Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager allows you to conveniently manage tags (such as tracking and marketing optimization tags) on your site. You can add and update AdWords, Google Analytics, Floodlight and non-Google tags from the Google Tag Manager user interface instead of editing site code. This reduces errors, frees you from having to involve a webmaster, and allows you to quickly deploy tags on your site.

Using Google Tag Manager provides several advantages over using individual tags.

• Add, update, and remove tags without making any changes to your HTML. This reduces the likelihood of errors and lets you deploy new tags immediately without assistance from a webmaster.
• Google Tag Manager fires your tags asynchronously, so your pages often load more quickly than they would if you were using individual tags.
• Workflow tools help you know whether your tags are working as intended.
• It’s easy to see which tags are being fired on your site, and where they’re being fired.

How It Works

Google Tag Manager works via a single tag, called a container snippet, that you place on all your website pages. The container snippet replaces AdWords, Google Analytics, Floodlight, and other tags on your site. (For a list of supported tags, read Tags.) Once a container snippet has been added to your site, you update, add, and administer tags from your Google Tag Manager account.

Your Google Tag Manager account allows you to administer the tags for one or more websites. Although you can set up multiple Google Tag Manager accounts from a single Google account, you’ll typically only need one Google Tag Manager account per company. Read Setup and Workflow to learn more.

Setup

To manage your tags using Google Tag Manager, you’ll need to:

• go to google.com/tagmanager to create a Google Tag Manager account (or to access an existing account).
• create a container for your site in the account,
• add the container snippet to your site, while removing any existing tags on your site.

You’ll then be ready to add tags to your site via the Google Tag Manager user interface. For more information, read Setup and Workflow.

Setup and Workflow

To manage your tags using Google Tag Manager, you’ll need to:

• go to google.com/tagmanager to create a Google Tag Manager account (or to access an existing account).
• create a container for your site in the account,
• add the container snippet to your site while removing any existing tags on your site.

You’re then ready to add tags (for example Google Analytics and AdWords Conversion Tracking tags) to your site via the Google Tag Manager user interface.

Creating an Account

The account is the top-most level of organization in Google Tag Manager. Typically, only one account is needed per company. Tags for all the company’s websites can be be managed from this single account.
You can create and/or administer multiple Google Tag Manager accounts from a single Google account. This allows you to conveniently manage website tracking and campaigns for more than one company. Each time you sign in to Google Tag Manager, you’ll see the list of the Google Tag Manager accounts to which your Google Account has access.

1. From the All Accounts page in Google Tag Manager, click New Account.
2. Enter an account name and timezone, and click Save.

Creating a Container

As part of creating a Google Tag Manager account, you’ll be asked to create a container. A container holds all the tags for a specific website, so it’s best to name the container after the site. For the site example.com, you might name the container "example".
Create a new container whenever you start managing tags for a new website. To create a new container:

1. In Google Tag Manager, select an account. The Containers page appears.
2. On the Containers page, click New Container.
3. Enter a container name and click Save.

Adding the Container Snippet

A container snippet is provided for each container. Copy and paste this snippet to the top of the section on every page on the site. Be sure to remove tags (e.g. Google Analytics, AdWords Conversion Tracking, etc) from the site pages at the same time.
To find the container snippet:

1. In Google Tag Manager, select an account. The Containers page appears.
2. Click the desired container in the list. The Tags page appears.
3. Using the left navigation, go to Container > Container Settings.

Adding, Updating and Publishing Tags

When you first create a container, it will be empty so you’ll need to add tags. Begin by replacing any tags you removed from the site in the previous step. For example, if you deleted an AdWords Conversion Tracking tag from the site, add it back in Google Tag Manager. Once a container has been created and the container tag has been added to the site, you’re ready to add and update all tags from the Tags page.

1. In Google Tag Manager, select an account. The Containers page appears.
2. Click your site’s container in the list. The Tags page appears.

To add a tag:
Click New Tag. Select the tag type (for example, Google Analytics) and specify rules for when the tag should fire. Read Tags to learn more. 

To edit a tag: (for example, update the rules for when the tag should fire)
Click the tag in the list. Make changes on the Edit Tag page. Read Tags to learn more. 

To delete a tag:
Click the tag in the list. On the Edit Tag page, click Delete this tag.


3. Preview your site. Previewing gives you an opportunity to perform quality assurance (QA) on your site. You can make sure the site looks and behaves as you expect and, using the debugging option, see which tags fire as you browse and interact with the site. 
   From the Tags page, click Create Version. A page appears that summarizes all the tags, rules, and macros in the container. Click Save and Preview. Read Previewing and Debugging to learn more.


4. Publish the changes live to your site.
   Using the left navigation, go to Versions > All Versions. In the table, select the version you saved when you previewed your site. Click Publish.