incredibly common mistakes in Google Tag Manager

[sakibkhan22197]

Let's be honest: Google Tag Manager can be difficult to understand. I still remember the first time I tried to set up GTM. Based on my experience with other Google products, I expected it to be simple and intuitive. I quickly realized that my assumption was wrong.

Over time, I've learned from my own mistakes and those of others. I consider myself a marketer, not a techie, and it's precisely for this group that I've written a short guide to the most common mistakes when implementing Google Tag Manager.

Google Analytics ID is not set as a variable
During analytics audits, I often notice that the Google Analytics ID, and now all GA settings, aren't stored in a variable. One of the very first things you should do when setting up GTM is to create a variable for the Google Analytics settings.


This variable contains all the information you need when using GA tags in Tag Manager,azerbaijan phone number data saving you a lot of unnecessary work.

Naming tags and triggers
The most important thing when using GTM is to maintain a certain level of order in the structure of the tags and triggers you create. Without this level of order, errors creep in much more quickly. For example, there's a risk that you might edit the wrong tag or forget what a particular trigger was set up for.

A specific naming convention can help you avoid such errors and, above all, save a lot of time. The names of your tags should clearly state what they trigger.


A consistent naming convention provides an overview of tags and triggers

In the screenshot above, you can see that the tag is named "GA – Event – ​​YouTube Video." In the first part, I always describe which type of tag is triggered. For clarity, I'll use the abbreviation "GA" for Google Analytics. The second part describes the function being used (Events). It continues with information about when the tag is triggered. In this case, when a YouTube video is played (and also the type of trigger). If there were different video triggers at this point, I would have added a note at the end indicating which video it is.

So, an event is sent to Google Analytics when someone interacts with a YouTube video. So if you get hit by a bus, the next person will know immediately what this tag was created for. (But please don't let the bus track you even if you have a proper naming convention!