Engagement Jumps 30% for Wyndham Vacation Rentals With Help from Google Analytics Premium

Wyndham Vacation Rentals runs 9,000 North American rental properties from the mountains of Utah to the beaches of South Carolina.  As you can imagine, that many guests and destinations creates some interesting challenges for Wyndham's online booking system.  

They turned to Google Analytics Premium and Google Tag Manager for help, and we've just published a new case study showing the results. (Spoiler alert: property search CTRs are up by 30%.)

Wyndham did some very clever things with both tools. For instance, they used Google Tag Manager to implement Google Analytics Premium Custom Dimensions to capture user behavior around metrics like rental dates and length of stay. Then they used Google Analytics Premium to dig into the details and gather insights. That's how they learned that, while a "good view" is one of the top things customers included in searches, the scenic view attribute actually had a lower conversion rate than other features offered in their suites.  

As a result, Wyndham redesigned its search results to put the properties with the most profitable mix of attributes on the first page. The Wyndham team also learned how far in advance people begin searching for various vacations, and have adjusted their campaigns and spending to match the peaks in demand.

With changes like these, Wyndham's customers are maintaining more interest through all stages of the funnel. Wyndham says its property search CTR has skyrocketed by more than 30%. Here's what Nadir Ali, their Director of eCommerce Analytics, has to say about this success:

“Google Analytics Premium is helping us connect the dots. As a data-driven organization, we strive to approach each business challenge objectively and back our assumptions with data. Google Analytics Premium gives us the flexibility to customize the data we collect in a manner that makes it easy to answer our business questions.” 

We're always happy to see the creative ways partners use Google Analytics Premium and tools like Google Tag Manager. Congrats to Wyndham on some excellent (and ongoing) results.

See the Wyndham Vacation Rentals case study

Posted by Rachel Reader, Google Analytics Marketing

Learn to optimize your tag implementation with Google Tag Manager Fundamentals

We're excited to announce that our next Analytics Academy course, Google Tag Manager Fundamentals, is now open for participation. Whether you’re a marketer, analyst, or developer, this course will teach you how Google Tag Manager can simplify the tag implementation and management process.

You'll join instructor Krista Seiden to explore topics through the lens of a fictional online retailer, The Great Outdoors and their Travel Adventures website. Using practical examples, she’ll show you how to use tools like Google Analytics and Google AdWords tags to improve your data collection process and advertising strategies.

By participating in the course, you’ll explore:

• the core concepts and principles of tag management using Google Tag Manager
• how to create website tags and manage firing triggers
• how to enhance your Google Analytics implementation
• the importance of using the Data Layer to collect valuable data for analysis
• how to configure other marketing tags, like AdWords Conversion Tracking and Dynamic Remarketing

We're looking forward to your participation in this course!

Sign up for Google Tag Manager Fundamentals and start learning today.

Happy tagging!

Post By: Lizzie Pace & The Google Analytics Education Team

Solutions Guide for Implementing Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager

Marketers, developers, and practitioners of analytics depend on having the right data at the right time - but implementing analytics code or AdWords pixels can be a less than fun (or easy) experience. Google Tag Manager makes tagging simple and fast by letting you add tags with a simple UI instead of code, while also offering advanced tracking features used by some of the web’s top sites.

Today we’re excited to announce the launch of the Solutions Guide section on the Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager Help Centers. The Solutions Guide area is focused on providing actionable, hands on, step-by-step instructions for implementing Google Analytics, AdWords, DoubleClick, and other third party tags via Google Tag Manager. 

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• When and why to use Google Tag Manager
• Best practices for naming conventions and setup tips
• When to choose the Data Layer or the Tag Manager UI
• How to implement GA event tracking, custom dimensions & cross-domain tracking
• How to setup AdWords, Doubleclick, and Dynamic Remarketing tags in GTM

We’re thrilled to share this with you and hope you find it helpful as you implement Google Tag Manager.

Check out the new GTM Solutions Guide today!

Happy Tagging.

Posted by Krista Seiden, Analytics Advocate

Making tag management more accessible and powerful

Today we are happy to introduce improvements to Google Tag Manager that will make both marketing and IT teams happy: 

• New APIs that tailor the power of Google Tag Manager to your unique needs
• A new intuitive interface to help you launch and edit tags even faster
• More 3rd-party templates to make tagging easier

Many large enterprises use Google Tag Manager to streamline and simplify website and mobile app tagging. It helps marketers control the end-to-end process of adding website tags, while IT departments save time they can spend on more strategic projects. InsureandGo has been using Google Tag Manager for all their tagging needs:

“Before, we missed opportunities because tag changes required a website release. Since we’ve enabled Google Tag Manager on the site, it’s enabled the marketing team to measure more on-site actions. For example, using Google Tag Manager to track on-page events such as specific clicks and form submissions helps us understand more granular customer actions, how to market and what to sell. We can make decisions much quicker and see within a few weeks whether the strategy has worked, whereas before it would have taken six to nine months.” Simon Everett, Head of Marketing

Let's look at the new features.

