics implementation across all our domains. We aim to have all third party scripts, that do not need to be implemented in the source, added through GTM Custom HTML tag. Adding scripts through the Custom HTML tag is easy - you can publish any additions, changes or removals out of regular release cycle. Another big use-case for our company is Enhanced Ecommerce implementation, which is done 100% via GTM.,User roles - users can tinker around, but live publish requires admin approval Version history - If users fill out the easy to use log when publishing, then version history is easy to understand and explanatory Reverting changes - Easy to see the actual changes made, when the version was published and by who. Just two clicks to revert to an older version Preview mode - very helpful debug mode that works on the live webpage,Custom HTML tags could be easier to use for not so code-savvy users. Error messages are sometimes hard to understand. Integration with SPA's,10,Improved user experience index - By tracking user interactions we are able to pinpoint UX shortcomings and fix them Improved CR and ROI on media campaign - With enhanced ecommerce tracking through GTM we are able to get much more information about our e-shop checkout process, and identify shortcomings and performing media channels Cheaper and faster implementation of third-party functionalities. Adding third-party scripts does not need to go through the usual development process,Google Analytics Premium, Google BigQuery, Google Ads (formerly AdWords), Facebook for Business,6-10 vendors
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Google Tag Manager
139 Ratings
Score 9.0 out of 101
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Google Tag Manager Reviews

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Google Tag Manager
139 Ratings
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Score 9.0 out of 101
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Santiago Valdés profile photo
October 19, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "GTM gives speed and tools to really increase your ROI (for free!)"

Santiago Valdés
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Tag Manager in the marketing department, but we do it in conjunction with the technology department.
GTM makes it extremely easy to add code to the site, which can be extremely useful if you want to add a tracker, snippet or something related to a marketing, tracking, analytics or similar software (Adwords, Facebook Ads, Email marketing, Hotjar, Analytics, etc.)
Before GTM you had to add the code yourself to the site, which (1) can be very slow depending on your org bureaucracy or technology department and (2) can be way more inefficient that doing it with GTM, because it optimizes the code to keep it smaller.
This way you can be very agile from a marketing perspective without wasting time on technical issues.
  • 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.
  • For someone who's just starting, it can be overwhelming to understand how it works. Onboarding is not easy and even thought it has improved a lot since it started, still has a way to go so you can actually understand what's going on.
  • Documentation is very poor and generally you are on your own if it doesn't work right. Try searching for GTM gurus like Simo Ahava or ask forums, but general use cases or more docs don't exist.
  • Debugging is a bit hard. Even thought you have the test functionality (which is useful) in some cases when you reload the page or the action takes you to another page (form submit, redirect, etc) it can be hard to debug.
If you have a marketing department that wants to be agile and measure valuable goals for your company, then GTM is the way to go.
You will be able to track almost any event of value that you want on the site (without adding any extra code, thanks to auto-event listener), add new marketing tools if needed in minutes and send events to multiple platforms.
This has huge value for your company if you think about it: measuring your efforts quickly and changing course if it is not working can save tons of money. I believe almost anyone who has a site on the internet can benefit from it because of how much time it saves (considering it's even free!).

Just beware: GTM opens the door so you can add any piece of code you want. Someone without much experience can overload the site or affect site speed.
Read Santiago Valdés's full review
J.P. VanderLinden profile photo
September 27, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Fast, Lightweight, a Great Entry to Tag Management"

J.P. VanderLinden
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
GTM makes creating scalable, repeatable analytics setups much easier for franchises. It's also great for marketers who want to be more nimble and not be locked behind IT or engineering to get new systems or optimizations deployed. We keep a standard implementation for those just getting started using GTM with easily swappable variables, and then layer on additional tracking / prompts / software tags as needed.
  • Code injection is simplified with Tag Manager. Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, Marketo Munchkin, HubSpot tracking, Hotjar, CallRail, the list goes on. One stop, no constantly bugging the devs to install new code.
  • Need to track onsite events? Build a single listener or trigger, and apply that trigger to countless different applications. A user form fill can trigger an AdWords and Facebook conversion, tag a Hotjar recording, signal deployment of a pop-up or just about anything else javascript-driven.
  • GTM is basically coding light. For non-developers who might be terrified of GitHub, it makes features like version control, forking/branches and draft / deploy mode approachable.
  • 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.
If your site has been using plugins to inject tracking or javascript deployment, they are likely adding unnecessary bloat. If the lag time to get new tracking in place feels like an Ice Age because marketers have to talk to developers and then get in line, there's a faster way. If you want to have a single place to check for whether tracking is installed that ISN'T the source code, GTM is your friend.

