At the outset, before tackling a tag management system, it’s important to gain an understanding of what tags (also referred to as pixels or beacons) are. Otherwise, making use of this technology is unlikely to be useful. For marketers and analysts, utilizing data is a significant way to arrive at more well-thought-out decisions. The choices that need to be made go from what goods are highlighted on our main page to how much capital is allotted for our promotion and advertising activities.
Tags are necessary in order to obtain much of the data that is not otherwise accessible.
What is a Tag Management System?
Having assimilated the concept of a tag, you can surmise what a tag management system is designed to do.
A tag management system enables users to quickly and simply manage third-party tags through an online portal. Marketers now have the power to introduce fresh tags and functions with a few clicks, which negates the need for costly alterations to code or structure on each website.
Basically, when a tag management system is implemented on a website, it can oversee the tags associated with marketing and advertisement on the pages. This requires a minimal amount of resources from the development team.
Before Tag Management Systems
- All tags had to be implemented in the source code
- Any new tags or removal of old tags had to be done by the IT/development team
- This can require significant time and resources
With a Tag Management System
- Once the TMS tag is added to all pages of the site, tags can be modified, removed, or new ones added through the TMS’s online interface.
- For most tag updates, the IT/development team is not required.
Why Should Marketers Care About Tag Management?
Tag management systems were designed to cater to the needs of the marketing team. When considering analytics, I have experienced a number of difficulties in the past which have been caused by restrictions in the development process. The dev group had trouble adding a tracker to the website, or including/taking away a certain identifying label quickly.
I was amazed to hear that it could potentially take several months for a business’s development team to include the Google Analytics tag on their website. Months!
Considering this, the advantages of marketing personnel working with a tag management system are numerous.
Centralized Tag Management
Think about your company’s website. Are you aware of the total number of tags used on the website? Are you familiar with all the strategies and avenues your predecessor implemented? Or the agency your company uses? It is likely that there are superfluous tags present in all parts of your website, particularly in old campaign landing pages.
Go to TagInspector.com and do a free examination of your website. I would wager that you will come across some tags you were not previously aware of on your website.
You can avoid having tags placed sporadically all over your website, unaware of their presence, by bringing them together and arranging them in one coherent place.
Reduced Tag “Time to Site”
Marketing no longer has to wait for IT/development to do it, so the amount of time it takes to add, remove, or alter tags on the website has been shortened. It can be done through the TMS’s interface online.
Improved Website Load Times
It has been alluded to that if the time taken for a page to respond is even just one second, the rate of conversions may decrease by as much as 7%. Having a website that works quickly can result in more customers, especially when it is associated with a rise in revenue (for example an ecommerce site).
Scalability
After collaborating with the technology and development department to establish the TMS and an analytics structure (what information should be obtained and how it should be collected), it is possible to spread this data to multiple systems. If you’re using a TMS and data layer to trace acquisitions, then that transactional data can be conveyed to your most preferred web analytics utility,for instance Google Analytics, or by other methods like AdWords, Facebook, CRM or your marketing system.
It’s important to collaborate with your IT/development staff early on to formulate which info, data, and activities need to be monitored. The details are encoded into a data array so that any identifier can have access to them.
Does the marketer friendly Tag Management System exist?
We need to talk about the marketing topic that is hard to ignore: although marketing technologies tout their “user-friendliness” and “simplified interface” to marketeers, those who are focused on improving the profitability of campaigns are usually not adequately prepared to successfully manage tag management systems on wider eCommerce platforms.
The TMS can be utilized in a very powerful way, allowing it to shut down an enormous, costly website quickly and displaying personal customer information in the process. A capable group of talented technicians is necessary, consisting of tag organization planners, Javascript engineers, and QA investigators, in addition to tough label control and mechanics to operate efficiently. Marketers are of great importance to the tag management team, both as business representatives and customers. Surely, advertisers and advertising agencies can control and handle tag management programs on websites that aren’t likely to be affected negatively by a malfunctioning tag.
With the past in the rearview, let us ponder on how marketers can assist, not impede, their marketing endeavors through tag supervision. As the amount of marketing procedures and projects rises, so does the amount of tags involved, as well as the quantity of personnel needed to maintain and execute these tags. The increased use of different applications on a website tends to slow down the speed at which a page loads, and can cause a decrease in the precision of data. This can be particularly problematic since data accuracy is vitally important for analytics, ascertaining profits and making payments to marketing partners and affiliates.
Let us chat about the most effective methods for marketing tag management, including a few of the major hurdles and traps of controlling marketing tags, and some advice on how you, as marketers, can aid tag regulation by cutting down error and data breakdowns resulting from tags, while also improving productivity and the return of your marketing initiatives.
Assessing risks and challenges from tags
It is essential to recognize the perils and obstacles associated with tags when forming a well thought-out tag control approach as well as to allocate resources to make sure information is exact, your website runs quickly, and personal details of customers are kept secured. Top issues resulting from poorly governed tags include:
- Data quality: Tags intermittently fail to fire (or double-fire), causing data quality issues downstream in analytics and marketing reports.
- Sub-optimal experiences: Weighty tags can cause slow page performance, and erroneously firing tags can result in page flicker or broken content
- Risk to privacy and security: When unmonitored and unchecked, some vendors and tags can expose sensitive personal data about your users.
