How To Use Google Tag Manager To Analyze Your Website Traffic

Tweak your campaigns to increase sales

No matter what type of website you have, knowing how your visitors interact with your site is essential.Google Analytics (GA)has traditionally been the tool used by webmasters to gain insights into website traffic. GA gives users statistics and reports about:

Tracking essential metrics such as page views, session durations, and bounce rate with GA require the placement of GA Tracking Code or a GA JavaScript code snippet on every webpage. This is ideal for keeping track of general information.

However, for more specific metrics or multiple interactions, it becomes more challenging to keep track of every action. For example, it would take a lot of time for a website owner who wants to track several different forms and various features to get all the necessary tags set up and running.

Google Tag Manager(GTM) is a free tag management tool that makes tracking all your tags easier.

What Is Google Tag Manager?

Rather than replacing GA, GTM works with GA (which is a tag itself) to help users add tracking code (tags), define rules and deploy code snippets.

The data collected by GTM is sent to and stored in GA and other tools such as Google Ads, PayPal, and Facebook.

Examples of tags website owners might want to track are:

Website owners should decide which behaviors will provide insights they need to make better strategic marketing decisions. Then use Google Tag Manager to collect data and analyze the results.

In this article, we will outline how to get started using GTM for your website.

Set Up Your Website

Below is an example of a website action to help you measure your marketing efforts.

Tracking Button Clicks

Button clicks refer to how many times your website call-to-action (CTA) is clicked. Many sites have multiple CTAs, such as:

Set Up Some Variables

You will see click classes, click elements, and click texts. All the different clicks and click classes are notated. Once you have located the variables, figure out what to filter out for the button you want to track.

Click on that website button, and it will highlight the summary section on the GTM preview below your website.

Look at the variables that are related to your selected button such as Click classes, Click Element, and Click ID. Use this information to set up your button click. Go back to your Google Tag Manager. Navigate toButton Click.

For the purpose of this article, let’s set up a button forGrab your free report, so rename the button toGrab your free report CTA.

Here is where you will be able to filter by the variables you found when in preview mode.

Go back to your website preview and write down the variables for the button you want to track. Different parts of a button might have different classes depending upon where you click.

The best solution for this is to switch your tracking toLink Clickbecause the classes are the same no matter where you click. A link click is a hyperlink that remains constant.

Create a Tag

Make The Tag An Event

There is no limit to the number of actions you can track using Google Tag Manager. The more data you collect and measure, the better you will be able to tweak your marketing and ad campaigns to increase conversions and sales.

David has a background in small business and lives in Australia. He is a WordPress and Ubuntu Developer who enjoys design, CSS and tech tool integration.Read David’s Full Bio

Welcome to Help Desk Geek- a blog full of tech tips from trusted tech experts. We have thousands of articles and guides to help you troubleshoot any issue. Our articles have been read over 150 million times since we launched in 2008.

HomeAbout UsEditorial StandardsContact UsTerms of Use

How To Use Google Tag Manager To Analyze Your Website Traffic#

What Is Google Tag Manager?#

Set Up Your Website#

Tracking Button Clicks#

Set Up Some Variables#

Create a Tag#

Make The Tag An Event#