And you can't beat the price.
Read J.P. VanderLinden's full review
Josh Randall profile photo
January 04, 2019

Review: "Google Tag Manager is a huge time saver!"

Josh Randall
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager to implement many tracking codes across our website. Saves a ton of time not having to update code.
  • It allows for super easy implementation of various code tags.
  • You can easily add new tags or disable old tags no longer needed.
  • You can implement tags site-wide or just on certain pages.
  • I haven't come across any problems with using Google Tag Manager to date.
My only use of Google Tag Manager has been for implementing tags on a website and it works very well for that.
Read Josh Randall's full review
No photo available
November 13, 2018

Review: "Google Tag Manager: A must have free tool for tracking!"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I work in a Digital Marketing agency, and Google Tag Manager (GTM) is being used across all our services (SEO, Analytics, Paid Search and Social) and with the majority of our clients.
It is a very effective tool to track clicks, campaigns, revenue, leads (etc) without the need of involving the dev team of our clients. With GTM, we can quickly tag everything ourselves, which makes us save time, email communications and let us see results almost instantly.
  • GTM does a very good job in updating their predetermined triggers. Every so often they will add a new trigger that they see is needed. For example, the latest update was a Youtube trigger, element visibility trigger and scroll depth trigger. This helps in keeping up with digital marketing trends and tracking.
  • There is a fairly good integration with other Google products like Google Analytics (of course), Google Optimize and Adwords. For example, GTM makes it easy to set up A/B testing with Optimize, since a there is a specific tag created for that.
  • Having the option to create DOM variables and using them in the tags opens a world of possibility for tagging.
  • There is no real tutorial for GTM, and the one that exists in Google Analytics academy is very basic. Google should create a library or a document that specifies how to use each of the elements available in GTM. Earlier today I was trying to use a feature for a GA tag that I've never used before, but couldn't find any information about it.
  • They are not great at integrating with Facebook. FB is one of the most popular platforms for advertising, they should have created a specific Facebook tag by now to help marketer with their tracking.
  • It's hard to connect several actions taken by the same person in 1 tag. For example, there is no easy way of tagging a multiple step action. Each tag will fire individually on each action instead of firing on conditions.
I would really recommend GTM. It's an easy-to-learn tool that can achieve great things.
I think every marketer should know how to use GTM, at least the basic concept of creating tags and triggers. There are many non-Google online tutorials and scripts that other people have already written, which makes it even easier to achieve your goal.
Read this authenticated review
No photo available
November 08, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "GTM - Get free of the release schedule"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager for Google Analytics implementation across all our domains. We aim to have all third party scripts, that do not need to be implemented in the source, added through GTM Custom HTML tag. Adding scripts through the Custom HTML tag is easy - you can publish any additions, changes or removals out of regular release cycle. Another big use-case for our company is Enhanced Ecommerce implementation, which is done 100% via GTM.
  • User roles - users can tinker around, but live publish requires admin approval
  • Version history - If users fill out the easy to use log when publishing, then version history is easy to understand and explanatory
  • Reverting changes - Easy to see the actual changes made, when the version was published and by who. Just two clicks to revert to an older version
  • Preview mode - very helpful debug mode that works on the live webpage
  • Custom HTML tags could be easier to use for not so code-savvy users. Error messages are sometimes hard to understand.
  • Integration with SPA's
Google Tag Manager is an excellent tool for adding third-party scripts. When something goes wrong with them or when they need a quick change - you don't need to wait for your next release date. Just get the fix done, check that it's working correctly with the preview mode, and publish.
Read this authenticated review
No photo available
November 05, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "GTM saves time and simplifies advanced analytics"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is being used by our marketing team to better track customers through Google Analytics (GA) primarily and is only used by our marketing team. The integration between the two is absolutely crucial for any digital marketing team to understand and utilize. Without the use of GTM, it's incredibly difficult to do any advanced GA goal and event tracking. Due to its versatility, we're able to accurately report on our user behavior through GA in ways that we were never able to before. This allows us to better A/B test landing pages and improve our website experience for our customers.
  • Flexibility is critical. Being able to easily trigger actions on our website through Tag Manager saves me time in development and stress in the deployment of these tags. Not having to write a line of code and having the ability to trigger events on specific button clicks or scroll depth is nice, but being able to trigger events anywhere you can run a JavaScript function is incredible.
  • Ease of use. It's great to be able to safely give other members of our digital marketing team access to GTM and trust that they can successfully navigate the platform, understand what active tags are doing, and create new tags.
  • Testing and debugging. I'll also list this as a con for one small reason, but in large it's simple to test and see which tags are firing on specific page views, on button clicks, etc. Additionally, you can see every action that GTM tracks (and in turn create new tags based on those).
  • In the debugger, it can sometimes be a frustrating interface. The drawer from the bottom of the screen is large and can be frustrating to navigate. While it gives you all of the information you need and after some time you get accustomed to the organization of it, it would be nice to have a more fluid interface to debug and read the output of GTM
  • GA custom events have become more complicated with GTM. Once you understand the data layer, it is incredibly powerful, but not being able to use a simple GA Send command to push a custom event into your Analytics account is a bummer.
Any scenario in which you want to do any level of analytics on web traffic is very well suited for GTM. It can trigger third-party pixel events with custom HTML tags as well as any of the native tags that are built into the system, so it can help the less technically savvy marketer implement the solutions they historically would have to ask a webmaster or developer for help with.
Read this authenticated review
Ben Rubenstein profile photo
May 18, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Flexible solution for more complex website tracking"

