Presented for Florida Library Webinars on 2/1/17. Some slides may not make sense without my narration, which is available at [TBD]. Many of these slides are provided for later use by attendees as documentation, and weren't shown live.
1. TRACK WHAT MATTERS MOST
Chad Haefele
Head of User Experience and Assessment
UNC Chapel Hill Libraries
cHaefele@email.unc.edu
Improving Analytics with Google Tag Manager
2. What is GTM?
• TAG: any bit of code (usually
javascript) you need to insert
into your site.
4. The problem with Google Analytics
ga('send', 'event', [eventCategory], [eventAction], [eventLabel], [eventValue], [fieldsObject]);
5. How does GTM fix this?
<!-- Google Tag Manager --
><script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new
Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var
f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l
='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl
;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-
KS5HJD8');</script><!-- End Google Tag Manager -->
<!-- Google Tag Manager (noscript) --><noscript><iframe
src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-
KS5HJD8"height="0" width="0"
style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript><!-- End Google
Tag Manager (noscript) -->
Inside your <head> tag:
Inside your <body> tag:
The only code you ever need to add to your site:
6. Setting up GTM
• tagmanager.google.com
Account Name: The name of your library
7. Setting up GTM
• tagmanager.google.com
Container Name: The URL of your library’s website
Where to use Container: Web
9. Setting Up A GTM Account
• If you’re using WordPress, there are plugins to do this part for you.
I like the MetroNet Tag Manager:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/metronet-tag-manager/
• If you previously used Google Analytics, make sure to remove
that code from your site!
10. Enabling Built-In Variables
• On the left menu, click Variables
• Click the Configure button
• Under the Clicks section, check the boxes for “Click URL”
and “Click Text”
11. Terminology
•Tag:
A little bit of code that runs on a page, like event tracking:
•Trigger:
A condition which, when true, will add a tag to your page.
ga('send', 'event', [eventCategory], [eventAction], [eventLabel],
[eventValue], [fieldsObject]);
12. Deploying Google Analytics with GTM
• In Tags, click on New
• Give your tag a name like Universal Analytics
• Click “Tag Configuration”
• Choose Universal Analytics
• Enter your Google Analytics Tracking ID
• Set the Track Type to “Page View”
• Click “Triggering”
• Select “All Pages”
• Click “Save”
• Click “Publish”
• Check the Real-Time section of Google Analytics to make
sure data is being reported as you browse your site.
13. Implementing Universal Link Tracking
• In Triggers, click New
• Give your trigger name, like Any Link Clicked
• Click on Trigger Configuration
• In the “Click” section, pick “Just Links”, then Save
• In Tags, click New.
• Give it a name like Universal Link Tracking
• Click on Tag Configuration, then Universal Analytics
• Insert Tracking ID
• Set the Track Type to Event
• Category: Universal Link Tracking
• Action: Link Clicked
• Label: Click the + icon and pick the Click URL variable
• Click the Triggering section at the bottom of the page.
• Select your Any Link Clicked trigger that we made
• Click Save
• Publish it
• Check Real-Time info in GA to see if it’s working
14. Tracking Your E-Resource Usage
• In Triggers, click New
• Give your trigger a name, like E-Resource Click
• Click Trigger Configuration
• In the “Click” section, pick “Just Links”
• Pick “Some Link Clicks”
• Set the boxes to “Click URL”, “contains”, and a unique string that’s part of all your e-
resource URLs (for me it’s go.php?c=)
• click Save
• In Tags, click New
• Give it a name like E-Resource Link Tracking
• Click on Tag Configuration, then Universal Analytics
• Insert Tracking ID
• Set the Track Type to Event
• Category: E-Resource Link Clicks
• Action: Link Clicked
• Label: Click the + icon and pick the Click Text variable
• Click the Triggering section at the bottom of the page.
• Select the E-Resource Click trigger we made
• Click Save
• Publish it
• Check Real-Time info in GA to see if it’s working
15. Tracking Your PDF Downloads
• In Triggers, click New
• Give your trigger a name, like PDF Click
• Click Trigger Configuration
• In the “Click” section, pick “Just Links”
• Pick “Some Link Clicks”
• Set the boxes to “Click URL”, “contains”, .pdf
• click Save
• In Tags, click New
• Give it a name like PDF click Tracking
• Click on Tag Configuration, then Universal Analytics
• Insert Tracking ID
• Set the Track Type to Event
• Category: PDF Downloads
• Action: Link Clicked
• Label: Click the + icon and pick the Click URL variable
• Click the Triggering section at the bottom of the page.
• Select the PDF Click trigger we made
• Click Save
• Publish it
• Check Real-Time info in GA to see if it’s working
16. Troubleshooting GTM
• In the upper-right
corner, click the down
arrow next to Publish.
• Click Preview
• Load your webpage in
another tab
17. Troubleshooting GTM
• As you browse your site, you’ll see (sometimes very
briefly) which triggers and tags are fired at the bottom.
18. Troubleshooting GTM
• When you’re done troubleshooting, go back to your GTM
tag and click Leave Preview Mode
19. Other Resources
• ALA’s Library Technology Report on Google Analytics and
Google Tag Manager, by Tabatha Farney
• https://journals.ala.org/index.php/ltr/issue/view/613
• Google Tag Manager Fundamentals course:
• https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/course/5
• Uses an old version of the GTM interface
• Lynda.com’s GTM course
• https://www.lynda.com/Google-Tag-Manager-tutorials/Google-Tag-
Manager-V2-Essential-Training/168238-2.html
• Uses an old version of the GTM interface
• Google Tag Manager support
• https://support.google.com/tagmanager/
• Autotrack.js for an alternate method of setting up tracking:
• https://github.com/googleanalytics/autotrack/blob/master/README.
md
20. TRACK WHAT MATTERS MOST
Chad Haefele
Head of User Experience and Assessment
UNC Chapel Hill Libraries
cHaefele@email.unc.edu
Improving Analytics with Google Tag Manager