2 23444 how-tochoose_a_tag_management_system

HOW TO CHOOSE
A TAG MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
By David A. Yovanno
President – Mediaplex®

MEDIAPLEX © COPYRIGHT 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PG.2
www.mastertms.com
PG.3
Introduction
PG.3
Why Tag Managmement?
PG.5 Eight Questions to Ask Potential
Tag Management Providers
PG.6 The Questions in Depth
PG.6 1.
Can the vendor’s solution accommodate the number of tags you
currently use, and is there room for growth?
PG.6 2.
Will the solution enable you to work with any third party technology
that you choose, or does it favor certain solutions over others?
PG.6 3. Has the solution been proven to work in real world implementations?
PG.7 4.
Does the solution integrate into marketing attribution platforms that
can help you drive greater marketing effectiveness in the future?
PG.7 5.
Does the vendor have staying power — is it an established company or
a well-funded new company?
PG.8 6.
Do you already work with the vendor, or does the quality of the solution
warrant adding the complexity of working with another vendor?
PG.8 7.
Does the vendor offer strong service, and are they easy to work with?
PG.9 8.
How does the vendor address consumer privacy regulation?
PG.9 Conclusions
PG.9 About the Author
PG.9 About Mediaplex

www.mastertms.com MEDIAPLEX © COPYRIGHT 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PG.3
INTRODUCTION
Over the past several years the number of third party
technologies in use to empower brand websites and
marketing has exploded. The common denominator across
literally hundreds of these new technologies, platforms, and
marketing solutions is the use of scripts, beacons, and other
types of site tags to collect consumer information.
Tags are critical to most digital marketing tactics, and are
driving remarkable advances in marketing effectiveness. But
they also pose implementation hurdles, website performance
issues, and make it more difficult to ensure that you and only
you control and have access to your customer data.
“
Tags can pose implementation
hurdles, website performance
issues, and make it more difficult
to ensure that you and only you
control and have access to your
customer data.”
To mitigate these risks, many companies are in the process
of choosing and selecting “tag management systems”. A
great tag management system replaces the many tags on
your site with a single piece of code across all pages. It helps
marketers better control their data, manage tags without
relying on IT, improve site performance, and gain flexibility.
All while continuing to collect the same information as when
multiple tags were deployed individually on web pages. Further,
costs for tag management solutions tend be very modest
versus the immediate economic benefits that they provide.
“
The potential benefits of a great
tag management system are
large, but not all systems are
created equal.”
While the potential benefits of a great tag management
system are large, not all such solutions are created equal.
For the strategic marketing generalist, it can be difficult to
choose the best vendor. This whitepaper is designed to help
the marketer choose the best possible solution for their
brand and company. It’s built around a set of eight questions
you should ask vendors as you consider their various
offerings and proposals. By choosing a vendor that delivers
on all these issues, you can ensure that you reap maximum
benefit from this important solution to real business issues.
WHY TAG MANAGEMENT?
Thousands of companies are considering tag management
because it helps mitigate five critical business issues:
1) Site Crashes and Security Warnings:
Improperly implemented tags can cause site crashes that
destroy the user experience and significantly limit online
sales and other KPIs. In addition to problems that arise
from improper implementation, tags on your site have
the potential to trigger security warnings. Also, when a
vendor’s security certification expires, disconcerting security
warnings can appear on your site. This too can greatly
impede consumers from transacting on your site. A tag
management system can help ensure that you have greater
control over the number and implementation of site tags,
and can prevent tag issues from impacting user experience.
HOW TO CHOOSE

2) Slow Loading Pages:
The loading speed of your site strongly impacts customer
satisfaction and abandon rates. For ecommerce sites, it
can improve (or limit) sales, cart abandons, and lifetime
customer value. A study at Amazon.com a few years ago
found that for every 100 milliseconds that load time
increased, online sales decreased by 1%.i
That means that
just a one second delay in load time would cut potential
sales by 10%! Another factor to consider is that Google
factors load times into consideration when ranking sites.
Slow sites seem to rank lower.
3) Data Piracy and Leakage:
Many marketers operate under the illusion that only they
know what consumers do on their sites. For the majority
of brand websites, that simply isn’t true. By working
with third party technologies like retargeters, media
providers, lead gen and affiliate networks, rich media
technologies, and the like, you share your on-site data
with others. And here’s the rub: your partners may in turn
have partnerships with other third parties who can also
see what happens on your site. Whatever your partners’
motivations, your site data may currently be visible to a
legion of companies you don’t work with – may not have
even heard of.