Ben Rubenstein
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager within our business unit to streamline our analytics implementation across multiple websites and environments (staging and production) and to track conversions and user engagement. We were previously using standard Google Analytics to do this tracking but were looking for Tag Manager to be able to more easily make adjustments without having to access/customize site code. GTM is being used by at least one other business unit in our organization, but we have separate implementations.
  • Flexibility. We can create one analytics tag that can apply to multiple sites with a single click. This saves a lot of time when we want to make a minor tweak that applies to, say, our marketing website and our application site.
  • Testing. It's very simple to preview whether a tag has been implemented properly - just visit a page, and you can easily see whether the right tags are firing using the Debug tool. I use this regularly to flag potential issues.
  • Integrations. The ability to add things like Adwords and Facebook Pixel directly to sites using GTM is nice - it enables us to have a single place to store that information rather than having multiple versions of code floating around, which we might forget to update if something changes.
  • Ease of creation. The templated system for creating variables, triggers, and tags makes the setup process fairly simple (even if there is a learning curve).
  • While it's nice to be able to create one tag and apply it across multiple sites or page types, sometimes it's almost too easy to do that. I've run into some situations where we were tracking pageviews in multiple properties mistakenly because the tag was too broadly applied. This is something I'd like to be able to flag more easily. In order to get the kind of granularity we require, it can be necessary to create multiple versions of the same tag, applied to different environments, which creates the possibility for error if our naming structure is not consistent.
  • Messaging is not always clear. Occasionally we'll see a message saying that a bunch of changes has been made (for example when publishing a new version), but it's not immediately clear what those changes are. It would be nice to be able to see a detailed rundown of version changes at any given time, and what pages are affected by those changes.
I think GTM is particularly well-suited for organizations that run multiple sites and have an interest in managing to track across and between those properties. It makes tracking across domains much simpler than the standard Google Analytics setup. It might not be worthwhile to switch to GTM if you run a single site or don't have plans to implement detailed user engagement that requires a lot of custom code.
Read Ben Rubenstein's full review
Luiz Lai profile photo
April 16, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Reliable, Easy to use, Powerful and free!"

