Google Tag Manager Guide: Container Audit

Introduction

GTM is an analytics tracking implementation tool that allows businesses to set up event based tracking on a website by adding the Tag Manager tracking code to pages of their website and/or mobile app. What this means is that by using Google Tag Manager a business can track user behavior in regards to any activity that the user acts on. This can include:

• viewing a page
• clicking a button
• viewing a specific image or text
• filling out a form
• scrolling down a page
• interacting with videos

Most businesses utilize tag managers like GTM to monitor actions that users take that align with their specific website goals, for example:

• clicking on and purchasing a product
• filling out a customer lead form
• engaging with social media content.
• attribute value to marketing advertisements

💡 Sounds simple right … WRONG.

Why Audit GTM?

While some may think that setting up GTM is a one-and-done affair … nothing could be farther from the truth. Afterall, business / marketing goals can change over time, new pages / experiences launch, new products / services roll out, and most notably — technology evolves.

That’s why it’s so important to regularly audit GTM to ensure tracking still functions properly, aligns with business goals, and adheres to data governance rules put in place by the organization.

Navigating GTM

Once set up, every GTM instance has the same basic structure. The top of the page has navigation sections for Versions, Workspaces, and Admin.

• Admin is where user permissions are adjusted, code snippets to install GTM on a site can be found, and other administrative tasks can be completed. 

• Versions: Exactly as it sounds, a tab where users can view the latest version of GTM implemented as well as documentation on previous containers.  
• Workspaces: The meat and potatoes of GTM. Workspaces include all live and/or in progress tracking implementations in a given container.

The workspace tab has 6 main sections. These are the major areas of your GTM tracking setup and will be where you perform the majority of your audit. A summary of each section can be found below.

• Overview: Exactly what the label suggests, this tab provides an “overview” of the current workspace. With areas to set up a new tag, add a description to the workspace, view any changes and updates added or modified from the current live version of GTM on the site. Ensure that if this is the default workspace, all changes are either pushed live or abandoned before auditing.

• Tags: The tags section reviews all tags that have been setup to collect information about users on your website. It lists tags with information about the tags name, what type of tag it is, what triggers have been added to a specific tag, and when that tag was last edited.

• Triggers: The triggers section reviews all triggers that have been setup to fire a tag when a user performs an action. The section has information about a triggers name, what type of trigger it is (categorized by GTM), what filters have been applied to that trigger to have it fire on specific conditions, the number of tags that the trigger has been applied to, and when that trigger was last edited.

• Variables: This section lists all variables available to add to tags and triggers as information to collect or data points to use in filters. There are two types — Pre-Configured Variables and User-Defined Variables. 
  • User-Defined Variables are where the account user can set up custom HTML, Javascript, and Data Layer Event variables to collect information that may not be easily collectible with the Pre-Configured Variables. Note, we don’t recommend using User-Defined Variables for DataLayer pushes — this should be collected directly from the site as a custom event. This is because websites change frequently — making variables that push to a DataLayer more and more fragile over time.

• Folders: The folders section is a great way to categorize tags, triggers, and variables into designated folders. This can be done any way a business chooses but most often has been done in the past to separate information into contributors responsible for implementing and maintaining certain tags.
  • For example, if a business has multiple agencies working to add functional tags and marketing tags, these should be added to separate folders for organization and documentation. If tags, triggers, or variables do not have a designated folder they will show as unfiled.