Google Tag Manager
15
min de lecture

Which Tag Management System (TMS) should you choose?

As we saw together in our previous articles on Google Tag Manager, marketing teams are now facing new issues that involve the use of specific tools. The possible acquisition channels are multiple, and so are the ways to analyze data. Thus, it is essential to know how all these flows will enrich your analysis solution thanks to what is called a Tag Management System.
Jonathan Nabais
22
March 2020

When you want analyze the data of a site, you need to have a comprehensive tagging plan on all the main elements: audiences, events, goals, conversions and finally, the sources.To achieve this level of analysis, you need to install various tags (Facebook, Google Ads, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, Hotjar, HubSpot, Plezi, Albacross, Criteo, etc.). The more tags you add, you will add queries that will slow down the loading time of your site, and will be responsible in total independence from each other. In order to avoid this, a Tag Management System (TMS) allows you to install a single script that will then load all your scripts (depending on the conditions that tell him when, he will have to trigger them on the site). A TMS gives you better control over all of your data, and will help you in your marketing tasks : retargeting campaigns, conversion tags, events on the site, etc.In this article, we will analyze the different criteria to take into account when choosing your Tag Management System, and we will detail some Tag Manager to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

What is a Tag Manager and where do they come from?

To understand what a TMS, it is essential to start by defining what a tag is. A tag is a piece of JavaScript code that allows information to be sent back to a defined source. It must be placed on a page or on an element in order to trigger and communicate the information collected.As mentioned earlier, the Tag Manager is a tool that allows you to manage all your tags in a single space. This allows a marketing team to manage all of these tags, which are fully customizable, without much technical knowledge. It is the simplest and cheapest way to manage its tags. Recall that previously, it was necessary to call on its technical service to install tags in the various pages of a site.

Where do these tags come from?

The first third-party tags appeared in the 1990s to help servers, mostly advertising, to measureeffectiveness of online advertising.The tags thus asked a outdoor server an invisible piece of content, which was similar to a pixel and which allowed the server to record data on site visits. It can thus be noted that the old system is not necessarily that far from the one we use now. Tags are nowadays JavaScript codes that collect a multitude of data.

What are the criteria to take into account when choosing a TMS?

1 - Choose a Tag Management System that suits you

When you understood theThe challenge of a TMS, and that you know that this will give you more flexibility to manage your tags, you will finally have to choose a solution to equip your site.Quote: Remember that if you only have one or two tags for your site, the use of a TMS is not necessarily recommended, but it can always be useful later on if you decide to go further in your approach.When you compare the various existing solutions on the market, you must guide you towards a solution that suits you. If your Technical background is relatively low, you should choose a solution that is accessible. Indeed, as we will see next, there are Tag Management System complexes that are aimed at technical teams. We will see why it is preferable to use such solutions in certain specific cases.

2 - Move towards a Tag Management System that adapts to your workflow

La Learning Curve (learning curve) of a tool is sometimes longer than you think. So before you commit yourself to a lifetime with a Tag Manager, it is recommended to consult the documentation, and to take note of the various existing supports to achieve your goals in case of problems.Then, are you going to work on it several times? How much do you want to push the limits of the tool and what are your specific needs? Ask these questions internally in order to obtain information that will guide your choice later. Finally, also make sure that all of the privacy settings are easily editable and that you can thus give access to other people simply (internal or external to your organization).

3 - Choose a Tag Manager that is beneficial for your site

When choosing a Tag Manager, make sure it will have the minimum negative impact on your site or application. Indeed, some TMS will slow down your site if you do not manage the triggering tags.To do this, look at the reviews on platforms like Quora, Reddit or Google on various forums. Another way to find out may be to contact agencies & freelancers to discuss it and get recommendations based on your situation.

Which Tag Manager should you choose for your site?

We now come to the fateful question: what is the miracle solution that will allow us to manage our tags well while being relatively easy to use? We give you the answer right away thanks to an analysis of three Tag Manager that stand out from the crowd, and which are the most used in the TMS market.