Luiz Lai
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
The Google Tag Manager is used to manage tags and codes in your site or app. It can be both marketing tags and other tools that are useful for your business. It is usually used by IT, marketing, or Business Intelligence area.
  • Fast learning curve
  • Friendly integration with Other Google products
  • Stable and reliable platform
  • Provide more control to all tags on your sites.
  • Ability to modify (on / off / pause) any tags very quickly, without bumping into deploys of IT area
  • Transfer modifications tags and triggers to another workpace,
  • Limited workspaces into the free version
Google Tag Manager is great for increasing agility in publishing, changing, and managing marketing tags and other tools. For an online business, that makes all the difference. It is free and has a friendly interface, and we can say that it does not take a programmer to start using it.
Read Luiz Lai's full review
Dylan Redd profile photo
July 26, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Tag Manager is great!"

Dylan Redd
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
It is used in my department. We use Google Tag Manager to handle any third-party integration with our clients' websites, such as AdWords or Facebook. Tag Manager keeps all tracking codes and implementation clean and organized, and keeps the code off if the site so it loads faster.
  • Well organized and easy to see what has been created
  • We can manage all of our clients accounts from one dashboard
  • Easily integrates with other Google services
  • There is a steep learning curve when it comes to learning how to set up and integrate different services.
  • The help tips are vague and unhelpful
Tag Manager is great for any website, especially if you are integrating a variety of different services into your website. When using tag Manager you don't have to dig through code to figure out where a snippet of code is hiding. It is all organized and labeled.
Read Dylan Redd's full review
JC Matthews profile photo
July 26, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Tag Your Money Manager"

JC Matthews
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I'm using Google Tag Manager across my whole website. It allows me to track all the data points for managing customer acquisition cost as well as determining how good a specific campaign is doing and what expectations on a monthly basis I should be looking for on each specific product that we offer. Since we offer several different insurance products (around 10) we're able to use Google Tag Manager to tag each specific link that a customer may click through in order to purchase a product.
  • Google Tag Manager allows you to track specific links very well
  • Google Tag Manager allows you to track clicks on HTML data such as forms
  • Google Tag Manager allows you to have multiple triggers for specific tags
  • Better training on how to use the product
Google Tag Manager is well suited for service and e-commerce businesses scenarios like tracking specific data especially for specific products tracking click-through rates as well as sales. I will say is less appropriate if you don't have a large number of things to track or a much smaller business is starting off you might want to try and outside tracking system because it is extremely complicated.
Read JC Matthews's full review
Bobby Stemper profile photo
July 23, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Make Your Marketing Team More Independent and Agile with GTM"

Bobby Stemper
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Google Tag Manager is being used to track website behavior and simplify the deployment process for website javascript, event tracking, and essential third-party integrations. It solves the business problem of needing engineers to assist in website development, marketing analytics, and other business side projects necessary to understanding how our customers, leads, and visitors interact with our various web-based applications and websites.
  • Super easy implementation
  • Great guides and documentation available
  • Awesome tool that helps marketers acquire more technical skills
  • Potentially dangerous tool to give access to non-technical marketers
  • Educational resources could be more specifics
  • WordPress implementation could be easier
Google Tag Manager removes the need for deprecated documentation or anything complicated that your company would lose track of. It replaces a lot of unnecessary back-and-forth between different teams within a business. It lets marketing work more independently of the rest of the company and allows for quick iterations and quick fixes. It also is really helpful if you have clients that use it because permission sharing is great.
Read Bobby Stemper's full review
Stefanie Cash profile photo
July 16, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "GTM FTW"

Stefanie Cash
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager (GTM) to track users on our site based off of campaign/programs we have running. It is managed by one department, marketing, but benefits the whole organization. It allows us to track users within our site and figure out what is the most effective digital advertisement.
  • Allows for tracking of users
  • Can activate triggers for defining when tags are executed
  • Easy interface and setup
  • Help section could be more in-depth
GTM is an easy solution for tracking users and measuring digital advertising.
Read Stefanie Cash's full review
No photo available
April 26, 2018