Introducing Google Tag Manager API

Sometimes you just want things your own way. We understand! The new full-featured Google Tag Manager API lets you customize the infrastructure to suit your needs, whether that means building your own tools or better integrations with your existing workflow. From creating and managing users to previewing and publishing containers and tags, the API provides all the power of the web interface.

For example, the new API makes it easy to manage user access in bulk. It's easy to set permissions for many users at once, or set up your own role-based permissions and let the API give the right level of access to the right people in your organization.

Agencies can use the API to easily manage large tagging setups for their clients: create a master container template, specify variations (such as the domain, or the ad campaign ID) in a Google Sheets doc, and use the API to automatically deploy to multiple containers and keep those containers in sync. 

Our partner Novartis has been able to scale more easily by using Google Tag Manager APIs:

We have a strong data-driven culture at Novartis and thus in the digital space we’re naturally interested in using data and insights to improve the usability and experience of our websites. With many brands and websites across the globe, collecting web analytics data can become time consuming. Two challenges we have faced are data consistency and tagging implementation across many sites. We developed a process where we use the Google Tag Manager API to eliminate a manual, error-prone, process and thus were able to shift our attention from several low-value tasks to determining how to create a great digital experience for our customers.

Angela Grammatas - Digital Analytics Manager for Novartis

More coverage for 3rd-party tags

Starting in the next few weeks, you'll see more 3rd-party templates in the tag creation flow. We've made it easier for marketers to add tags and minimize errors while doing so. When adding a new tag of your own, you'll select from a list of 3rd-party providers and be underway in just a few clicks. We now offer support for tags from AdRoll, Marin, Comscore, Bizo, Clicktale, Neustar, Distillery, Turn, Mediaplex, VisualDNA, quantcast, Criteo and many more to come soon. Don't see the tag you need? No problem: you can add it immediately as a custom HTML tag. You can also ask to have a new tag template included in future releases, as Tag Manager will continue to add new tag templates. You'll find the full list of tag templates in our help center.

Creating a new tag (click image for full-size).

A more intuitive interface

We think tag management should be easy even for non-technical users. Even if you're new to Google Tag Manager, you'll be using the improved interface within minutes. Tasks are intuitive and structured much the same way as in AdWords and Google Analytics. Our new updates include:

• A default workflow that's simpler and clearer
• Instant search and autocomplete that can help you find anything in your Google Tag Manager containers
• New keyboard shortcuts to simplify life for power users

The goal: enable marketing managers to easily add and update tags.

The new container overview page (click image for full-size).

We are confident you'll find the new Google Tag Manager easier to use and a more powerful solution for your web and app tagging needs. If you are already using Google Tag Manager, you can try out the new user interface today by logging in your accounts and following the instructions. New to Google Tag Manager? Get started today!

Posted by Lukas Bergstrom, Product Manager Google Tag Manager

New tools to grow your mobile app business

Today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco we will be announcing two key launches powered by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. You can follow the livestream today at 10:00AM PDT (5:00PM UTC) with the Google Analytics sessions from 2:30PM PDT.

Announcement #1: Bringing the power of Google Analytics to AdMob
We’re happy to announce that Google Analytics is fully available in the AdMob interface on a new Analyze tab. App developers now have a one-stop way to measure success and adjust their earning strategies based on what they learn.

Today’s app developers have to make decisions quickly and implement them seamlessly if they want to stay relevant. It also helps if every business decision is backed up and validated by reliable data. Until now, app developers using AdMob and Google Analytics had to use two separate tools to monetize and measure. Starting today, they’re now in one place.

More than just Google Analytics inside AdMob
The new tab is simpler, yes. But app businesses can also now make decisions faster without losing data accuracy. They’ll also benefit from a new set of features that make measurement the foundation of all monetization programs:

• drop down menu to switch between individual apps reports
• new home page with combined Google Analytics and AdMob reporting
• new Analyze tab with all Google Analytics reports

To see the new feature in action, sign in to your AdMob account and look for the Analyze tab at the top of the page. 

click to enlarge

Your new home tab in AdMob will now incorporate data on how your app is monetizing as well as how it is performing overall with insights on in app purchase, traffic and ads metrics in your app: all in one tab - a unique feature just in Admob.

click to enlarge

Get started in one click with Google Analytics and AdMob 

1. Login or open a new account on AdMob and sign up for Google Analytics (GA) in the new Analyze tab. 

2. If you are already using Google Analytics for your apps, you can link your existing account with AdMob in the Analyze tab. 

