Tag Management Solutions Overview
What is a Tag Management Solution?
Tag Management solutions allow you to easily deploy and organize tags on a website. Essentially, they facilitate the collection and sharing of data between a website and the third-party technologies it uses.
Tags are pieces of code placed on a web page that enable tracking and the transfer of data. A tag might be a 1x1 transparent image or a snippet of JavaScript code.
Tags can do things like:
capture visitor data
set cookies that help track users through multiple sessions
integrate third-party content, such as video players, ads or social media widgets
Many digital marketing technologies require clients to insert custom tags on their websites. This includes web analytics, conversion testing, ad-serving, remarketing, marketing automation and affiliate marketing tools. These tags contain instructions on a task to be performed. An example might be what visitor data to collect and send back, or what content to serve up. Each tag represents a task for the webpage. Therefore, too many tags can slow down performance.
A tag manager serves as a container by placing one snippet of code on a website that references all the tags that site needs. Those tags can be managed within a simple UI.
Benefits of Using a Tag Management Solution
Tag managers promise to provide the following benefits:
Decrease page load time
Improve the quality of data collected
Allow non-coders to manage tags
Allow marketers to deploy new technologies quickly, with less dependence on IT
Tag managers are particularly important as businesses aim to collect more data about their customers and website visitors. That data is used to help deliver more personalized and relevant experiences.
Types of Tag Management Solutions
Some tag management tools are offered as part of a broader web analytics or testing suite. Google Tag Manager, Adobe Dynamic Tag Management and Qubit OpenTag are examples.
Many pure-play tag management vendors are branching out. Beyond managing tags, they are focusing on managing data, and facilitating its use to drive better customer experiences. Many have launched new offerings that are customer data platforms, designed to help companies achieve a 360-degree view of the customer.
Tag Management Solutions Features & Capabilities
Tag management tools usually provide a GUI that marketers can use to manage tags and data. They also allow for different user permission levels. They can also help companies comply with ‘Do Not Track’ preferences and other privacy standards.
More sophisticated tag management solutions integrate directly with other data systems (such as your CRM) via tagless backend data transfer. This allows supplemental data to be associated with a site visitor without the use of tags. As such, it’s a more secure method of connecting personal profile data to a website visitor.
Common features of TMSs include:
Tag library
Tag variable mapping
Custom tags
Rules-driven tag execution
Synchronous and asynchronous tag support
Event tracking
Data distribution management
Universal data layer
Error checking
Multi-account support
Configurable data privacy policies
Role-based user permissions
User-level audit trail
Version history
Simple roll-back capabilities
Pricing Information
Some tag management systems are either completely free or a free capability included in a web analytics suite. Pureplay tag management vendors often charge a fixed price plus incremental charges based on the volume of use.