Review: "Google Tag Manager - A Must for Managing Tracking Pixels"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager at our company to help combine our various tracking and analytics scripts in one single place. We can control when each script fires through Google Tag Manager as well as easily add, update and remove additional tracking pixels. This makes updates simple and does not have to involve a developer.
  • Tag Manager is a Google product, so works well with other Google Products.
  • Tag Manager has a large user base and features a wide collection of knowledge in the documentation.
  • Tag Manager can be configured to fire on all pages, some pages or no pages, depending on your needs.
  • Tag Manager is simple to learn and use.
  • Tag Manager is required to be installed in two parts: one in your opening Head tag and once again below the footer .
  • It can be simple to add several extra scripts and lose track of which scripts are important and which can be removed.
Google Tag Manager is best suited for managing several tracking scripts in one place. You can give each tracking pixel a unique name and add it to any site you manage. Google has made adding/removing and testing tracking pixels simple and require configuration. .
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No photo available
August 09, 2018

Review: "Google Tag Manager - Ideal Solution for Cross Platform Tags & Pixels"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager for our own businesses, as well as client businesses so simply the creation, implementation, and optimization of remarketing/retargeting and other tracking pixels in one place, across all channels. Once deployed inside of their specific containers, it's easy to make any changes needed, quickly and then deploy them fast.
  • Separate containers for different sites and different pixels on those sites
  • One consolidated dashboard and login to manage multiple properties, containers, and tags
  • Ease of use and access
  • There is a little bit of a learning curve to get GTM up and running, even with a tech background.
  • There interface could be a little more user-friendly.
  • The interface could be more clearly labeled upfront to make sure it's super easy to tell what's what.
In general Google Tag Manager is well suited to help marketing professionals manager their tracking pixels for Adwords, Analytics, Remarketing, and other tracking pixels, easily and in one place. It lets you get the tags/pixels created and deployed live onto the websites without having a lot of time taken up by any coding or development professionals.
Read this authenticated review
No photo available
July 27, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "No more need to use a dev team to install a conversion pixel!"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We have a bunch of different websites under our organization's umbrella, and we have Google Tag Manager installed on all of them. As marketers, we really enjoy the freedom that Google Tag Manager allows us to be able to implement or make changes to existing javascript tags and pixels, without needing to get our dev team involved. The preview mode that Google Tag Manager has, allows us to see how various tags will affect our site before they are published live.
  • Google Tag Manager is a great container to keep all of your various .js tags and conversion pixels organized, and in one place, which keeps your code clean on your website.
  • Google Tag Manager has a very robust and accurate firing trigger system, allowing you to quickly and easily set filters on when you would like certain tags to fire, and on which pages. You can even set the order in which tags fire, in case one tag requires the data of another.
  • I really enjoy the Preview Mode, which allows you to see how your tags will interact with your website in a staging environment. It even spits out a URL that you can send to stakeholders who do not have GTM accounts, which lets them see the preview experience as well.
  • We had some issues with "page flicker" when we would use GTM to implement our A/B testing software. According to the testing software knowledge base, they said it was due to Google Tag Manager supporting synchronous loading.
Google Tag Manager is an ideal solution for teams who would like to get new javascript tags loaded on to their website, or edit existing tags without having to wait for a dev cycle. In some dev sprints, it could take weeks just to make a small change to a tag. Google Tag Manager would probably not be needed for a small personal website or blog in which it was managed by one person.
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July 13, 2018

User Review: "A Google Tag Manager beginner"

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We are a social media advertising agency and work with brands that have websites we drive to. Using social we drive traffic to the brand sites, and use GTM to track actions taken by these users once on site in order to tie back to their business objectives (product awareness, sales, lead generation, etc.).
  • It's highly flexible and can be used on a variety different tags for basically anything you could dream of.
  • It's reliable since it's part of the Google suite -- there is a strong positive reputation associated with Google products.
  • Clients are willing to use it because it has a strong name like Google associated with it. Sometimes clients can get nervous about using other products on their websites.
  • It's a little confusing to learn on your own. I definitely needed another party in my office to sit with me and walk me through it. More training material and documentation that is easy to navigate would be helpful.
For our social media data tracking, it's perfect when clients have website business objectives other than those that can easily be tracked by Facebook's pixel. Facebook is ideal for simpler cases of tracking (ex: page loads) but GTM is better suited when there are other actions on site that are helpful to track (video views, clicks on buttons, email sign ups, facility finder submissions, etc.)
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February 28, 2018

Review: "Tag, You're It! Get Google Tag Manager for Your Business."