3. If you are not using Google Analytics, you can sign up via AdMob and complete the process without leaving the interface.

Announcement #2: New Content Experiments with Google Tag Manager

People have a lot of choice when it comes to apps and keeping them engaged is a challenge. Businesses who experiment with different app layouts have a higher chance to find the best performing solution and keep users engaged. A few months ago we announced Google Tag Manager for apps, today we are enabling content experiments: an easy way to set up and run experiments to change anything from in-app promotions to menu layout. With Google Tag Manager you can modify app configuration for existing users without having to ship a new version.

But how can we always be sure that we are changing it for the best? Wouldn’t it better if you could validate business decisions with data? Now you can run content experiments on a subset of your users to choose the best option - where to show promotions? How often? Data in Google Analytics will answer your questions and you can now be sure your decisions will be backed by data.

Google Tag Manager has been built to be very intuitive, even for people not familiar with coding. Businesses can now let their marketers or business analysts run experiments without requiring a developer to be involved. App experiments are now accessible to everyone.

click to enlarge

Getting started with Google Tag Manager

1. Sign up for an account at www.google.com/tagmanager and create a mobile container
2. Download the SDK for either Android or iOS. 
3. Start programming! Use the SDK to instrument configuration and events you care about in your app.
4. When you’re ready to dynamically change your app, use the Google Tag Manager interface to start configuring. Remember to press the “Publish” button to push your rules and configurations to your users.

Posted by Russell Ketchum, Lead Product Manager, Google Analytics for Mobile Apps and Google Tag Manager

Ensuring Data Accuracy with a Tag Management Policy

The following is a guest post from GACP Michael Loban, CMO at InfoTrust.

The quality of the website analytics data we have is directly related to the tag management processes adopted by an organization. Most likely, you can remember days when the following incidents may have occurred:

1. You find that one (or several) of the pages on your site is missing Google Analytics, or some pages had Google Analytics deployed twice causing duplicate pageviews and inflating traffic.
2. Google Analytics custom variables were inconsistent or missing on some portions of the site, leading to data quality issues.
3. An unauthorized marketing tag was piggybacking off of another tag.
4. One of the tags on an international site you managed did not follow the new EU Cookie Laws related to privacy.

Adopting a Tag Management System like Google Tag Manager is a great way to go, but having a great tool to organize and deploy your tags is often not enough. You still need a system, a process, and ongoing review. Here are the steps for creating a tag management policy for your company:

1. Know where you are – what tags are currently firing, where and how? Whether you have a small site with a few hundred pages or an international publication with thousands of pages, it is important to assess your current tag deployment. 

Can you say, with 100% confidence, that your analytics tag are located on every page?  Are you sure the cookies set by your analytics tag/tool are accurate and not over-writing each other?

Regardless of whether you are confident or not, I suggest using a tool like TagInspector.com (Tag Inspector is an InfoTrust product). It will help you locate:

1. All the tags on your site, split up by specific pages’ tags, and even pages they are missing from.
2. Cookies set by various tags and what pages they are set on.
3. How the tag is deployed – through a tag management system or directly from a page source.
4. Instances of tag piggybacking – one tag being loaded by another tag.

Here is a screenshot from an example scan. It shows how tags load (commonly referred to as tag hierarchy). We have removed the website URL, but as you can see there are instances when Google Analytics is being loaded by the TMS, and instances where Google Analytics is being loaded directly from the source of the page. 

2. Document all approved tags. The average enterprise website might have 25-50 marketing tags. Not all of them have to be present across all pages. However, even if you are considering moving to a Tag Management System, or already are using one, it is not a bad idea to have the following documented and categorized:

1. Tag name and functionality
2. Pages or the category pages the tag needs to be on
3. Information collected through the tag about visitors (cookies set)
4. Firing rules

Check out Tagopedia – a wiki of tags to learn more about the many different types of tags.

3. Consider the implementation of a Tag Management System. There is a reason this is step three, and not step one or two. A lot of companies jump to this step first, thinking that a new technology will miraculously make all tagging issues disappear. The first step in moving to a TMS is knowing what tags you need to keep, and where they are or how they are loaded on your site so you can remove them from the source after the tag management system is deployed.