Many marketers also find that even when they stop
working with a vendor, that former partner’s tags
remain on their site for months or even years. The odds
increase if your site was built in stages, is quite large, or
is managed by a highly taxed IT organization. With tag
management, it’s easy to observe and control all of the
tags available on your site and thereby control your data.
4) Slow Deployment of New Technologies:
In some companies, there is friction between Marketing
organizations that want to implement new technologies
and tags quickly and IT organizations juggling many
priorities. It isn’t at all unusual for us to hear clients say
that getting a new tag added to a site can take 2-12
weeks. For marketers working to achieve increasingly
steep sales goals, a loss of a month or more can be quite
frustrating. Using a tag management system allows
marketers to implement their own tagging rapidly while
enabling IT to focus on more mission-critical tasks.
5) Privacy Violations:
In the US, the FTC has strongly encouraged companies to
be more transparent in their data collection policiesii
, and
to offer consumers robust notice on ads and web pages.
In the EU, standards are even higher.iii
In order to comply
with the guidelines, brands must know with certainty all
of the companies collecting data on their pages. With tag
management, the task is much easier.
A great tag management solution can – and should --
address ALL of these concerns.
EIGHT QUESTIONS
TO ASK POTENTIAL TAG
MANAGEMENT PROVIDERS
As you consider tag management alternatives, use the
following questions to help ensure you choose the
best solution:
1. Can the vendor’s solution accommodate the number of
tags you currently use, and is there room for growth?
HOW TO CHOOSE
i
Kohavi and Longbottom, 2007
ii
Prepared Statement of The Federal Trade Commission on The Need for Privacy Protection May 9, 2012
iii
EC Data Protection Reform (Includes dozens of factsheets and videos)

2. Will the solution enable you to work with any third party
technology that you choose, or do they favor certain
solutions over others?
3. Has the solution been proven to work in real world
implementations?
4. Does the solution integrate into marketing attribution
platforms that can help you drive greater marketing
effectiveness in the future?
5. Does the vendor have staying power – is it an established
company or a well-funded new company?
6. Do you already work with the vendor, or does the quality
of the solution warrant adding the complexity of working
with another vendor?
7. Does the vendor offer strong service, and are they easy to
work with?
8.Howdoesthevendoraddressconsumerprivacyregulation?
THE QUESTIONS IN DEPTH
1. Can the vendor’s solution accommodate the number of
tags you currently use, and is there room for growth?
Solve the problem in one go. Find a vendor that can
accommodate all your tags and enable you to add additional
tags as new technologies arise.
Don’t choose a platform with a limit to the number of tags
it can accommodate. Be safe. Plan for radical growth in the
number of technologies you employ. You are far too busy to
have to go through this process again in 18 months.
“
Don’t choose a platform with
a limit to the number of tags it
can accommodate.”
2. Will the solution enable you to work with any third party
technology that you choose, or does it favor certain
solutions over others?
One of the key benefits of tag management is the freedom
to deploy more and better technologies on your website,
quickly and easily. Your choice of tag management platform
shouldn’t constrain you from choosing to work with any data
or technology company you choose.
If you feel “pushed” into shifting your existing third party
relationships by a prospective tag management vendor, ask
for specific feedback on why the vendor wants you to make
a change.
3. Has the solution been proven to work in real world
implementations?
As interest in tag management has grown, more companies
have entered the space. Some of these new solutions
may have very little real world track record combined with
minimal understanding of marketers’ true needs. There’s no
need to go with an unproven solution for tag management.
“
There’s no need to go with
an unproven solution for tag
management.”
HOW TO CHOOSE

There are a number of cost effective options that boast
strong in-market experience. This is not an area in which to
be a guinea pig. Your data and customer insight are far too
important for that.
4.
Does the solution integrate into marketing attribution
platforms that can help you drive greater marketing
effectiveness in the future?
Many believe that marketing attribution is the most
important future challenge facing marketers. Understanding
the relative impacts of different marketing tools on the
eventual sale is absolutely essential to drive the massive
increases in ROI effectiveness that you will be charged
with delivering.
The best way to ensure that you can deliver on this challenge
is by laying the groundwork for precise marketing attribution
now. Because tag management is a critical step in
developing a true 360-degree customer view, it’s important
to discern how your potential vendor is reflecting the
challenge of marketing attribution in its current offering
and product development plans.
“
Find out how your potential
vendor is reflecting the challenge
of marketing attribution in its
current offering and product
development plans.”
Most companies choose tag management to address very
practical page performance and control issues. But as we
develop and deploy more and more technologies to better
meet the individual needs of consumers, we need to collect
and manage more and more data. Tag management is
a keystone in making all of that data collection efficient.
Make sure that the vendor you choose can answer how
their offering fits in with the larger trends of marketing
accountability and attribution.
5.
Does the vendor have staying power – is it an established
company or a well-funded new company?
The excitement and enthusiasm of entrepreneurs can be
pretty infectious. They’ve created companies in a particular
field because of their passion and zeal for it. But after the
parade, someone needs to sweep the streets. And after a
prospective vendor electrifies a conference room, every
marketer knows that it is their responsibility to ensure that
the vendor they choose can deliver what they promise –
both now and for the foreseeable future.
“
Choose a vendor that’s been
around for a long time, or which
is very well funded.”
Choose a company with some staying power. One that’s been
around for a long time, or which is very well funded. Being
cautious here may prevent the need to find a new vendor in
a year or two.
HOW TO CHOOSE

