How to prevent GTM zombies infecting your data! Learnings from a the most complex GTM deployment I have ever done. Contains an Interactive test.

1. How to prevent GTM zombies
infecting your data!

2. THE FOLLOWING TALK IS BASED ON A REAL
IMPLEMENTATIONIN 2015. THESE SLIDES
ARE BASED ON "PROJECT COMPLETION DEBRIEF"
DOCUMENT. SOME DETAILS REMOVED FOR
CONFIDENTIALITY. PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE
INTERACTIVE TEST bit.ly/residentslides
NO ZOMBIE WERE HARM(MUCH) IN THE
MAKING OF THIS PRESENTATION.

3. Download link…
bit.ly/residentslides

4. • You are an Elite Analytics Agency (EAA)
specialising in GA and GTM implementations
and clean-up operations.
The Analytics Agency

5. • You pitched & won a new client. The client is
Umbrella Corporation a global publishing
brand.
• But, there was a 1 condition…
The Client

6. • The client requested that the detailed GTM
audit is replaced with a preliminary audit (i.e.
just a surface scan).
• The project worth £45K pounds!
Contract Condition

7. …You agree to this condition
Contract Condition

8. The hidden truth…
- Umbrella Scientific Marketing Dept have been
using on GTM since its inception since 2012. They
are early adopters & have good intentions.
- However, they have been accidentally making
human errors (Zombies) and technical mistakes
(IT Booby Traps) at a frequency & scale you have
never seen before!
Background

9. The hidden truth…
- There was a hidden clause in your contract that says you
must complete within 3 months - otherwise you wont be
compensated.
- The project has started, there`s no exit clause - you are
locked-in. The only way to escape is to complete the
implementation.
- There are 5 mini-tasks to reach complete. For each task you
get wrong Umbrella removes -5% from your project bounty.
Locked-in cause & Deadline

10. - If you are unsure you have a hint button.
- To get help from your friendly GTM assassin
The Good news

11. Terminologies

12. People: Zombies = Brainless Marketers

13. Zombie Examples
- Using 20 tags rather than 1 tag + lookup tables
- No normalised GTM container naming structure
- 74 tags used to trigger the pageview
rather than 1 All page rule.
- Changes made straight to LIVE!
- IsDebug=True blocking trigger broken!

14. The best way to heal Marketing Zombies is through upskilling
and processes.
• Training makes them less likely to become zombies.
• Processes mean that accidental zombies are quarantined.
e.g. Using a separate DEV & LIVE container is an excellent
preventative process.
Healing

15. Tools: IT Booby Traps = Technical Mistakes or Pit holes

16. IT Booby Traps
- 3rd party GA integration tools issue
- Inline jQuery scroll tracking script outputting gaq.push
- Double pageviews from Inline pageview & GTM pageview
- System auto-upgraded to V2 interface whilst working on
account
- CMS is 8 years old

17. Fixing
- Experience: learn from peoples mistakes.
- Changing the system helps (e.g. auto-events are
safer than jQuery listeners)
- Automation: GTM/GA api and GoogleSheets api

18. L05
L04
L03
L02
L01
1: When migrating to universal do
you Setup Parallel Tracker or Single
Tracker?
Parallel Tracker
Single Tracker

19. L05
L04
L03
L02
L01
2. When setting up a GTM JavaScript
Error tracker which profile do you
send it to?
Existing UA Account
Different UA Profile
Does not matter as GA filters used
to include/exclude errors
ErrorTracker not needed

20. L05
L04
L03
L02
L01
3. Your A/B testing tool is sending GA
non-interactive event hits to all
trackers on every page - how should
you fix this using GTM?
Rename trackerNames
Rename "ga" > "ga2"
object
Hint
Turn-off A/B testing tool integration
within tool settings.
Update A/B testing tool integration
to output Custom Dimension
(not events)

21. L05
L04
L03
L02
L01
4. You have exceeded Hit limit in
due & received warning from
Google. How can you reduce the limit
without spending any more money?
Enable 10% client side sampling
on secondTracker
Disable 1% speed tracker
Buy GA premium
Use a filter to exclude all
event hits

22. L05
L04
L03
L02
L01
5. How do you enable Cross Domain
tracking from clientdomain.com to
cart.com via GTM?
use userID based
“session unification”
update htaccess file
Hint
GTM native link function
clientId setting in GTM
and JSmacro script

23. Thanks!

24. Agh.. I
wonder
what
time is
lunch?
Special Thanks to…

25. …and thanks for the hits!
A few more
degrees to
the right &
I`ve got
him!

26. Answers
crossDomain tracking into cart.com but not using .htaccess patch (specific use case)
https://plus.google.com/117298997433687198127/posts/R5r3Bp88ir7
Accidentally bad GA integrations (e.g. A/B testing tool called Monetate send 3x hit
limit)
https://plus.google.com/117298997433687198127/posts/BWx5fwQVHsW
Using _initData to reduce Hits during a migration
https://plus.google.com/wm/1/117298997433687198127/posts/McER3buexek
GTM Blacklisting but allowing JS macros
https://plus.google.com/117298997433687198127/posts/aVKq1NjMjBG
isAdBlocked customDimension
http://83.223.104.160/~searchph/_testing_script/_____natgeo/gtm-code-
examples/25_dl_pageSubCategory_120events.html
GTM JSmacro performance tip
https://plus.google.com/117298997433687198127/posts/2TVMsVAtaMU