When considering the implementation of a tag management system, think about your team. Every website of a TMS vendor says you will no longer need your IT team to make changes to the tags thus simplifying and expediting the process. I have met plenty of marketers who do not want anything to do with a TMS. Even though you will free up your IT resources, you will still need a person or team with the technical training to manage your tags. 

Naturally, your first step in evaluating Tag Management vendors should be outlining what features you really need. Google Tag Manager is free, and is one of the few TMS systems that works for both mobile websites and native mobile applications. 

NOTE:  If you do decide to migrate to a TMS or if you have already done so, you still should scan all the pages across your site to ensure that your tags fire correctly, such as, once per page for analytics tags – and only from your TMS. You certainly want to avoid having a tag in the source of your page and inside a TMS – this will inflate your data and cause data quality issues.

4. Run ongoing site audits to ensure correct tags are deployed across correct pages. Ideally, this will only serve as the insurance. However, ongoing site scans or audits can help you avoid the moments when you realize you did not capture AdWords conversions because your GA or AdWords conversion tag was removed from the conversion page. Keep in mind certain tags might only fire when a user looks at your website on a mobile device, and your scan might need to simulate different user agents.  Doing this manually for all the sites you manage, or across one very large site, can be quite challenging. Again, TagInspector.com can help speed up this process and dramatically reduce the effort required. Here is an example screenshot of the scanning options:

5. Think ahead – will you be able to innovate? Complete lock down is in nobody’s best interests. What happens if there is a new platform for A/B testing that you would like to try? How long will it take you to get the tag approved, implemented on your site, verify its performance, and launch a campaign? Keep innovation in mind and make it relatively easy for marketers in your company to adopt new technologies.

One way to go about this is having an application that needs to be completed and approved prior to implementing a new tag. This will help you ensure only tags that meet company standards are implemented on your site. 

At the end of the day, tag deployment and data collection will only get more complex. If you do not have any process for managing your tags, it is time to start. If you have some kind of process, perhaps it is time for optimization. Get all the stakeholders in the room, and decide who will be your tag management team, and what the first step will be to ensure tag accuracy. You can’t do analysis if the data isn’t accurate. And your data won’t be accurate if your marketing tags aren’t implemented correctly. 

If you would like to learn more about implementing a tag management policy, we would like to invite you to attend a free webinar on March 26^th at 1:00PM EST where we will discus items outlined in this post, and a lot more. 

Posted by Michael Loban, CMO at Google Analytics Certified Partner InfoTrust

No Code Required: Auto-Event Tracking with Google Tag Manager

We’re excited to announce that Google Tag Manager has publicly launched Auto-Event Tracking, which lets you measure events happening on the page without writing HTML or Javascript. Those of you measuring events in Tag Manager today will already have minds racing with the possibilities - skip ahead to the screenshot. Everyone else, read on.

As sites become more dynamic and want to understand users’ site experiences in more detail, business owners need to know more: how long are visitors staying on a particular page? How are they interacting with interactive elements like image carousels? How many are clicking the Contact Me button? How many are clicking outbound links? Increasingly, site analytics are incomplete without answers to questions like these.

Unfortunately, until now, answering these questions required adding custom Javascript code to your website to tell Google Analytics when the event occurred. Google Tag Manager users also needed to modify the HTML of each page where they wanted to track an event. That means every time you want to track something new, or change the way you track something, you need to modify site code directly (or, in some cases, ask another colleague to do it for you.) And slower deployment of measurement campaigns directly impacts your ROI.

With Google Tag Manager’s launch of Auto-Event Tracking, we’re excited to announce a solution that provides the power of event tracking without needing to write code. By using the new Event Listener tag, you can tell Tag Manager when you want to listen for events, and then write detailed rules for what to do when an event happens. See an example of listening for form submits here:

Once you have your event listener set up, you can have tags fire based on form submits using a rule that looks for the event gtm.formSubmit. (Of course, Tag Manager supports more than form submits: it also includes clicks and timer events.) You can also make sure you’re getting the right form by using our Auto-Event Variable macros that let you narrow things down with attributes like the element ID and the form target.

The end result: you can deploy event tracking to your site and send event tracking data to Google Analytics without adding any code to your site. You can deploy measurement campaigns faster, and not writing custom code makes your solutions more robust.

Of course, it’s easiest to see the whole picture by walking through a full example. Check out the following resources for more:

• Tracking Google Analytics events with Tag Manager in our Help Center
• Auto event tracking with Google Tag Manager at Justin Cutroni’s Analytics Talk blog
• Event Listener documentation and Event Tracking Macros documentation in our Help Center

We’re looking forward to getting your feedback - let us know what you think!

Posted by Lukas Bergstrom, Google Tag Manager PM