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use it to add tags so we are better able to track conversions, analytics, remarketing, among others, in a quick and easy manner that does not require extensive coding knowledge or ability. We have been using Google Tag Manager for over two years and, once it's set up, it provides a wealth of data and information that helps drive digital marketing decisions.
  • It is excellent for tagging and tracking website behavior. Buttons, forms, calculators, PDF downloads, and just about every "event" on our website can be tagged.
  • We have also seen our page load time speed up with the addition of Google Tag Manager, but I am not sure if Google promotes this as a benefit.
  • We can change our Google tags, and the way they work, without having to alter the source code of our site, which is a tremendous benefit.
  • In the beginning, Google Tag Manager can seem overwhelming and difficult to learn. It takes a lot of time to gain knowledge of Google Tag Manager. However, once you learn it, you will be off and running in no time.
  • The Google Tag Manager preview, testing and debugging screens are on separate pages, and you will need to go to each one to see the results. If you have lots of tags, this can be time consuming.
  • When naming a new Google Tag or trigger, you need to remember to name it properly, otherwise you run the risk of error and/or deletion of a live Google Tag. It would be great if an alert appeared that lets you know you are making a Tag with a name that has already been used on your website.
Google Tag Manager is great if you have limited IT help, or don't want to bother your IT manager, and need a relatively easy way to tag and track your website users' actions. I don't think it is suited for websites that lack content, or that don't have a significant amount of lead generation integrations. For example, an information-based website with a blog theme would not need Google Tag Manager.
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June 08, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Good overall tagging platform"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager (GTM) for tagging of our website. Events tracked in GTM are then used in Google Analytics for the creation of goals. GTM is used by the marketing team. It's a great tool for tagging the whole website to monitor usage trends, issues, volumes etc.
  • Allows our team to be mostly independent from IT - all we needed IT to do was to insert a piece of code into website and we were ready to go.
  • Easy to start - GTM provides a few helpful ready tags that don't need much setting up and will get you started with tracking of the general web actions.
  • Lots of help is available - whether its own Google material or information available online, if you get stuck, it's never too hard to find a solution.
  • I'm still a bit confused about the data layer and how it can be used for more advanced tags. I have a feeling I'm not using GTM's full capability because I'm struggling to understand this area.
  • The preview pane recently stopped displaying so that's delaying my progress. Don't know if it's to do with GTM itself or anything to do with our IT but I've not been able to load it for a while.
  • Once you get started, going from the basic level of usage to the interesting parts takes a bit of learning and a whole lot of confusion if you are new to tagging. But I guess GTM is not alone in this.
GTM is really good for monitoring usage of the entire website to see what parts perhaps need testing or to understand visitor behaviours.
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March 28, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Great Tool - Especially for Newbies!"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We are a consultancy and as such, have advised and helped several clients implement and properly use Google Tag Manager to simplify their digital analytics solutions into one streamlined platform. Most of our clients have multiple analytics tools and third-party vendors that all require tracking of identical information to properly function. Google Tag Manager simplifies this by reducing the number of calls made on each web page. For example, if you have 10 different tools that need to track similar information, you now can reduce it to 1.
  • Easy to acquire and implement.
  • User-friendly interface and an adequate amount of self-help information available online.
  • Can't ignore it's free. Makes it easy to test and try before going out and purchasing a more costly solution.
  • Since it is free, there is little to no personalized support from Google.
  • While it's getting better, the number of pre-configured solutions for third-party vendors is still limited compared to the top paid solutions.
Great first tag management solution, also great for smaller organizations and those with limited budget.
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January 22, 2018

Review: "Organize your Tracking Scripts with Google Tag Manager"

Julian Estiva
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Google Tag Manager is currently being used in our marketing department. We manage multiple organic sites and we also manage landing pages where we direct traffic from our PPC campaigns and display ads. Google Tag Manager allows us to better organize our tracking scripts that we include on all our sites and manage all our tracking scripts from a single console without having to modify our sites.
  • Tag Manager allows us to insert the tag manager tracking script on our website once and we are able to manage all tracking scripts we need for our site from the Tag Manager console. The benefit is we don't need to make website changes every time we modify our tracking scripts since this is done through the Tag Manager console.
  • Tag Manager provides us the ability to create various rules straight from the console.. For example, we can trigger our conversion tracking scripts to fire only when visitors convert on our site.
  • Tag Manager allows us to create custom events. For example, we can create a rule that reports the frequency and list of all outbound links clicked from our site.
  • There is a learning curve on how to properly use Tag Manager and its many features. You will have to test any rules and events you create to make sure they are implemented & tracking correctly.
Google Tag Manager is perfect for organizing tracking scripts for your sites. If you have multiple tracking scripts that you implement on your site(s), then Google Tag Manager is a great tool that'll make your life easier when managing your scripts. If you have many rules or want different tracking scripts to fire on certain pages or certain events, GTM is a big help that can manage this for you.
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Benjamin Hale profile photo
January 25, 2018

