Looking back on five years of Google Tag Manager. Has the tool changed? Have we? What's coming up in the next 5 years? My talk at MeasureCamp #11 (London).

1. Google Tag Manager
5 years. What have we learned?
@SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow

2. Google Tag Manager
5 years. What have we learned?
@SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow

3. Simo Ahava
Senior Data Advocate, Reaktor
Google Developer Expert, Google Analytics
Blogger, developer, www.simoahava.com
Twitter-er, @SimoAhava
Google+:er, +SimoAhava

4. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Google Tag Manager

5. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Google Tag Manager
The best only way to deploy client-side tracking code.

6. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Google Tag Manager
The best only way to deploy client-side tracking code.
gtag.js?

8. Google Tag Manager
Lets you create and deploy tracking
and measurement scripts with ease.

9. Google Tag Manager
Lets you create and deploy tracking
and measurement scripts with ease.
Facilitates interaction between various
departments within your organization.

10. Google Tag Manager
Lets you create and deploy tracking
and measurement scripts with ease.
Facilitates interaction between various
departments within your organization.
Allows you to focus your time on analysis
rather than implementation.

11. Google Tag Manager
https://analyticsacademy.withgoogle.com/course/5

12. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Tag Management in the web

13. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Tag Management in the web
It’s STILL just JavaScript.

14. The web is inherently stateless.

15. The web is inherently stateless.
Tag Management Solutions
work in the web.

16. The web is inherently stateless.
Tag Management Solutions
work in the web.
Tag Management Solutions are
stateless.

18. Landing Page, Session, and Touchpoint are terminology of a
stateful machine.

19. Landing Page, Session, and Touchpoint are terminology of a
stateful machine.
The web page feeds data to the server, which builds the data
pipeline. Thus state and sessionization are handled in the backend.

20. Could we introduce state?

21. {"sessionCount": "2", "firstTouch": "cpm"}
Could we introduce state?
Why doesn’t Google Analytics tell us details about
the session in the server response?

22. {"sessionCount": "2", "firstTouch": "cpm"}
Could we introduce state?
Why should Google Analytics tell us details about
the session in the server response?

23. Forget it.
Let the TMS do what the TMS does
best.

24. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
TMS in the organization

25. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
TMS in the organization
Tag Management does not make IT redundant.

26. TMS is a marketer’s tool.

27. TMS is a developer’s tool.

28. TMS is an organization’s tool.

29. Why it’s about marketing.

30. Why it’s about marketing.
1. Tags collect data for digital marketing purposes, first and
foremost.
2. TMS abstracts the underlying code — low barrier of entry
for people with little coding experience.
3. Semantic data collection is easy to deprioritize by
developers who are more invested in the presentational and
experiential layers.

31. Why it’s about development.
1. It’s a freaking code injector!
2. You can add all sorts of malicious / website-breaking /
malware-infested code with the click of a button.
3. If something goes awry, developers will be held
accountable as they own the processes.
4. A TMS can actually make development work easier, too.

32. Why it’s about organizations.
1. Data flows through the entire organization - it doesn’t care
about job titles.
2. Data quality can be compromised at every junction of the
data process - not just collection.
3. Any company/platform/tool/service collects absurd
amounts of data each passing second - only a mature
organization can tackle this overload.

33. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Things you can do with a TMS

34. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Things you can do with a TMS
And things you perhaps should NOT do…

35. You can customize the page with
hideous exit intent popups.

36. You can write fragile fixes to the
document object model.

37. If you use a TMS to fix issues that
should be fixed in the page
template or site JavaScript, you’re
using it wrong.

39. Things you can do with a TMS, if
the browser doesn’t execute
JavaScript:

40. Things you can do with a TMS, if
the browser doesn’t execute
JavaScript:

41. At its best, a TMS can be used to…
Deploy the latest versions of marketing, advertising, and
analytics trackers with ease.

42. At its best, a TMS can be used to…
Create, manage, and distribute semantic information on the
page.

43. At its best, a TMS can be used to…
Facilitate the agile analytics process - so crucial to any service
development.

44. And more!
1. Proof-of-concept experiential & presentational changes to
get buy-in from developers / HiPPOs.
2. Inject semantic markup (JSON-LD, META)
3. Resolve scripting conflicts on the site.
4. Load 3rd party libraries (e.g. jQuery) asynchronously.
5. Consolidate the codebase, write ad hoc JavaScript, inject
HTML elements, etc.

45. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Data is difficult

46. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Data is difficult
Data quality is earned, not acquired.

47. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Next 5 years?

48. @SimoAhava from @ReaktorNow
Next 5 years?
What will GTM become?

49. Intelligence

50. Collaboration

51. Enterprise

52. Full stack

53. (Google) integrations

54. simo.ahava@reaktor.com
www.simoahava.com
Twitter: @SimoAhava
Google+: +SimoAhava