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Google Tag Manager

By Mark Eichler posted Apr 03, 2015 03:01 PM

  

Lila, thanks for your post and Cindy thanks for getting the conversation started on Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM).

The movement towards Google Tag Manager has been in the works for a while now.  We added the interface to establish GTM for all sites in February.  Since that time we have had a number of clients install it and help us understand small changes to help them be successful using it to gather information.  As Lila indicates, we will have more dedicated resources on establishing GTM on your sites in the very near future.  Here's a brief FAQ on GA/GTM and the Higher Logic platform for everyone's benefit. 

Doesn't Higher Logic already have tagging?
Yes, but there are lots of kinds of tags.  Tags for Higher Logic content have nothing in common with GTM tags.  GTM tags are more like those 1px images on email that confirm opens.  A GTM tag allows code snippets - a little or a lot - to fire on a page when opened.  A GTM tag presents no visible button, link or anything that is seen by a user.

How does GTM work with GA?
Google provides an interface to link GA and GTM.  When linked and installed GTM fills GA data through the scripts that fire with GTM. The script on the page writes back to the same places that GA has always written to, so the GA reports and interfaces you have long used will continue to work as they had following the linkage and install of GA and GTM.   

What is the benefit of running GA with GTM as opposed to running GA alone?
Technically, one of the largest benefits is that GTM runs code while GA works off of cookies.  Cookies are much less reliable - they can be blocked or fail in more ways than a GTM code snippet.  The data quality resulting from GA use via cookies is lower than the quality of GA with GTM.   

What are other benefits of GTM?
GTM allows unlimited opportunities for running scripts on individual web pages, multiple web pages, and/or multiple domains.  If a site or collection of sites have a lot of scripts that need to be run, GTM allows them to all be in the same "box".  This "box" is then the single place that gets updated when changes are desired - "one script to rule them all".  While we live in a Content Management System-driven world, the changing of multiple pages through a CMS can be a deeply onerous task. GTM allows a single update to populate across your universe. 

Again, there is a lot more to come on this from Higher Logic.  We will have more resources for you soon. If you want to read more about GTM now Google has a lot of good resources, such as this

You can rest assured that the benefits of GTM integration - the quality of the data, the possibilities for enhancing that data, and more - make GTM a change for the better. 

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