Google Tag Manager Review: "Is there any reason not to use this software?"

Benjamin Hale
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager (GTM) throughout our organization to place and keep track of all our tracking scripts and pixels on our landing and micro websites. This has solved may issues for us when it comes to adding, changing and allowing others to modify tracking scripts on our websites. Most of our websites have multiple tracking scripts, and Tag Manager gives us a single place to keep tabs on them. An, with the option to create variables and different triggers, we can add these elements to our tracking systems and ultimately to our data warehouse and reports.
  • Versioning is great on GTM. This allows us to review changes made in the past, if something isn't working correctly in our reporting systems or conversion tracking systems.
  • The preview mode is now used often to ensure that tags are being fired at the right time and on the correct pages. This means we don't have to create a bunch of test leads and then verify the data is showing in the reporting.
  • Integrated tags make it quick to add tracking for Analytics and AdWords, and simple HTML tags have a place as well.
  • Just today, I was able to export all the variables and tags from one landing page, and upload it into a new landing page. Then easily modify the few tags that changed, and my job was done. This would have been much more tedious if I were using a manual system.
  • It would be nice to have GTM integrate more tracking pixels into is template system.
  • Moving containers from one account to another could be easier.
  • Maybe a desktop client could be nice as well.
For most websites that desire tracking, Google Tag Manager is the way to go. Apparently, there is even GTM for mobile application, although I haven't looked at this part of it. The only time I would consider not looking into GTM is for websites that need to be overly quick in loading, and cannot afford to have the little bit of overhead that GTM adds to a page load.
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December 11, 2017

Google Tag Manager Review: "GTM - The most open and powerful analytics tool out there"

Chris Lenhart
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Google tag manager (GTM) is a great way to handle all of the code snippets you need without having to bug your devs. It is also great for tracking custom interactions, again without needing to bug your developers to implement something and deploy. If you can write the JavaScript to find it on the page, GTM lets you measure it. It even allows you to set local and session storage variables to help you understand more complex user behavior.
  • Measuring custom interactions. If you know a bit of javascript, you can set yourself up to measure anything that happens client side on your site, no matter how complex the sequence.
  • Out of the Box triggers. Even if you aren't great at javascript, you can set up interactions pretty easily.
  • Independent deployment. You can create, manage, and deploy your tags yourself without waiting for your developers to deploy.
  • No retroactive measurements. If you haven't set up a measurement, there's no way to go back in time to find it.
  • Finicky javascript syntax. It can be picky about how it accepts scripts.
  • Interface changes a lot. It's usually an improvement, but it can make learning difficult because old tutorials quickly become obsolete.
You should use Google tag manager if you have someone on your staff who has analytics and development chops, and you are interested in measuring interactions that go beyond simply what page was viewed or what button was clicked. If you need to handle retargeting ads specific to a particular interaction, or you want to measure interactions in a particular sequence over the course of a session, google tag manager is great.

If your organization lacks someone with these skills, look into a solution like Heap if you are small enough.
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September 08, 2017

Review: "Google Tag Manager - only way how I manage analytics tracking"

Peter Jakus
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Google Tag Manager empowers our marketing and analytics specialists. They are able to do a lot of tracking code customisations without IT involvement (if a good Data Layer is already on the site). We prefer to have all tracking deployed through GTM, because the workflow and versioning system in GTM makes it easier to manage and keep organised.
  • Great user interface which shows the relationship between tags, triggers and variables. I like the layered interface.
  • Auto-event tracking - ability to track clicks, link clicks, form submits without developer involvement.
  • Broad selection of tag templates.
  • Good quality of reference materials.
  • Ability to import and export containers, and to manage GTM via API.
  • Templates for Facebook tracking are missing.
- Deploying simple tags which don't need additional data from the webmasters is very easy (e.g. live chat, Hotjar, Google Analytics Pageview, basic Adwords remarketing)
- Deploying complex tracking like Enhanced Ecommerce or Dynamic Remarketing is best done with a well planned and deployed Data Layer
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September 13, 2017