It is essential to have knowledge of the divergent tag types and the privileges they grant in order to ensure that security, privacy and data accuracy are not compromised. Tags (or third party technology services) come in many different flavors, but from a risk standpoint, there are three main types:
- Image pixels (low risk) – these are simple counters that track when someone visits a landing page, sending the original request back to the marketer so they can credit landing page visits to off-site clicks and campaigns. They tend to be limited in capability, but also relatively easy and low risk to install and test in the TMS. They can usually be deployed with a very basic level of QA validation.
- Javascript data capture tags (higher risk) – these tracking tags have more robust capabilities, enabling you to track specific user behavior, such as link clicks, form submissions, field names, order values and mouse movements. Javascript tags allow other third-party vendors to piggyback, sometimes sharing data with fourth parties. It’s key to monitor and ensure personally identifiable information is not inadvertently shared.
- Javascript content-rendering tags (highest risk) – these pieces of code are used to overwrite default page content and render alternate user experiences (used for A/B Testing and personalization). Because of these powerful capabilities, content-rendering tags require additional governance and validation, and generally pose higher risk to site performance, privacy and security.
5 tips for marketing tag governance
Remember, IT is your friend
The IT group must take part in the establishment of your transportation management system. It is crucial for them to be aware that the TMS will insert coding into your webpages. People are probably worried that the program does not pass the typical IT tests. It is possible that webpages may not load expeditiously or even become inoperable due to this. If a cybercriminal obtains access to your TMS, they would be able to steal confidential client info. You will need to collaborate with information technology (IT) to address these worries and spell out their role in your label governance and security plan moving forward.
Recruit SMEs as champions
Making the best combination of leadership and capabilities for the tagging crew may be simpler stated than actually practiced. Find people to be in charge of certain fields with expert knowledge and accountability. Check in other areas within your business like IT, analytics, quality assurance, digital activity and beyond if all the desired skill sets don’t exist in your immediate organizational structure. At a minimum, you’ll want the following leadership/steward roles to be covered in some form or another:
- Tag management architect (administers tool, defines user permissions, understands performance and load timing factors and issues)
- Data quality champion (ensures tags are firing data variables and values as expected, and ensures no errors happening)
- Page performance champion (tracks page speed and prevents slowness and breakage)
- Data privacy and security champion (enforces compliance and prevents malware)
- Analytics tag/requirements lead (gathers, defines analytics business/tech requirements from stakeholders and product management)
- Marketing tag/requirements lead (coordinates w/ agencies and vendors on campaign schedules and pixel specs)
For the best results, it is advisable to split up responsibility for stewardship between multiple people and positions so as to ensure accountability. You may choose not to hold your ad agency responsible for data security. Designate someone to be the privacy expert who is accountable for the cookie agreement managing system. For other facets of the Californian Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), seek the counsel and expertise of the legal staff. It is contingent upon the size, range, and available resources of the organization. A close and regular relationship between the stewards should be maintained if possible in order to have a smooth and efficient operation and exchange of messages.
Go agile
Establishing a specialized group of individuals devoted to tag management may be costly. Some companies use shared development and QA resources to help limit expenses and keep their tag management system running. As an illustration, occasionally they source short-term Javascript coders and operational QA evaluators from a product group. This approach can be effective initially, yet will not be able to sustain itself as more highly qualified tag management experts are required.
In order to reach peak speed and guarantee suitable management, businesses have set up teams devoted entirely to tag management. This necessitates the inclusion of a tag control architect, multiple experienced tag control engineers, and specialized data verification examiners, plus distinct business researchers to oversee stakeholders of both marketing tags and analytic tags. This measure stops people from cancelling their services and guarantees continual access and concentration when there is an influx of demand. This provides teams the enviornment to allocate the right amount of time to acquire the specific abilities associated with this type of job, which will likely remain a part of our world for the long haul.
Develop naming conventions and auditing practices
Having good management within the TMS is vital for having a well-functioning tag management system. Even as a marketer, you should have authority over the tagging criteria and regulations relevant to your team and relevant parties.
Carrying out quarterly reviews to make sure tag numbers remain below a specific level will help protect your webpage’s budget from being strained.
Plug gaps in manual testing with automated QA
There is a big demand for tagging quality assurance engineers in the digital realm. And for good reason. Tag errors can result in reduced marketing ROI, inaccurate analytics results, and reduced faith in data reliability. When a tag ceases to operate, there is no way to retrieve the data that it generated. QA personnel acting as gatekeepers are the last line of defense against this.
In contrast to functional QA, the tagging QA must be familiar with all facets of the user journey plus additional information. These technologies and practices cover various labelling and quality evaluation methods. It is the QA Tester’s job to validate the excellence of tags compared to the desired criteria in the staging program before allowing them to be put in action.
They need to be aware of changes to release plans, system reliability, malfunctions, and a variety of other elements that can stop tags from being tested adequately prior to deployment. To ascertain full data validation, some quality assurance processes encompass more than just inspecting whether the tag initiates when a page is clicked. They additionally include logging in to analytics tools and user interfaces expecting to witness data.
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