How to Use Google Tag Manager to Track Conversions

Find out how to track conversions using Google Tag Manager! 

Whether you are a businessperson or affiliate marketer you know how important it is to track and improve conversion rate? But do you know how to do it? In this article, you are going to find all the information about one of the easiest ways, using Google Tag Manager! 

Generally speaking, everyone who is running some kind of business knows online presence is critical if you want to be successful. No matter which industry you enter, the competition is so high that it is safe to say that if you practically don’t exist if you are not visible online. Hence, all business owners create websites, blogs, etc.  But is being present enough for a successful business?  Of course, not, you have to continually work on making exciting and engaging content to attract the readers regardless of whether you have a website like Leo Vegas or some other. But even that alone is not enough! It is fantastic to have an audience that gladly follows your content! However, your primary goal and the reason why you created the website is to increase profit, right? Hence, you need to do everything in your power to convert the readers into clients or customers!  

 The rate of people who become your clients after getting introduced to your content is called conversion rate! Now one option is to leave the thing to chance.  Another is to do everything you can to make your business as attractive as possible for potential clients. To achieve that you need to track conversions and Tag manager is the best tool to help you with that. In today’s article, we are going to talk about how to use Google tag manager in 2021 and what are the benefits of tracking, etc.

Why Is Tracking Conversions Important?

Conversion tracking helps businesses to figure out the real value of the campaigns and their website. Through this process, they can understand where customers come from, how they react to the marketing, and how to improve the sales funnel. Here are some other things a business gets from conversion tracking. 

• Understanding how users interact with the website. 
• Ability to make a clear decision on whether the website needs to be changed. 
• Knowledge about marketing channels that drive user engagement. 
• The measure of SEO results. 

What Is Google Tag Manager 

Do you remember that we mentioned that we will talk about Tag manager, today? But what is it? What do we mean when we talk about tag and trigger?  So basically it is one of the best tools that serves for collecting and keeping analytical data organized. That way it will be much easier to make any kind of decision you need to make about your website.  When you have this tool, you can deploy and manage marketing any marketing Tag without having to change the entire code on your website. Besides the tags, which are snippets of JavaScript, this tool contains triggers and variables. The first gives information to the Tag manager on when, how, and where to fire the Tag type. The variables contain additional information that Tag or trigger might need to function. 

Why Do You Need It?

First of all, it is important to say that there are many benefits of using this tool.  For example, it is free and simple to use and you only need to have a Google account. The fact that it is easy to use means that you don’t have to deal with developers.  Another benefit of tag in GTM is that you don’t have to worry about security. Apart from that, it allows you to work directly with Google Analytics which is something pretty unique as you will see when you compare it to other tools.  There are plenty of other benefits, too! However, today we are going to focus specifically on the tag setup used to track conversions. 

How to Setup GTM?

First, you need to create a Google Tag Manager account. To do that simply go to the official page and click the main call to action.  Keep in mind that you use one Google account for all products. Hence if you already use Gmail, Google Ads, etc., you will be automatically logged to Tag manager. If not, you will need to create an account before you begin the process. 

When you log in you will be asked to create a GTM account and container. GTM account is for business, company, or client, whereas the container is for the website or application. Generally, it is important to know that a container contains a lot of tag options, triggers, and variables. GTM provides you with the code and detailed instructions on where to add a tag template. One way to find it is to click container ID and the other one to go in the Admin section and then click on the container and install Google Tag Manager.

Use GTM to Track Conversions

Okay, so we already explained how the tag setup goes, right!?  Now we are going to see how to create the Google Analytics and HTML tag. Since there is already GTM code installed on the website you don’t need to worry about further coding. 

Google Analytics Tag 

Step 1 

• So first, under the new tag in the workspace choose Universal Analytics. 
• Track type should be page view.
• In Google Analytics select “new variable”, name it Google Analytic setting, and add the tracking ID to the field.
• Click “triggering” on all pages. 
• The tag should be called Universal Analytics.
• You will see the Tag in the Tag tab.  You are ready to publish it. 

Step 2

• The next step is to make the tag and the trigger to track conversions. When you do that the trigger will inform the tag, and it will send the information about the action to Google Analytics. 
• In the Workplace, select tag type labeled as “Event”.  You can choose the names you want for every category.
• Next, choose the Page URL variable.  It should be the same as the one you created in Step 3.
• Click Trigger configuration and then Form submission. Name the trigger form submission and it will activate whenever there is a form submission on any page.

Step 3

• Make sure that all of your tags and triggers work. To do this, go into the Preview mode in GTM. 
• Then visit your website’s home page while making sure that the Preview window in the bottom of the screen. 
• Make sure that the “Universal Analytics” new tag is triggered. 
• Send a text message.  Check the preview window to see if the Form Submission Event Tracking is triggered after you submitted the form. If yes, it means that you completed the setup successfully. If not you have to go back to step 3 and check and fix the problem.  You can also use tag assistants to check problems. 

Step 4 

• The last step is tracking this event in Google Analytics as goals. 
• Go to Google Analytics/Goals/New Goal. 
• Click on Custom. The Goal name should be Form Submissions. At the end choose an Event type. 
• Enter the category that you selected when you set up the Form Submission tag.
• Test it. 

HTML Tag

One of the most prominent features of Google Tag Manager is the Custom HTML tag. When you create this tag in GTM you can have HTML elements on every page on your website. Anything you type in Custom HTML tag will be seen as HTML.  With this tag, you add three elements:  a <script> which is a block compiled and performed as JavaScript, a <div> block which is embedded in the <div>. This happens because HTML is encoded.  This is how Google Tag Manager fires Custom HTML tags. 

• Custom HTML is added to a dummy <div> through the use of .innerHTML property.  Keep in mind that Custom HTML is like encoded string.
• The browser resolves the string in parts.  As result, more tags are finally turned into HTML elements.
• They are then removed from the dummy and passed for injection.
• After that, each element is added to the .document body element.

Bottom Line 

As we mentioned conversion tracking is essential because it allows you to have a clear insight into what is going on with your website. It is useful to know how many readers become your clients or customers because then you can understand what the interests of your audience are and what you can improve. And Tag manages is a perfectly simple tool that can enable you to achieve this. Have you heard about it before? Do you know someone who already installed it?

Author’s Bio:

Arthur Rowley is an avid writer specializing mostly in technology and marketing. Having spent years finessing his craft, he now can ensure you that Arthur has much acclaim for these areas and dedication to providing high-quality blogging content.