Item: Google Tag Manager
Rating: 9
Author: Andrea Hester

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our web development team uses Google Tag Manager not only to manage tags on our own website, but those of our clients. It's a great way to enable easy addition and management of tags for things like analytics, social media, and advertising, without having to work in the website's code.

Pros and Cons

Enables broader management of tags
Ensures optimal tag placement and low impact on performance
Makes updating tags quick and easy
Integrates nicely with analytics

As with a lot of Google products, it's not the most user friendly
Steeper learning curve for those unfamiliar with code
Doesn't have a very robust native knowledge base for training - but there are lots of external sources of training and tutorials elsewhere

Return on Investment

Frees up development time, increasing efficiency and productivity
Enables transparency among development team and marketing teams
Broadens the depth of analytics

Key Insights

Do you think Google Tag Manager delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Google Tag Manager's feature set?

Yes

Did Google Tag Manager live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Google Tag Manager go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Google Tag Manager again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Google Data Studio, Google Calendar, Google Drive

Usability

Google Tag Manager is a powerful tool, but like most Google products there's a steeper learning curve to start using it. The UI is not super intuitive, so some training is needed in order to set it up and start using it. Google does not integrate knowledge very well into its products, but there are lots of external tutorial and learning resources available elsewhere on the web.

Support Rating

I've never had to contact Google Tag Manager's support, but the good thing about Google products is that they are widely used and supported. I would not be concerned that a problem I encountered was unique to me - there are enough other users that it would be easy to find solutions and support by searching the web.

Likelihood to Recommend

Google Tag Manager is nice for companies with marketing teams who need access to inserting and managing tags for things like social media and advertising, without having to burden the web development team for help. It's less appropriate when the site is very complex or there are special considerations with custom tags that could impact performance.

The Leading Tag Management App

Overall Satisfaction with Google Tag Manager