This is the second time I have sat in on one of Chris Mercer’s sessions at Social Media Marketing World. I am definitely a fan of what he has to share. In this presentation, he shared how Google Tag Manager (GTM) fits into the Measurement Marketing Framework.
Measurement Marketing Framework
The Measurement Marketing Framework is based on five steps:
- Planning – What is it you plan to measure? What questions are you trying to answer?
- Building – Build out metrics to answer the questions
- Reporting – Use Google Data Studio to show the answers in a dashboard.
- Forecasting – Shows what you need to do next.
- Optimizing – Can identify what to fix.
Google Tag Manager
Mercer showed how to use GTM to track leads, errors, and engagement. Rather than do a lot of studying on the topic, he stressed to get started and then improve performance.
GTM Parts
- Tags – Here is what I want you to do. It helps you measure the right things.
- Triggers – Identifies when to do what you want it to occur.
- Variables – Additional information.
With these different parts, you are training GTM to do your bidding.
After describing the key elements of GTM, he then showed what is possible with GTM. It will be up to us to figure out how to make it happen. I was going to share the exact steps he shared to capture the different events, but you can see it in the slide show above. All I can say is that there is a lot more I need to learn about this tool.
Tracking Leads
With GTM you can capture events such as a new lead. By mapping out the path a user takes, you can report success back to Google Analytics.
You can also add and track the use of cookies.
Tracking Errors
You can more specifically report errors that are occurring on your page forms. You first must identify the different errors that you wish to track. The tag you create will then grab the errors and report them.
Mercer also showed how to identify potential errors when the URL does not report them. If your form does not report in the URL, you can also grab it directly from the page.
You can also report errors back to Facebook. If a user experiences an error, you can retarget the user based on the error and place an ad in front of them. Perhaps there was an error while checking out.
Track Engagement
With GTM, you can also track the amount of engagement on your page. You can track how much of a video someone watched, or how far they scrolled down a page.
Mercer also discussed timers. For example, you can create a trigger called Exposed for people who saw a page. If they are on a page for 10 seconds, you can tag them as Aware. If they are engaged, they have to be on a page for 120 seconds if they scrolled to the bottom of the page.
I have a lot of work to do based on this presentation. I have to do more exploring what is possible in GTM.
