Google Tag Manager

With the Tag Manager, Google offers a service that significantly simplifies the work of many online agencies and in-house departments. The Google Tag Manager acts as a container system and allows you to manage any number of tags within a container. These tags can include the Google Analytics tag, the Google Ads conversion tag, any third-party remarketing tag, or countless other tags. Very few tags are currently not supported. All tags are executed via the Tag Manager container code, which must be embedded on the page beforehand. Subsequently, marketers can independently manage the tags on the website and, for example, are not dependent on IT service providers. It allows precise control over when a tag should be triggered on a page.
The functionality of the Tag Manager is based on the elements "Tags," "Rules," and "Macros." These allow information to be sent from the website to Google Analytics, rules for triggering tags to be defined, and the actual tags to be created. Only when a specific event has occurred on the website, e.g., a page view, does the corresponding tag trigger.

In addition to using the Tag Manager, employing the Data Layer is necessary. This is a source code extension that should be installed together with the container code of the Tag Manager. By default, the Data Layer is not required. However, situations quickly arise where it can be useful.

Through the correct implementation of the Google Tag Manager, it can be precisely controlled, for example, ensuring that conversion tags trigger only on the order confirmation page. Other examples, especially for use with Google Analytics, include measuring scroll depth or button clicks. The Tag Manager thus enables the integration of many more data into Google Analytics, allowing for a deeper investigation of the website's usability. Another example could be the easy evaluation of 404 error pages, which can help identify when specific URLs lead to an error and which links point to the wrong URL.