Review: "Google tag manager great for small and medium business"

Víctor Garnica
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Google Tag Manager is a tool used by my organization to take away the dependencies on the developer to put some pixels originally. Then we [have been able to] make progress on Google Analytics implementation [and] even [on] Adobe Analytics. GTM is a great tool to keep your website clean of codes [such] as Facebook, Sojern, Google Analytics, BlueKai and so many data providers.
  • Keeps your website clean of pixels on source code.
  • Quick answers for measurement of values on the website.
  • Easy way to identify problems in debug mode, before going to real measurement.
  • GTM needs to work more with other tools like Adobe Analytics.
  • The Google Tag Assistant reports some failures on the things implemented via GTM.
  • If you want to get a great experience [out] of GTM, you should learn some javaScript.
GTM is really good at making the basic tags easy, if you're going to use Google Analytics, Google Adwords or DoubleClick. You don´t need to look for another tool. If you have some stuff like Criteo or Crazy Egg this is your tool. But if you have to get some interactions without help of IT it is difficult sometimes to get the data.
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December 12, 2017

Google Tag Manager Review: "Great tool, but you'll have to invest time in learning how to use it."

Verified User
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Google Tag Manager to monitor our website traffic and gather insights about our visitors. The whole organisation is using it and we are upgrading our current website alongside implementing GTM. It solves several problems. Firstly, it helps us get to know the demographics and behaviours of our visitors. But then we can also set goals to track visitor journeys throughout the site.
  • As it is connected to other Google services, it is easy to integrate and connect to them.
  • The interface is much simpler than it used to be and there is a lot of help online if you need guiding through the process.
  • It stores your usage data, so it is easy to keep track of what changes you have made.
  • It is quite easy to tell where you have gone wrong if something is not working.
  • You have to be relatively tech-savvy to use it.
  • There are other tools available which make it easier to run experiments.
  • Keywords are missing in the search console due to privacy issues. Which is good as a consumer, but not for a marketeer.
I would recommend it, as the insights are extremely valuable when connected with Google Analytics. If you want to know the age, gender, nationality of your users this is the tool for you. If you want to know what users click on, what pages they land/exit on, or see their journey through your website, then this is the tool for you. However, it is quite technical and can be hard to use unless you have a step-by-step guide. This tool does not show you videos of your users on your website, or heatmaps, or provide reasons behind their behaviour. Nor have I found a way to get notifications.
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Google Tag Manager Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (139)
9.0
Likelihood to Renew (6)
10.0
Usability (3)
9.6
Availability (1)
9.1
Support (1)
9.1
Online Training (1)
7.3
Implementation (2)
9.8

Feature Scorecard Summary

Role-based user permissions (29)
8.9
Tag library (34)
7.8
Tag variable mapping (31)
8.4
Ease of writing custom tags (37)
8.2
Rules-driven tag execution (35)
8.2
Tag performance monitoring (31)
7.1
Improved page load times (27)
7.6
Mobile app tagging (17)
7.8
Library of JavaScript extensions (21)
7.4
Event tracking (37)
9.3
Mobile event tracking (25)
8.7
Data distribution management (21)
7.5
Universal data layer (32)
8.9
Automated error checking (26)
7.6

About Google Tag Manager

From Google, the Google Tag Manager is a tag management application that facilitates creating, embedding, and updating tags across websites and mobile apps, thus gaining the benefits of data standardization and speed of deployment. Google touts an agency friendly system with multiple user access, and tools to improve tags performance like debugging, and rules, macros or automated tag firing. The Google Tag Manager also integrates with Google product DoubleClick. Moreover, Google Tag Manager is free.
Categories:  Tag Management

Google Tag Manager Integrations

Google Tag Manager Technical Details

Operating Systems: Unspecified
Mobile Application:No