6.
Do you already work with the vendor, or does the quality
of the solution warrant adding the complexity of working
with another vendor?
While having hundreds of companies innovating in the digital
marketing space has had a great effect on the number and
availability of empowering technologies, it has also spawned a
vendor management challenge. Some companies are dealing
with more than a dozen third party technology vendors. You
don’t need me to tell you that is a big drain on your time.
While adding the 9th or 13th or 17th vendor to your list
might not seem all that significant, I am convinced that the
most effective marketers will be working with fewer, more
versatile vendors in the months and years ahead. For even
the most frugal brands, time and attention are the most
limited marketing resources.
“
Start by exploring options from
your current set of vendors,
and look farther afield where
necessary. You may also find that
tag management can be bundled
with other services you are already
buying for better pricing.”
If a tagging solution can be delivered by a company or an
alliance partner that you already work with, it will likely
demand less of your time. That’s not to say that working
with a pure-play tag management company is a bad idea –
but their solution should be “better enough” to warrant the
increased complexity. Perhaps the best strategy is to start
by exploring options from your current set of vendors, and
look farther afield if necessary. You may also find that tag
management can be bundled with other services you are
already buying. For example, Mediaplex’s tag management
solution, Master TMS™
, offers cost effective integrated pricing
for users of ValueClick®
, Dotomi®
, and Commission Junction®
.
7.
Does the vendor offer strong service, and are they easy
to work with?
Tagging solutions are relatively easy to implement. While
implementation and training are important, the amount
of actual contact you have with the vendor need not be
extensive on a week-to-week basis.
But the data provided by third party platforms are absolutely
vital to your marketing effectiveness. Choose a vendor with a
team that will quickly address any issues you experience.
A vendor that is slow to respond could lead to the loss of
several days – even a week – of data.
As with any service organization, your experience will be a
function of the work of the individuals on your team. Ask for
references from the prospective vendor – specifically from
clients of the sales and account people you will be working with.
“
Be VERY certain that the vendor
you choose has both the people
and the interest in being there
after the sale.”
HOW TO CHOOSE

MEDIAPLEX © COPYRIGHT 2012. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PG.8
One other thing to consider – tech start-ups tend to focus
more on delivering technology platforms “as-is” than in
delivering services. This is because venture capital investors
prefer tech- versus people-intensive businesses. Such
businesses tend to be more profitable. If you choose an early
stage company for your tag management solution, be VERY
certain that they have the people and the interest in being
there after the sale.
8.How does the vendor address consumer privacy regulation?
While tag management solutions do not in-and-of-themselves
address consumer privacy, they can help companies get and
stay compliant. Because privacy legislation and regulation
are in flux, it is useful to work with a company that works
ongoing with leading privacy solutions providers. Such
relationships can help companies prepare for possible future
regulation and quickly find ways to respond to new rules and
guidelines as they arise.
CONCLUSIONS
Tag management is an important decision, and one
that deserves your focus and attention. I hope that this
whitepaper makes it a little easier to choose and implement
the right solution for your particular brand and company.
I’d be delighted to hear from you – on this paper and on
your process for choosing a tag management solution.
Please feel free to email me your thoughts and comments at
davidyovanno@mediaplex.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As President of Mediaplex, the technology business segment
of ValueClick, David A. Yovanno is responsible for all of
its global operations. He is also responsible for driving
cross-division synergies and assisting with the Company’s
corporate development program.
Mr. Yovanno first joined ValueClick in 2000 and held a number
of leadership positions for ValueClick Media including
executive vice president of sales and marketing, general
manager and chief operating officer until 2008. Mr. Yovanno
left ValueClick in 2008 to be CEO of Gigya, a successful
social technology SaaS company based in Silicon Valley, and
rejoined ValueClick in 2011. Mr. Yovanno also served in the
United States Navy as a Lieutenant and CIO.
Mr. Yovanno is a graduate of The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C., where he earned his
bachelor’s degree in marketing and master’s degree in
healthcare administration.
ABOUT MEDIAPLEX
Mediaplex is the technology division of ValueClick, Inc.
(NASDAQ: VCLK) and is recognized as an established,
innovative leader in digital marketing analytics and
advertising technology. Mediaplex technology provides
a comprehensive solution for the entire buy-side digital
landscape including ad serving, real time bidding (DSP), data
management (DMP), tag management, attribution analysis,
rich media, and more. Since 1996, Mediaplex has been a
trusted partner to leading brands and agencies helping them
leverage analytics and technology to maximize the return
on their digital advertising investments.
For more information visit Mediaplex.com or contact us at
1.877.402.PLEX (7539).
HOW TO CHOOSE
www.mastertms.com

2 23444 how-tochoose_a_tag_management_system

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Destaque

Destaque (20)

Semelhante a 2 23444 how-tochoose_a_tag_management_system

Semelhante a 2 23444 how-tochoose_a_tag_management_system (20)

Último

Último (20)

2 23444 how-tochoose_a_tag_management_system