DTM Tagtics

You get that play on words? TAGtics? Like… tagging tactics? So we’ve had DTM for a while and I think it’s time we have a heart-to-heart. I think it’s time you tag your site differently. DTM was created with the intent that you would create your tags based on user behavior. Why would you want to do that? In Google Tag Manager we name them after tags! When we create tagging documents we call out pixels, not necessarily actions people are taking:

Rule Naming Example
I blocked out some information so it wouldn’t be obvious whose implementation this is… note the 2 Global Nav – Subnav rules…

This affects the way you treat implementations multiple ways:

  1. You’re thinking about key actions instead of elements that need identifiers
  2. As a result of #1, your conversations tend to revolve around actions and outcomes instead of the physical tags
  3. You’re consolidating tags into fewer (more manageable) rules. This means less searching and less page loading.

It’s so easy to find implementations where there are redundancies. For instance, the example below has 3 rules that could be easily consolidated into 1 rule (“Any Page Loads”):

 

Not saying their whole implementation is bad, but this was just an easy example I found.
Not saying their whole implementation is bad, but this was just an easy example I found.

 

It’s so tempting to revert back to thinking about tagging as just that – tags. Let’s get a little TAGTICAL (okay, I promise I’ll stop) and ensure that your tags are named after actions and not individual tags. Save time, save bandwidth, and start talking in the context of user behavior.

In the meantime, if you’ve been asleep for the past few weeks – don’t forget to sign up for Tagtician. Alpha is almost out of the oven and I hope I can see some of you at the Adobe Summit! I’ll be around between the 20th and 22nd, so if you’re arriving early let’s chat!

Leave a Comment