A - Google Tag Manager

In 2012, Google launched its own tag management tool, which is associated with its data analysis tool Google Analytics.Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free solution that offers great flexibility within its interface, when the tags are correctly installed on the site, the person in charge of this subject will be able to work freely.GTM has an important quantity of resources online to help you get started. The learning curve is fast, provided you want to take the time to dig a little deeper into the subject (and have some technical skills in HTML and CSS) .In your space, you will also have access to a vast preconfigured tag gallery by the various solution providers. Most of the time, you will only have to enter an ID or a token to validate that you have the account. Everything else will be done automatically and you can manage your tags in a few clicks.Citation: At Angular, we use Google Tag Manager for our own site, but also to manage tags on our customers' sites. We have created cookies specific to our marketing needs, and we have custom tags to best manage the marketing campaigns of our customers. A disadvantage that you will notice about GTM if several of you work on it is that it does not offer the possibility of editing drafts with several people. Google Tag Manager can be complex if you only have one tag to install on your site, it will be useful when you have trigger conditions and several tags.You should also pay attention to your GTM account, since being hacked into your account is like giving away the keys to all your data. Installing a malicious script would be so easy in such cases.

B - Tealium

Tealium is a Tag Manager Payer, which relies heavily on its integration ecosystem available in the industry of Tag Management System. The solution has more than 1000 native integrations, including 50+ for the marketing part. This paid solution is considered to be one of the best on the market. However, she is good. more complex than Google Tag Manager, the handling will take longer. When you look at the reviews on CapTERRA, the negative points also go in this direction:

  • “Tealium can do a lot. It is designed to meet the needs of many different industries. This flexibility leads to a certain complexity, and it is difficult to learn how to use this tool.” by Jer T - Digital Analytics Architect
  • “A lot of the tags are almost ready to use, but some complex tags (for example, Sitecatalyst) require the help of the Tealium support team. That said, it's rare for this help to translate into hours of paid support. It is generally covered by our standard support contract, which is offered to all customers.” Kelly S. - Director Direct Response Marketing Publishing

When comparing the reasons for taking a paid solution versus a free solution for manage your tags, here is how Tealium answers us:

  • A free solution requires you to call on your technical service, so they will have less time to be on strategic projects;
  • This can delay your marketing campaigns and revenue is lost because the best turnkey integrations are not available;
  • You will have inaccurate data as a result of negligence in implementation, which will result in poor business decisions;
  • A free solution will slow down the performance of pages and will affect the conversions of your site or mobile application;
  • Managing privacy and complying with privacy principles will not be predefined, you will have to do it yourself.

We don't really find ourselves in all of these points, except the one that addresses the issue of confidentiality. In fact, on Google Tag Manager, you must manage all these aspects yourself by creating custom events and installing a consent module for example (if we only talk about cookies).

3 - TagCommander

TagCommander by Commander Act is a French Tag Manager which is part of an interesting suite of tools supposed to give you back control over your data. We are going to make comments by taking a minimum of distance from what we said since we never got our hands on it, but we still found some information on it in order to summarize it.Tag Commander seems a bit more complex to handle, he recommends a 2-day training course to fully master the solution. It is available online, and there is a certification”TagCommander Manage Premium Partner” in order to certify consultants capable of supporting customers on such an installation. This difficulty in handling is of course relative, since Tag Commander will allow you to take advantage of a ultra-personalization, such as MD5 encoding for example. On the support side, Commander Act has very good customer support who can guide you to each problem. A plus that seems obvious since the solution is chargeable, unlike a solution like Google Tag Manager.We could not find any reliable information regarding the Solution price. We have some indications on Google from the forums, but nothing is specific enough to give you a range. In any case, TagCommander does not have a free version, and no trial period is possible either. As for user reviews, they are difficult to find on the web, but you can still find a few after consulting various platforms of tool notation :

  • “The use could be further simplified for business users, today it seems better suited to web analyst profiles” - Webmarketing Project Manager
  • “Difficulties in implementing on mobile. Not a very generalized solution among my integration partners.” - Head of the marketing & digital department
  • “If you need a single place where you can manage all third party pixels, this platform is perfect. If you need a pixel to be activated not only when the page loads, but also based on user actions, you should use events, which is quite complex to manage.” - IT Project Manager

Finally, Tag Commander is the only publisher on the market to currently offer a Tag Management tool integrating a privacy module compatible with the IAB framework. You therefore greatly reduce the risk of piracy, and you strengthen your privacy policy.

Conclusion

To choose the right TMS, you need to look beyond a simple tag management : a good Tag Management System will allow you to enrich your data and to know everything about your visitors or users. We therefore advise you not to focus on the price, or on a specific characteristic. First, define your needs, and the reasons why you want to use a Tag Management System. If it is intended for a marketing team, choose Google Tag Manager which is easier to handle; if you want to entrust this task to your technical team, then you can study the possibility of using Tealium or TagCommander, depending on the budget needed to use them.Choose your Tag Manager is a decision that should not be taken lightly, as it will have a big impact on your data management and what you can expect to gain from it in the future.

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